Dryden, in the beginning of the preface to his 'Albion and Albanins,' rather hastily calls the opera "a modern invention, though built upon the foundation of the ethnic worship," and conjectures that it was borrowed from the Spanish Moors ; but in a postscript to the same he corrects himself in the following rather awkwardly-expressed manner : "Possibly the Italians went not so far as Spain for the invention of their operas ; they might have it in their own country, and that by gathering up the shipwrecks of the Athenian and Roman theatres, which we know were adorned with aeenes, music, dances,and machines, especially the Grecian." The learned Jesuit, Mee Mcnestrier, in his work Dee Repr6sentations en Muerique,' maintains that the ancient tragedies were chanted. 3letastasio, in his Estratto della Portion d'AristotiloLexpresses a most decided opinion that the Greek and Roman dramas, both tragedies and comedies, were sung, and cites in proof of this numerous classical authorities. Pye, in his ' Commentary on the Poetic of Aristotle,' while disputing some of tho inferences of lkietastamio, is obliged, though unwillingly, to acknowledge that tho opera "most probably " is "a lineal and legitimate offspring of tho Greek tragedy," and that the vastness of the Roman theatre "turned the necessary means of modulating the voice into a real musical accompaniment; " that is to say, the magnitude of the place reiTdered chanting or recitative unavoidable.
After collating what has been stated by various authors as to the (late of its origin, we are persuaded that no regular opera was produced and publicly performed till Ottavia Rinuccini wrote and Jacopo Peri composed the drama of Euridice for the nuptials of Henri IV. of France and Mary of Medicia. This was represented in a very splendid manner at Florence. in 1600, and there published in the same year. Dr. Berri tells us (` Hist.' Iv. 25) that he was never able to find more than one copy of Peri's Euridice,' which was in the library of the Marchese Ilinuocini, a descendant of the poet. Having the good fortune to possess this very rare work, which is now before us, we can corroborate what the musical historian has said of it, that it is printed in score and barred, two very uncommon circumstances at the time of its publication ; that the recitative seems to have been not only the model of subsequent composers of early Italian operas, but of the French operas of Lulli; that figures are often placed over the base to indicate the harmony ; that the time changes as frequently as in the old French serious operas; and though the word aria occurs, it is difficult to distinguish air from recitative by any superiority of melody, except in the choruses. There is no overture to this, but a musical prologue of seven stanzas instead, sung in the character of Tragedy.
Teri, in an address to his readers (a lettoii), gives an account of his orchestra, which was placed behind the scenes, and consisted of a harpsichord, a large guitar, a lira grande (that is, a viol da Gamba, according to Burney), and an arch-lute.
The L'olognese dispute with the Florentines the honour of having first produced a musical drama, but it appears that the Euridico ' was performed In their city the year after it had been produced at Florence. The opera was introduced at Venice in 1637, at Naples in 1646, and at Rome in 1671.
The Italian Opera made its way to London by slow and cautious steps. The sudden introduetion on the public stage of a foreign language, and that language delivered in recitative, would have put the tolerating spirit of our countrymen to a trial far too severe to be prudent ; the event, therefore, which was anxiously wished for by the higher orders, to whom novelty is everything, and by those who had acquired a new taste in their travels, was gradually brought about. In July, 1703, Italian iaterasuzzti, or " interludes and musical enter. tainmenta of singing and dancing," were performed at York Buildings. Two years after,' Arsintie," translated from the Italian, the dialogue and narrative parts in recitative, and the singers all English, was pro duced at Drury Lane ; the pit and boxes were allotted to subscribers. " Before and after the opera, dancing and singing, by Signora Margarita de l'Epine." In 1706,' also a translation, was performed by the same persons in a similar manner. The next year witnessed a further and still bolder advance towards the final introduction of the exotic melodrama ; ' Thomyris, Queen of Scythia,' was brought out at the same theatre, in which Urbani, a castrato, and two foreign women sang their parts in Italian, the other performers singing theirs in English ! At length, in 1710, Alinehide; written wholly in Italian, and performed exclusively by foreign singers, was presented to the public at the Queens Theatre in the Haymarket. Thus the Italian opera gained a settlement in this country ; and in spite of some oppo. sftion and much ridicule by which it was at first attacked, soon became firmly fast and now seems to be as necessary, as a source of amuse. sent to the metropolis of this kingdom, as any other favourite and long-established entertainment The Italian opera was brought into France in 1646, by the Cardinal Mazarin, and continued for some years to be performed at the Louvre; but the establishment of the Acaddmie Royale des Musique, in 1670, superseded it, and except in 1772, when a troop of Italians represented Pergolesi's ' Servs radrona' as an intermezzo, between the acts of Lulli's ' Adis et Galatee,' it never again was heard at Paris till introduced there early in the present century.