MUS 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Opera Buffa, Falsetto, Recitative
Document Summary
Opera drama presented in musical form; operatics work features characters singing all the words, with no purely spoken dialogue. Opera was first invented in the baroque era in florence: originally created to be performed at big events. Opera quickly became the primary form of entertainment in italy. In early days, opera was purely a social event. The music was merely a background for the social gathering. In opera, there are two main types of musical writing: recitative. Musical work for a solo singer, similar to a song. A way to show off the soloist. World famous composer and inventor of opera. In baroque italy, musical tastes favored high voices and none were so prized as castrati: castrati were the operatic rock stars of their day, and were in very high demand. Castrato a type of soprano-range classical male singing voice. The voice is produced by castrating the singer before puberty, and thus preventing a change in vocal register.