the first opera was developed in what country

The typical opera house was born in Florence: Teatro della Pergola, and it is located just a few steps from our school, Europass. It was a theater which was similar to many other sixteenth-century theaters in Italy at the time, such as the Farnese Theater in Parma or the Olympic Theater in Vicenza.įlorentines loved music and entertainment and it is no coincidence that the first Italian-style theater in history was born in Florence, that is, one of those theaters in the shape of a horseshoe with rows one above the other at different levels. In the 16th century, the Medici family owned a large theater inside what is now known as the Uffizi Gallery. The Medici family, who were always interested in music and news, looked to the Bardi’s Florentine Camerata with great interest and in 1589, on the occasion of the marriage between Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine de Lorraine, they decided to ask the Florentine Camerata to create a theatrical and musical piece to be performed in the large private theater located inside the Uffizi. In the past, some imaginative anthropological theories also linked the typical gestures of Italians to melodrama. Thus the foundations for melodrama were laid as a combination of music, words, acting, and gesture. Thus was born what they called “recitar cantando” or acting through singing.Īcting with songs and with music, therefore, meant creating something completely new and innovative. Therefore, the thought behind the Florentine Camerata was to recreate the ideal image of ancient Greek theater through words set to music and song. In short, they wanted to present stories which were narrated through both acting and singing with the accompaniment of an orchestra.Īt that time it was believed that in ancient Greece the so-called oral tradition of the Greek tragedy was staged as a play with actors performing their roles singing. Their aim was to create a complete show, or rather a theatrical presentation which was not only acted, but also sung. The Florentine Camerata had innovative ideas, which were much more advanced than the conventions at the time: and its sights were set on going beyond the usual concert and creating a new type of theatrical entertainment. The goal was to create a small home orchestra which came to be called Bardi’s Florentine Camerata. Bardi’s Florentine Camerata – Il “recitar cantando” or acting through singing Opera began in Italy and more precisely in Florence at the end of the sixteenth century.Īround 1570 Giovanni Bardi – a member of one of the oldest and most prestigious Florentine families – decided to create a musical academy in his palace by calling the most important musicians and composers of the time, such as Iacopo Peri e Giulio Caccini. We also consider opera, like that of Pavarotti, (or lyric) as a musical form of “work”.

For example,the Mona Lisa is a pictorial work by Leonardo da Vinci, Hamlet is a theatrical work by Shakespeare, the Divine Comedy is a literary work by Dante, the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore is an architectural work by Filippo Brunelleschi. In fact, a so called “work” in Italian is any realization of human genius. In modern Italian, the verb operate means: do, create, build, realize.Īll these verbs, of course, are synonymous with each other. Opera comes from the Latin word opus (= work).

Perhaps not everyone knows the origin and meaning of this term. If we talk about music, “opera” is an Italian word which is well known all over the world.

The first opera was developed in what country