OPERA, a musical drama, in which music forms an essential part, and not a mere accessory accompaniment. As in the higher drama, poetry supersedes the prose of ordi nary life, so in the opera, with perhaps as great artistic right, the language of music is introduced at a considerable sacrifice of probability. The libretto or words are, in the modern opera, a peg on which to hang the music, rather than the music an accessory to the written drama. The component parts of an opera are recitatives, duets, trios, quar tets, choruses, and finales, accompanied throughout by an orchestra, and the whole is preceded by an instrumental overture (q.v.). Recitative is declamation, which, in its succession of musical sounds and rhythm, strives to assimilate itself as much as possible to the accents of speech, and therefore does not entirely conform to musical rhythm. The accessories of scenic representation are also present, and a ballet (q.v.) is also fre quently introduced. In some of the German operas, and in the French opera comique, spoken dialogue without music takes the place of recitative. Among the different varieties of the opera enumerated are the great opera or opera series, of a dignified char acter; the romantic opera, embracing an adMixture of the grave and lively; the comic opera, or opera buffa; as well as many intermediate varieties.
The idea of the opera may in part have arisen from the Greek drama, which possessed, to a considerable extent, the operatic character: the choral parts were sung, and the dia logue was delivered in a sustained key, probably resembling operatic reeitatr•e more than ordinary speech. The earliest extant example of any composition resembling the lyric drama of the moderns is Adam de la Hale's comic opera of Li gieus (le jeu) de resembling et de Marian, composed in the 13th c., the music of which is wonderful for its date. The next appearance of anything like opera is in the 16th c., when various musical dramas were composed in the madrigalesque style. An opera composed by Zarlino is said to have been performed at Venice when henry III. passed through that city on his way from Poland to France. About the same time a pastoral called Dafne, written by the
poet Rinucci, was set to music by Peri; and the same poet and musician conjointly pro duced the lyric tragedy of La Morte di Euricliee, which was represented at the theater of Florence in 1600. Claudio Montevercle, one of a society of amateurs known as the " Florentine academy," who devoted themselves avowedly to the study and revival of Greek music,.soon afterwards produced his Orfeo, a " favola di sauna," in whose per formance an orchestra of no fewer than 36 performers was called into requisition, most of the instruments being, however, only used in twos or threes, and never more than ten at a time. From these the opera advanced into one of the permanent insti tutions of Italy—a development of music at first strongly opposed in character and style to the music of the church. With the progress of music, and the perfecting of the musi cal instruments which went to form the orchestra, the lyric drama began, towards the middle of last century, to approach its present character. Of the innumerable Italian operas of last century, only Cimarosa'sfatrimonio Segreto retains its place on the stage. Cherubini. the first of the more modern school, after producing his Quinto Fabio at Milan, became naturalized in France: Rossini, who succeeded him in Italy, is the greatest name in the Italian opera. Nothing can exceed the deliciously fresh character of the best known operas of this truly great musician, Il Barbiere di Siriglia; Ofello; La Gazza Ladra; Semiram2'de; and Guillaume Telt. Next to them rank the equally well-known works of Bellini, Norma; La Sonnanzbula; and I Puritani;—Lucia di Lammermoor; Luerezia Borgia; and L'Elisir d' Amore, the three clufs-d'ceuvre of Donizetti, alone rivaling them in public estimation. A newer School of opera has recently sprung up in Italy, more grand if less fresh, of Which the chief master is Verdi, whose .rnani; Xabucitodonosor; .1 Loin bards; OleIto; Rigoletto; Id Trovatore; La Traviata, and others have attained immense popularity in Italy, and wherever the Italian opera has been naturalized.