Background
A short history of Italian opera
From Florence in the 1590s to Verdi and Puccini: how Italian opera began, spread and became the music of the arias you hear in Taormina.
Reserve a seat for the opera ↗Where opera began
Opera began in Italy as the 1500s were closing. The earliest composition considered an opera as the term is understood today is Dafne by Jacopo Peri, produced in Florence in 1598 and now mostly lost. It was written around 1597 under the inspiration of a circle of Florentine humanists, who wanted to revive classical Greek drama. Their idea, sung drama, spread through Italy and then through the rest of Europe.
From Monteverdi to the stage
Opera originated in Italy and spread through the rest of Europe: Heinrich Schütz in Germany, Jean-Baptiste Lully in France and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish national traditions in the 17th century. Wikipedia names Claudio Monteverdi, notably his L'Orfeo, as the central figure of the earliest years. The form has two main kinds of singing, recitative, which is shaped by the rhythm of speech, and the self-contained aria, which is what a recital of famous pieces picks out.
Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti wrote the comic and lyric operas that recitals still draw on. Mozart's Figaro premiered in Vienna in 1786, Rossini's Barber in Rome in 1816 and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in Milan in 1832. Wikipedia names Donizetti a leading composer of the bel canto style and a probable influence on Verdi. Mozart, born in Salzburg, wrote his Figaro to an Italian libretto.
Verdi and Puccini
Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Rossini. Rigoletto in 1851 and La traviata in 1853 were both first given at La Fenice in Venice. Puccini is widely regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi. Tosca, premiered in Rome in 1900, and Madama Butterfly, premiered in Milan in 1904, belong to the repertoire that recitals of famous arias still use.
Why a recital works
A full opera takes an evening and a large cast. A recital pulls out the best-known numbers and lets one voice or two carry them. That is the format of Italian Opera Taormina, which the organiser designed as a light-hearted show for newcomers as well as regulars, with a pianist in place of the orchestra. The format also fits the history: arias were always meant to be self-contained, and a pianist is enough to carry them in a small room, which is why the recital has become so common.
Opera in Sicily
Sicily has its own great opera house: the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, which Wikipedia calls the biggest in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. It is the home of a full opera company, with its own productions. Taormina's evenings are a different kind of thing, a recital in a small theatre. The two answer different wishes, and a visitor to Sicily who loves the form can reasonably want both, on different days and in different cities.
What opera is
Wikipedia defines opera as a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. A work is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist, and it can include acting, scenery, costume and sometimes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, with an orchestra or a smaller ensemble. A recital with a pianist is a smaller version: the voices, without the scenery or the orchestra.
Three lives in a line
Verdi was born in 1813 near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means. Puccini, born in 1858, came from a long line of composers that stretched back to the late Baroque. Mozart, born in 1756 in Salzburg, emerged early as a child prodigy. Their lives span about a century and a half between them, which is the stretch of music a recital of famous arias covers in a single evening.
Sources
- Wikipedia article on opera, its origins and its terms
- Wikipedia biography of Gioachino Rossini
- Wikipedia biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Wikipedia article on the Teatro Massimo in Palermo
- Italian Opera Live: about the association
- Wikipedia biography of Giacomo Puccini
- Wikipedia biography of Giuseppe Verdi
- Wikipedia biography of Gaetano Donizetti
- Wikipedia article on the aria as a musical form