Early Romantic opera between 1820-1850 saw the genre become an important part of popular culture across Europe. Works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, and Weber established the permanent repertory of classics. Their operas incorporated bel canto singing, simple harmonies, and highly embellished melodies. They advanced drama through seamless transitions between recitatives and arias. Italian opera dominated the genre, while France had three prominent opera houses and Germany featured works with ordinary characters and personal feelings.

1. Early Romantic
Opera
1820-1850

2. Opera’s Popularity
• music for operas important part of popular culture
– transcribed for voice & piano, piano alone, café orchestras,
etc.
• variety of subjects & settings (addressing a widened
audience)
– historical
– folk tales
– political
– personal
• permanent repertory of ‘classics’ by 1850 (Bel
canto, Meyerbeer, Weber, late Mozart)

3. • Italian operas were
performed all over Italy,
abroad
• famous arias heard by
large portions of public
• Italian musical life
dominated by opera,
ignoring:
– instrumental
– choral
– solo song
Italy
La Scala, Milan, Italy

4. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
• bel canto style—“beautiful singing”
– lyrical lines, effortless, florid
– voice most important
– simple harmonies
• scene:
– instrumental intro
– recitativo accompagnato
– aria:
• cavatina (“cantabile”)—slow
• tempo di mezzo—transition
– interruption by other characters
– character’s mood altered
– called tempo d’attacca in a duet or ensemble
• cabaletta—fast
• incorporates aspects of opera reform
• The Barber of Seville (opera buffa)
– Overture
– “Una voce poco fa”
– “Largo al factotum”

5. Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
• 10 serious operas
–La Sonnambula
–Norma
• “Casta Diva” follows
Rossini’s pattern
–I Puritani
• action in arias
• lyrical moments in recitatives
• long, sweeping, highly
embellished, intensely emotional
melodies

6. Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
• 70 operas
– Anna Bolena
– Lucia di Lammermoor
– The Daughter of the Regiment
– The Elixir of Love
– Don Pasquale
• melody & drama effectively
capture character, situation,
feeling
• comic operas—also
sentimental
• serious operas—moves drama
forward, averts cadences,
sustains tension “seamless”
• reminiscence motive—
harkening back to an earlier
theme or motive

7. France
• three Paris opera houses:
– Opéra
– Opéra-comique
– Théâtre Italien

8. Opéra
• Grand Opera
– spectacle: ballets, machinery,
choruses, crowd scenes
– aristocrats wicked, their opponents
virtuous
– (start at 2:45) Rossini’s Guillaume Tell
– Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)
• historical, political, religious
themes
• Robert le diable
• Les Huguenots
• Romantic ballet
– series of dance scenes linked by a
narrative
• (ex. Adolphe Adam’s Giselle)
– very similar to opera (no singing)

9. Opéra-comique
•less pretentious, fewer singers and players, no pageantry
•spoken dialogue (no recitatives)
•many had serious plots

10. Théâtre Italien
• Italian operas performed in France at various
opera houses.

11. Germany
• Carl Maria von Weber
(1786-1826)
– Der Freischütz (The Rifleman)
• Wolf’s Glen scene
– German Romanticism
– ordinary people are center
stage talking about ordinary
life, personal feelings