He was able to convince them to write commissioned works for him. It was directed by Domenico Barbaja, a former waiter and card player who integrated a casino into the opera house and was well connected with the composers Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. In the 19th century, Milan's La Scala was the top address among opera houses. Everyone was to concentrate fully on the events on stage, which were planned down to the last detail.ĭuring its history, opera oscillated between various claims: It was used as a status symbol, built up as a business enterprise and understood as a haven of high art. He conducted himself, took over the direction and introduced an innovation that still exists today: He had the auditorium darkened and the doors locked once the performance began. The composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, who directed the newly founded Vienna Court Opera from 1897, also aimed at this unique effect on the audience. For her, opera is "one of the most beguiling art forms of all."Ĭurator Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach sums up opera's merits somewhat more dramatically: "To deeply shake the human soul is opera's claim." While everything the audience gets to see is illusion, he says, it still has an effect on people. Opera appeals to our senses like no other genre, combining music, song, poetry, visual arts, theater and dance to create a spectacular Gesamtkunstwerk (or total work of art), says Eva Kraus, artistic director of the Bundeskunsthalle. "Opera has been pronounced dead time and again, and yet it has reinvented itself, reorganized itself, after all crises, be they wars or social upheavals," says Chrubasik. It wasn't until the pandemic that they plummeted. Until the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, around 3.8 million people a year attended an opera in Germany. "The point was to carry people along and inspire them," explains art historian Katharina Chrubasik, who, together with playwright Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, has curated the exhibition "Opera is Dead - Long Live Opera!" which runs at Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle through February 5, 2023. The audience was treated to a great show, and the clever patricians had tapped into a new source of money. To make up for this, stars were bought in, such as the then highly revered and famous castrato Farinelli, and spectacular stage sets were created. To maximize profits, performances were shortened and the chorus and orchestra were reduced in size. They were less concerned with ostentation and pageantry than with making money. Starting in the 1630s, the wealthy patrician families in Venice founded their first opera houses. The Habsburg Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) even wielded the baton himself. The best composers, singers and stage designers worked at the Viennese court in the 17th and 18th centuries. Since the new art form was so well received by the public and was perfectly suited for the European nobility to show off their wealth, power and superiority, it spread rapidly. Ruler representation with music and dance The two Italians are also responsible for the recitative, the spoken song so typical of operas. The composers Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini set the plays "La Dafne" and "L'Euridice" by Ottavio Rinuccini to music and thus invented opera. They served primarily to entertain the rich and powerful and to represent them. The first opera performances took place at the Medici court in Florence around 1600. ![]() This was also the case in the early days of opera in Italy, where it was originally invented. ![]() Splendid neo-baroque: Paris' Opera Garnier opened in 1875(Günter Gräfenhain/ImageBroker/picture alliance) The annual Bayreuth Festival is a major social event that draws many celebrities. Wagner operas have been performed there as part of a festival since 1876. Among the most prominent is the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, built by Richard Wagner. With 83 opera houses, Germany has the highest density of opera houses in the world.
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