Opera sites define opera as:
Opera is an Art form which joins drama with
music, singing, poetry plastic arts and occasionally dance. In each performance
all the components of opera combine, beauty with expressiveness. The complexity
of an opera performance makes for an extraordinary show monopolizing the sight, hearing,
imagination and sensibility of the audience, where all human passions are at
work.
A libretto is
the name for the ‘script’ for an opera. They can be a new and original written
and produced by well know people but they are often adaptations of well know
play, some Shakespeare have been used as inspiration, as well as know tales and
novels. The themes that hey cover are: forbidden
love, infidelity, revenge, craving for power, war, ancient myths or historic
events...
Unlike the singing in most theatres and
some musicals the text is also sung by the cast in operas and the meaning of
the words is impacted by the emotion, intensity and the weight of how they a preformed.
The music expresses emotion as well and the
what is going on stage. In the mind of the camerata fiorentina whose researches and
studies on Ancient Greek theatre led to the creation of the operatic genre, the
music was at the service of the libretto.
My Thoughts
So opera is extremely expressive with so
many different emotions and themes. These themes and emotions may be worth exploring.
Another area which is worth looking in to is the adaptations of different play, tales
and novels as I did not know that they were mainly made up form these well
known stories.
