Posted By Opera House on March 1, 2009
Posted By Opera House on February 2, 2009
Posted By Opera House on January 31, 2009
From its beginnings in the musings of intellectuals, musicians, and cultivated amateurs, opera came to be acknowledged internationally as one of the most significant genres of Western art music. Within its first century, it became a symbol of European culture and was a popular export to all parts of the world. Recently discovered sacred operas in native languages demonstrate that Spanish Jesuit missionaries taught new Christian musicians in South America to compose and perform works in the genre. By the eighteenth century, although most major European capitals boasted opera houses, smaller cities and downs eagerly hosted traveling companies in venues such as town halls. Italian touring troupes bought opera to the new capital of St. Petersburg to that the tsars could Westernize their courts. During this period, legendary composers such as Gluck and Mozart made their mark in music history. In the 19th century, similar companies braved exhausting and dangerous journeys to perform contemporary favorites for European colonists engaged in trade in China.
In the early 19th century, opera was performed in virtually all settled areas of the United States, with productions documented in theaters and in unlikely venues such as boathouses, odd fellows halls, and saloons. Although some were sung in the original language, Americans often were introduced to operas in English translation. Works such as Bellini's Norma and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor were so popular and audiences knew them so well that parodies of them often performed by minstrels in black face were common antebellum fare. In Europe, too, operas were translated into the vernacular for new audiences; thus, Wagner was song in Italian and Verdi in German in an effort to make opera more accessible.
By the nineteenth century, opera had gone far beyond its earliest manifestations in Italian, French and German. Because it highlighted language, song, adramatic plots, scenery, and often dance, opera became the perfect vehicle for nationalist composers who employed it to demonstrate the unique cultures of their own countries. Operatic traditions emerged in Russia, Spain, Scandinavia, Centra Europe, Greece, England (a rebirth after more than a century of reative inactivity after the death of Henry Purcell in 1965), the United States, and South America. Twentieth and twenty first century composers added to the operatic repertoire whie their audiences experienced opera thrugh various media, including radio, television, recordings, and film. One can ony imagine the astonishment of members of the Florentine Camerata were they to discover how opera deveoped from their modest discourses into an art form that flourishes on stages the world over.
Posted By Opera House on January 5, 2008
The musical art of Opera is a form of drama that utilizes voice and instrumental music for the purpose of storytelling. All styles of music can be used to create good opera, although time has shown that some work particularly well while others have inherent problems within this context. The stories told through Opera can be from any culture or history. It is derived from specific traditions, but it has a marvelous adaptability to a huge diversity of styles and aesthetics. It is called the culmination of all performing arts, and it has a unique ability to present most issues of human emotion and psychology in a vital and direct manner that can reach all people willing to take the journey.
Posted By Opera House on January 3, 2008
Welcome to HallOpera.com where we will feature and review classic opera songs and music.
How to Enjoy Opera:
1. Before going to the show, try listening to a recording of the opera.
2. Learn the format and common terms for opera.
3. Read the words (libretto) before going to the opera.
4. Listen to the music cues to help you follow the drama. Feel the music.
5. Familiarize yourself with the storyline by reading the synopsis.
6. Study the composer by reading his biography, history of work, and influences.
| Bach Edition: Complete Works (155 CD Box Set) |
 |
Overall Rating: |
| List Price: $139.98 |
| Amazon Price: $83.99 |
| Beethoven Edition: Complete Works (85CD Box Set) |
 |
Overall Rating: |
| List Price: $139.98 |
| Amazon Price: $109.27 |
| Complete Works |
 |
Overall Rating: |
| List Price: $79.98 |
| Amazon Price: $71.99 |
| Chopin Edition: Complete Works (17 CD Box Set) |
 |
Overall Rating: |
| List Price: $89.98 |
| Amazon Price: $74.91 |
| Beethoven: Complete Masterpieces (Germany) (60 CD Limited Edition Box Set) |
 |
Overall Rating: |
| List Price: $56.98 |
| Amazon Price: $58.96 |