Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/50

OPERA 28 OPERA cent reflection of light. It is found in many parts of Europe, especially in Hungary, in the East Indies, etc. The substance in which it is generally found is a ferruginous sandstone. There are niany varieties or species, the chief of which are (a) precious or noble opal, which exhibits brilliant and changeable reflections of green, blue, yellow, and red; (6) fire opal, which simply affords a red reflection; (c) common opal, whose colors are white, green, yellow, and red, but without the play of colors; (d) semi- opal, the varieties of which are more opaque than common opal; (e) hydro- phane, which assumes a transparency only when thrown into water; (/) hya- lite, which occurs in small globular and botryoidal forms, with a vitreous luster; (g) menilite, which occurs in irregular or reniform masses, and is opaque or slightly translucent. OPERA, a musical drama, that is, a dramatic composition set to music and sung on the stage, accompanied with musical instruments and enriched by the accessories of costumes, scenery, dancing, etc. The component parts of an opera are recitatives, solos, duets, trios, quartettes, choruses, etc., and they are usually preceded by an instrumental overture. The lighter kind of opera in Germany and England, as well as the French opera comique, is of a mixed kind — partly spoken, partly sung. The chief varieties of opera are the grand opera or opera seria, the name given to that kind which is confined to music and singing, of which the recitativo is a principal feature; the romantic opera, or opera drammatica of the Italians, embracing an admixture of the grave and lively; the comic opera, or opera buffa; as well as many intermediate varieties. Though the Greek dramas were operatic in char- acter, the opera proper is of modern date and of Italian origin, and would seem to have developed naturally from the miracle play of the Middle Ages, the first operas dating from the 16th century. About the close of that century the poet P.inuccini wrote a drama on the classical story of Daphne, which was set to music by Peri, the most celebrated musician of the age. There was no attempt at airs, and a recitative was merely a kind of measured intonation, Monteverde, a tiilanese musician, improved the recita- tive by giving it more flow and expres- •jon; he set the opera of "Ariadne," by Rinuccini, for the court of Mantua; and in the opera of "Giasone" (Jason), set by Cavalli and Cicognini, for the Vene- tians (1649), occur the first airs con- nected in sentiment and spirit with the dialogue. The first regular serious opera was performed at Naples in 1615, and was entitled "Love Not Bound by Law." The first opera buffa is said to have been represented at Venice in 1624, where also the first stage for operas was erected in 1637. In 1646 the opera was transplanted to France by Cardinal Mazarin, about the same time to Ger- many, and somewhat later to England. In France there arose Lulli; in Germany, Keiser; in Italy, Scarlatti; and in Eng- land, Purcell, who are the chief operatic composers of the second half of the 17th century. The chief Italian operatic com- posers include, besides those already mentioned, Piccini, Jomelli, Cimarosa, Paisiello, in the 18th century, and Cheru- bini, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, etc., in the 19th. Among the French composers are Gretry, Monsigny, Rous- seau, Mehul, belonging to the 18th cen- tury, Boieldieu, Auber, Halevy, Herold, A. Thomas, and Gounod to the 19th. The chief recent composers of French comic opera are Offenbach, Lecoq, Herve, Bizet, and Massinet. Among English composers of operas may be mentioned Arne and Shields in the 18th century; and of recent times Balfe, Wallace, Mac- farren, Sullivan, Mackenzie, Thomas, Stanford, and De Koven and Herbert in the United States. It is the German composers, however, who have raised opera to the highest pitch of perfection, the list including such names as liandel, Gluck, and Mozart in the 18th century, Beethoven, Weber, Flotow, etc., in the 19th. Meyerbeer, though German by birth, is to be classed rather with the French composers. Richard Wagner was the leader of a school that changed the character of German operatic com- position. In his work the vocal music is made subordinate to text, instrumenta- tion, and scenic decoration. In the pres- ent century many novelties were intro- duced in lyric stage drama. The weird operatic music of the Russian composers Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov made a wide appeal. Impressive, and to many startling in their departure from accept- ed convention were: Debussy's "Peleas and Melisande" (1902) ; Strauss's "Salome" (1905) and such variations on operatic themes as Stravinsky's panto- mime-ballets "Petruchka" and "L'Oiseau du Feu." In the United States, Ameri- can composers have in recent years en- gaged more actively in the lyric stage drama. The most important efforts since Damrosch's "Scarlet Letter" (1894) have been "Cyrano" by the same composer in 1903, Nevin's "Poia" (Ber- lin, 1910); Parker's "Mona" (1911); "Fairyland" (1913) ; "Shanewis" by