Genres of opera
and opera parts

In Greece, where we now use the word ‘opera’ [όπερα] as well, the first word used to describe this art form was ‘melodrama’– literally a (theatrical) drama accompanied by melodies. And the state opera in Athens, which you may know as the “Greek National Opera” in English, is called the “National Lyric Theatre” [Εθνική Λυρική Σκηνή] in Greek because it is an organization that promotes the arts of music and dance. So although we now use the word “opera” to describe a work that combines music with theatre and literature, over the centuries, in different countries, different terms have been used to describe what an opera is. Many of these terms are still used today to describe the style of certain works. For example, in the section ‘Opera in the course of time’, we learned about the emergence of the genre of ‘opera seria’– the ‘serious opera’- in the 18^th century. The creators of this genre of opera defined certain compositional and literary rules that made an opera more ‘serious’ than others, and from then on, when an opera following these rules was presented, it fell under the genre of ‘serious opera’.

Below is a brief overview of the genres of opera we saw in the different sections of this platform.

An 18th-century term describing a libretto written for an opera with a heroic or serious plot. Today the operas described by this term are included in the genre of ‘opera seria’. Well-known works of this genre include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Idomeneo and Gioachino Rossini’s Otello. Similarly, the term dramma giocoso refers to the libretto of the opera genre that includes characters from comic opera. Typical examples of this genre include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Gioachino Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri and Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.

Other examples of ‘Dramma per musica’
Erismena – Francesco Cavalli
Xerse – Francesco Cavalli
Tito Manlio – Antonio Vivaldi
Il Bellerofonte – Josef Mysliveček
Paride ed Elena – Christoph V. Gluck
Armida – Antonio Salieri

A term used since the 19th century to describe light opera works with dialogue and dance numbers. As a genre, operetta evolved in the 1850s under the influence of composer Jacques Offenbach. In Greece, the first operetta ever staged was the French La vie Parisienne [Parisian Life] in 1871, while composers Theofrastos Sakellaridis, Spyros Samaras and Nikos Hatziapostolou presented the first Greek operettas in the early 20th century. Typical examples of the genre include Offenbach’s La Belle Helene, Orphée aux enfers [Orpheus in Hades] and Die Fledermaus [The Bat] by Johann Strauss II.

Other operettas
The Mikado – Arthur Sullivan
Candide – Leonard Bernstein
Daphnis et Chloé – Jacques Offenbach
La Vie parisienne – Jacques Offenbach
Paul Bunyan – Benjamin Britten
The Princess of Sasson – Spyridon Samaras
Sataneri – Theophrastos Sakellaridis
The Godson – Theophrastos Sakellaridis
The first love – Nikos Chatziapostolou
The Apaches of Athens – Nikos Chatziapostolou
Perouzé – Theophrastos Sakellaridis

A genre of opera that appeared in France and refers mainly to works written for the Paris Opera between 1820 and 1860. These works had a serious theme describing events of global significance, with a grand stage presentation, a large chorus and orchestra. They were written in French and included ballet. Typical examples of the genre are Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini, The Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Les Martyrs by Gaetano Donizetti.

Other works
Aida – Giuseppe Verdi
Les Troyens – Hector Berlioz
Don Carlo – Giuseppe Verdi
Faust – Charles Gounod
Tannhäuser – Richard Wagner

Comic opera. In Italy the term was used from the 18th century to describe the various types of opera that were comic in nature. In contrast to opera seria, opera buffa was shaped as a genre by presenting stories whose heroes were ordinary people and it made use of everyday language and local idioms. Typical examples of the genre are The Marriage of Figaro [Le nozze di Figaro] by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Barber of Seville [Il barbiere di Siviglia] by Gioachino Rossini and Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti.

Other works
Il mondo della luna – Joseph Haydn
Don Procopio – Georges Bizet
La gazzetta – Gioachino Rossini
La serva padrona – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Mavra – Igor Stravinsky
Ubu Rex – Krzysztof Penderecki

French opera genre rooted in vaudeville – satirical musical theatre performances of the 18th century. Opéra comique originally consisted of musical numbers and dialogue of a comic nature, but as time went on and the genre evolved, the term came to signify an opera where the dialogue is recited but is not necessarily satirical or comic in nature. Typical examples of the genre include Daniel Auber’s Fra Diavolo and Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

Other works
Lakme – Leo Delibes
Manon – Jules Massenet
Werther – Jules Massenet
Louise – Gustav Charpentier
Pelleas et Mélisande – Claude Debussy
La Voix humaine – Francis Poulenc

A term describing 18^th– and 19^th– century Italian operas with serious themes. The origins of opera seria are closely associated with the Italian poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio. Opera seria made extensive use of recitativo secco and the da capo aria, its language was complex and poetic, and its themes featured ancient heroes wrestling with moral dilemmas. The most important reformer of the genre is considered to be Christoph V. Gluck, who stopped using the recitativo secco and the da capo aria, he simplified the plot of the works and shortened the choral parts. Important works belonging to the opera seria genre include Didone Abbandonata by Nicola Porpora, Alcina by George Frideric Handel and La clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Other works
Agrippina – George Frideric Handel
Griselda – Alessandro Scarlatti
Idomeneo – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
La Cleopatra – Domenico Cimarosa
Temistocle – Johann Christian Bach
Teseo – George Frideric Handel

German-language form of 18th-century musical theatre with dialogues instead of recitative parts. Originally they were plays that included popular songs, and their subject matter was usually comic. Under the influence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed works such as Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute] and Die Entführung aus dem Serail [The Abduction from the Seraglio] in the Singspiel style, this genre played an important role in the development of German opera.

Other works
Bastien und Bastienne – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Der Schauspieldirektor – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Zaide – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Much like in the theatre where, once a part of the story is completed the action stops for a while so that we can think about what happened and why, operas are also divided into acts. In each act we watch a number of scenes, that is, we watch the story unfold bit by bit, like the chapters of a book. Once we have watched several scenes and have an idea of what is happening, the act ends and a new act with several scenes begins. In this way, the composer and librettist put their story in order and present it to us so that we can follow it more easily.

As you may have already noticed, there’s a lot going on in every scene of an opera. Set changes, different characters coming and going, and a lot of perspectives on the same story. And because we are talking about opera and not theatre, the singers, actors and dancers involved tell their story through different actions. Below we’ve gathered some keywords from the world of opera so that we can refer back here to remember them and understand better what’s in each scene we watched. I wonder, what is the soprano singing in the second scene of the first act, an aria or a ballet?