1600-1750: Shakespeare writes his final plays, the Puritans land on Plymouth Rock, Galileo goes before the Inquisition, and a new kind of musical storytelling turns Europe on its head.
In this resource, you will:
Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic.
Opera didn’t happen overnight, and there were lots of musical and theatrical developments that went into its eventual creation. But, if we’re looking to pin down the exact historical point at which opera came into being, we’ll have to start with what’s called the Baroque era.
But hang on just a second.
Trying to categorize classical music according to a precise date or “era” is notoriously difficult, if not impossible. For example: No one has been able to confine Beethoven to a specific musical period. Was he a Classicist? A Romantic? Nobody agrees. (That’s because he was both. Turns out putting someone in a box is pretty reductive. Who knew?)
So, when we say, “the Baroque era,” bear in mind we’re thinking of the time roughly between 1600 and 1750. And that covers a lot of musical ground.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way…
Caricature of a performance of Handel’s Flavio, featuring three opera seria singers [].
Opera (Italian for “opus” or “artistic work”) is a story told through music featuring actors who sing instead of speak. A true collaborative art form that synthesizes the talents of vocalists, instrumentalists, visual artists, dancers, practitioners of stagecraft, and more, opera is a direct descendant of “straight drama” or spoken-word plays. Both opera and straight drama use the stage as their canvas; but, in opera, music is the primary source of color (the “paint”), while drama relies more heavily on language.
When we think of Western history before 1600, we tend to think of Drama (capital D) and Music (capital M) as emerging somewhat separately. We know, of course, that there were towering works of spoken-word theatre (hello Shakespeare!) and revolutionary innovations in the world of music (hello, masses, madrigals, and motets!). But it’s not too often you’ll hear Drama and Music mentioned together when looking at events before the “Baroque” era—a post-Renaissance epoch named for the Portuguese word “barroco” (“gaudy” or, in 21st-century terms, “extra”).
Just as the Baroque era—which, in music history, is typified by easily recognizable structures dressed to the nines in dazzling ornamental style—began to inch its way over the horizon, scholars started reconsidering the idea that Music and Drama were two separate and distinct mediums.
Margravial Opera House inerior, Bayreuth []
The chorus in a 2002 production of Euripides’s The Bacchae at Britain’s National Theatre. PHOTO: ALAMY
Inspired by the tragedies of the Ancient Greeks, thinkers of the mid-to-late 16th century came up with a working theory that dramatic plays by the likes of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides made a lasting impression on ancient audiences because they were sung through rather than spoken aloud. These scholars took the term “Greek chorus” literally, but they also assumed principal roles were sung as well. (Think Medea or Electra as the ancestors of the opera diva.)
Some theorists took this idea even further, suggesting that straightforward, hummable tunes—or “melodies”—were the quickest, most effective way to translate intense emotions such as fury, passion, and grief onto the dramatic stage.
Still, these early influencers weren’t the only ones who realized music could enhance drama and help bring it vividly to life. As Western music progressed, hybrid works started to crop up across Europe, deftly mixing notes with words to create theatrical productions full of artistic variety that packed an emotional “punch.” These included genres like intermedio/intermezzi and plays with musical interludes that stitched one dramatic act to the next.
Eventually, these interludes started to overtake the scenes they were meant to accompany, and opera took its first baby steps toward global domination.
(Again, a bit dramatic. But opera did get very popular, very fast!)
Though opera was more or less a gradual invention, there’s one work that’s considered the absolute very first opera in the Western canon. That’s right: As far as written history is concerned, there’s a clear line between opera’s “before” and opera’s “after.”
And it has an actual title...
Euridice by Jacopo Peri (1561-1633).
(Pause for fanfare.)
In addition to getting his name on opera’s very first manuscript, Peri is credited with developing one of opera’s greatest hallmarks: recitative (or recitativo in Italian). This handy musical device consisted of dialogue with one foot in speech and one in song, usually with light accompaniment from a keyboard or an orchestra underneath. The result allowed singers to propel a story forward in spoken rhythm without having to stop and belt out a long, expansive melody every five seconds.
Recitative would go on to serve as the connective tissue between solo songs and other showpieces, such as duets, trios, and choruses, for centuries.
Be warned: Not all operas include recitative. Once the mid-19th century arrived, the lines between speech-like musical dialogue and full-on, bona fide song would start to blur, and it would ultimately become difficult to tell where recitative ended and true “music” began. But more on that later.
Euridice, Prologue: “La Tragedia”. Fun fact: This first-ever opera debuted slap bang in 1600. So, we can quite literally date opera to the very beginning of the 17th century. How’s that for a clean start to a new era? (Seriously, though, enjoy it while it lasts; these eras will get harder and harder to delineate as we go.)
Yet while Peri was indeed a major contributor to the operatic genre, opera only has one granddaddy...
...and his name is Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643).
With his 1607 opera L’Orfeo, Claudio Monteverdi burst onto the operatic scene with a brand-new take on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth (mythological subjects were a definite thing in early opera). Monteverdi arguably improved the burgeoning art form by employing more complex musical experimentation (e.g., chords that would intentionally clash to help symbolize anxiety or fear) alongside a really big orchestra.
L’Orfeo - “Tu se’ morta”
Nearly 40 years later, Monteverdi delivered L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea’s Coronation) to the listening public. L’Incoronazione di Poppea was inspired by Roman history and would solidify Monteverdi as a master of opera, thanks in large part to his creation of yet another trademark operatic feature: the aria. Italian for “air” (or, in other words, “song”), this form of musical monologue would become the center of the opera world and a foundational pillar that has helped to keep opera standing to this very day.
Matti Salminen - Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea
Like opera, arias don’t conform to a single definition. Still, there are some principal characteristics that have held true throughout most of operatic aria history.
An aria is:
Sabine Devieilhe sings Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, Act II: “Se pietà di me non senti”.
One type of aria that had serious staying power in the Baroque era was the da capo aria, essentially meaning, “from the head” or “from the top”. These songs had two segments, each with a different mood or offering a different spin on the character’s inner thoughts. The first segment would then repeat itself, sometimes with added embellishments to help underline the familiar words or enhance the melody.
As the Baroque era moved to a close, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759, of “Hallelujah!” fame) helped refine the da capo aria, churning out so many that his aria numbers sometimes went into double digits within a single opera.
Soon enough, though, the florid and sometimes undeniably “extra” styles and forms of the Baroque era would give way to a new set of musical rules that placed special emphasis on elegance and symmetry. (*sips tea with pinky extended*)
But that doesn’t mean opera would get any less exciting.
In fact, it is about to welcome one of its longest-reigning rockstars to the stage. (Hint: His middle name was Amadeus.)
The very first opera that has survived to the present day, Euridice is one of many based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Why is this story so popular with opera composers? Maybe because the hero, Orpheus (or “Orfeo,” in Italian), is a literal musician. And maybe, too, because the narrative deals with all the big issues: death, love, dancing nymphs…you name it.
Set to a dramatic poem by Ottavio Rinuccini, Peri’s seminal work features arias, choruses, and dances, all of which would become operatic essentials in later years. There’s an orchestra too, but it’s quite small compared to our modern standard (only one keyboard and three string instruments).
Just think of it as Orpheus and Eurydice 2.0.
Though Peri and at least one other composer had already had their hands on the Orpheus myth, Monteverdi put his own stamp on the story in 1607, creating a new and improved combination of music, drama, poetry, and design that’s since earned the title of “history’s first real opera.” (Maybe not officially, but sort of. Sorry, Peri.)
More lush and melodic than Peri’s version, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo traces a similar storyline but dispenses with the made-up happy ending that was used in Euridice to sugarcoat the tragedy.
Orfeo discovers Euridice’s lifeless body and vows to descend into Hades in the excruciatingly plaintive aria “Tu se’ morta” (“You are dead”).
1643, CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
The Death of Seneca painted by Luca Giordano.
Nearly 40 years after L’Orfeo’s debut, Monteverdi was still composing solid bangers in his adopted hometown of Venice, where he held a permanent position as musical director of San Marco (St. Mark’s).
His final opera for the Venetian stage —and final opera, period—follows the real-life story of the rise of Empress Poppea, whose legendary feminine wiles had been documented in multiple Ancient Roman texts.
Slightly R-rated even for today, L’Incoronazione di Poppea is not your grandmother’s romance: expect scenes of infidelity, bloody power struggles, and literal cloaks and daggers.
Poppea and Nerone (Nero, sung here by a male singer with a high range, known as a “countertenor”) only have eyes for each other in their final duet, “Pur ti miro” (roughly, “I adore you”), which—somewhat creepily—celebrates a marriage born of adultery, manipulation, and murder. So, you know…yikes.
If opera had its own version of the Eurovision Song Contest and each country could only submit one opera across all time to represent its entire nation, odds are pretty high England would select Dido and Aeneas as the very best their country had to offer. That’s how big a deal this opera is.
Dido is one of those tragic stories where, if just one or two things were different, it’s possible everybody could go home happy. But, alas, this tale (based on characters from Virgil’s Aeneid) is all about how fate—along with some evil witches and an ill-timed storm—can get in the way of true love and alter the course of history.
Devastating, truly, but did we mention the music is kinda sublime? We defy you to find a better musical lament than Dido’s final aria, which is one of the sparsest, bleakest, and saddest depictions of heartbreak you’ll ever hear.
Dido’s haunting lament, “When I Am Laid in Earth,” continues to be one of opera’s favorite arias, so much so the melody has even made appearances on TV shows like The White Lotus and Queen Charlotte.
Listeners might disagree about the exact location in which opera first hit its stride (Florence? Venice? Naples? Rome? There are arguments for these cities and others!), but there’s no denying Western opera has almost 100% Italian DNA.
Opera first premiered on the Florentine stage during the Baroque era, and the new art form became so closely associated with the uniquely Italian flair for melding music with drama that many operas were performed solely in Italian, no matter where they were produced.
Italian titans of Baroque opera included Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Pier Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741, the renowned composer of The Four Seasons).
The countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński sings “Vedrò con mio diletto,” aria from the opera Il Giustino by Antonio Vivaldi.
But, if we’re being brutally honest, singers were the real box office draw. Their ranks included famous castrati or male sopranos like Carlo Broschi (also known as Farinelli) and opera’s first real diva (Italian for “goddess”) Anna Renzi (below)—both native Italian performers.
Opera wasn’t born in France, but the French sure knew how to give it the royal treatment.
The earliest French operas took off only a few decades after the Italian phenoms of the early 1600s, thanks mostly to Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), a composer in the court of King Louis XIV (the famed “Sun King”). Lully set about restyling the Italian operatic form to better suit French language and taste, adding new features like a mini ballet and a two-part overture to give the proceedings an air of added gravitas.
Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Atys became known as the "king’s opera" due to Louis XIV’s fondness for it.
His successor to the French operatic throne was Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), who, though he credited Lully as an inspiration, produced music that audiences found so starkly different to the original French style it eventually sparked a culture war. Early-18th century Parisian battlelines were drawn between those who preferred Lully’s stately, majestic melodies and those who championed Rameau’s heavier, more obviously dramatic tunes.
Rameau’s first opera Hippolyte et Aricie delivered a lyrical tragedy of such extraordinary intensity that it changed the course of French music, stunning and overwhelming its audiences.
These arias by Lully and Rameau, respectively, might sound similar to modern audiences; but to 18th century French ears, they were in such violent contrast they inspired a fierce debate about the future of opera.
Opera’s early history in England wasn’t as straightforward as it was for her neighbors across the Channel. This is partly because theatre itself had a rough few years during England’s Commonwealth (1649-1660), in which stage plays were barred from production.
Luckily, these restrictions provided composers with a loophole that would help pave the way for English opera to take shape: Plays with music were exempt from the theatrical ban. (Cue lots of musical dramas masquerading as “concerts” to avoid the wrath of Cromwell.)
Once the Commonwealth ended and the monarchy was restored, these musical plays evolved into English “semi-operas,” or dramas with musical numbers interspersed throughout the performance, such as John Gay’s (1685-1732) popular Beggar’s Opera of 1728 (which was technically called a “ballad opera,” but the idea was very similar).
In 1728, John Gay wrote a play interspersed with popular songs and learned airs, the first ballad opera. Nearly 300 years later, Robert Carsen and William Christie revisit this satirical tale to make it “a brilliant tour de force between baroque and modernity” (Libération).
One of the most celebrated composers of the semi-opera was English native Henry Purcell, who eventually composed a complete opera that was sung through from start to finish. The work, Dido and Aeneas, still reigns as one of opera’s gretest English highlights.
Henry Purcell’s genius ability to combine French and Italian influences transport the English language to new levels of musical experession in this acclaimed performance of Dido and Aeneas filmed in December 2008 at the Opéra Comique in Paris.
Small aside: George Frideric Handel (best known for his popular Christmastime staple, Messiah) was also active in England during the Baroque era. But, as his operas were mostly written and performed in Italian and he was born in Germany, no one nation can truly claim him.
Poet & Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
St. Peter’s Square
1620: St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italy)
1631: The Taj Mahal, commissioned by Shah Jahan (India)
1667: St. Peter’s Square, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italy)
1661: Gardens of Versailles, designed by André Le Nôtre (France)
1680: East front of the Louvre Palace, designed by Claude Perrault and Louis Le Vau (France)
1705: The Capitol building in Williamsburg, VA, completed (USA)
1711: St. Paul’s Cathedral, reconstructed by Christopher Wren (England)
1712: Castle Howard, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and John Vanbrugh (England)
1735: Buckingham Palace in London (England)
The Night Watch painted by Rembrandt
1600: View of Toledo, painted by El Greco (Spain)
1613: Judith Slaying Holofernes, painted by Artemisia Gentileschi (Italy)
1615: The Four Continents, painted by Peter Paul Rubens (the Netherlands)
1625: Apollo and Daphne, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italy)
1642: The Night Watch, painted by Rembrandt (the Netherlands)
1656: Las Meninas, painted by Diego Velázquez (Spain)
1657: The Milkmaid, painted by Johannes Vermeer (the Netherlands)
Johann Sebastian Bach
1680: Canon in D, composed by Johann Pachelbel (Germany)
1700: Bartolomeo Cristofori develops the hammered pianoforte (Italy)
1707: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
1717: Cello Suite No. 1, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
1717: Water Music, composed by George Frideric Handel (England)
1721: Brandenburg Concertos, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
1725: The Four Seasons, composed by Antonio Vivaldi (Italy)
1727: Zadok the Priest, composed by George Frideric Handel (England)
1727: St. Matthew Passion, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
1741: The Goldberg Variations, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
1741: Messiah, composed by George Frideric Handel (England)
1749: Music for the Royal Fireworks, composed by George Frideric Handel (England)
1749: Mass in B Minor, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)
Louis XIV, France’s “Sun King”
1653: Ballet de la Nuit, featuring Louis XIV as Apollo (France)
1661: Louis XIV establishes the Académie Royale de Danse (France)
1669: The Paris Opera Ballet is established (France)
1670: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, ballet choreographed by Pierre Beauchamp (France)
1700: Raoul Auger Feuillet’s dance notation system is published (France)
1748: The Royal Danish Ballet is established (Denmark)
William Shakespeare
1599: The Globe Theatre is established (England)
1606: Macbeth and King Lear, written by William Shakespeare (England)
1610: The Winter’s Tale, written by William Shakespeare (England)
1611: The Tempest, written by William Shakespeare (England)
1613: Fuenteovejuna, written by Lope de Vega (Spain)
1628: Joseph Furttenbach introduces oil-based footlights and sidelights to the stage (Germany)
1635: Life is a Dream, written by Calderón de la Barca (Spain)
1641: The first theatre with a permanent proscenium arch and a stage designed for flat wings is constructed (France)
1642: Theatre is banned in London for 18 years (England)
1660: King Charles II restores theatre in London (England)
1664: Tartuffe ou L’Imposteur, written by Molière (France)
1666: Le Misanthrope ou L’Atrabilaire amoureux, written by Molière (France)
1668: L’Avare ou L’École du mensonge, written by Molière (France)
1672: Les Femmes savante, written by Molière (France)
1672: The first public performance of a play in Moscow (Russia)
1675: The Country Wife, written by William Wycherley (England)
1682: The Duke’s and King’s Companies combine to form the United Company (England)
1685: Albion and Albanius, written by John Dryden (England)
1689: Loa to Divine Narcissus, written by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexico)
1695: Love For Love, written by William Congreve (England)
1703: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Japan)
1703: Ferdinando Bibiena introduces angled perspective to stage design (Italy)
1717: Œdipe, written by Voltaire (France)
1722: The Surprise of Love, written by Pierre de Marivaux (France)
1730: The Game of Love and Chance, written by Pierre de Marivaux (France)
1732: The Triumph of Love, written by Pierre de Marivaux (France)
1737: The Licensing Act limits spoken theatre to two venues in London, leading to the development of silent pantomimes and harliquinades (England)
John Milton’s Paradise Lost
1605: Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes (Spain)
1611: The first publication of the King James Bible (England)
1620: The Novum Organum, written by Francis Bacon (England)
1667: Paradise Lost, written by John Milton (England)
1689: The Narrow Road to the Deep North, written by Matsuo Bashō (Japan)
1706: The first English-language edition of the Arabian Nights is published (England)
1723: La Henriade, written by Voltaire (France)
1731: Pierre de Marivaux publishes the first part of his unfinished novel, Marianne (France)
1733: Poor Richard’s Almanack, published by Benjamin Franklin (USA)
Sir Isaac Newton
1609: Astronomia nova, published by Johannes Kepler (Germany)
1616: The Pope orders Galileo to abandon his theories that the Earth orbits the Sun (Italy)
1628: De Motu Cordis, published by William Harvey (England)
1633: Galileo is found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition for his theories of heliocentrism (Italy)
1637: Discourse on the Method, published by René Descartes (France)
1643: Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer (Italy)
1651: Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes (England)
1660: The Royal Society is founded (England)
1661: The Sceptical Chymist, published by Robert Boyle (Ireland)
1665: Robert Hooke discovers the cell (England)
1672: Sir Isaac Newton discovers white light is a spectrum of colored rays (England)
1676: Ole Rømer makes first measurement of the speed of light (Denmark)
1681: Sacred Theory of the Earth, published by Robert Burnet (England)
1687: Principia Mathmatica, published by Isaac Newton (England)
1689: A Letter Concerning Toleration, published by John Locke (England)
Louis XIV of France
1600: The British East India Company is founded (England)
1602: The Dutch East India Company is founded (the Netherlands)
1603: The Edo Period begins (Japan)
1603: The crowns of Scotland and England are united under King James I (UK)
1605: The Gunpowder Plot fails (England)
1607: Jamestown, VA, is settled as the first permanent English colony in North America (USA)
1613: The House of Romanov begins their reign (Russia)
1618-1648: The Thirty Years’ War (Central Europe)
1620: The Mayflower arrives at Plymouth Rock (USA)
1641: The Irish Rebellion (Ireland)
1642-1652: English Civil War (England)
1643–1715: Reign of Louis XIV (France)
1644: The Ming Dynasty ends (China)
1649: King Charles I is executed for treason (England)
1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York (USA)
1674: The Maratha Empire begins (India)
1682–1725: Reign of Peter the Great (Russia)
1683: China annexes Taiwan (China)
1684: The Rozvi Empire begins (Zimbabwe)
1692: The Salem Witch Trials begin (USA)
1697: The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the Great Turkish War (Turkey)
1701: The Ashanti Empire begins (Ghana)
1701–1715: The War of the Spanish Succession (Spain)
1718: The city of New Orleans is founded by the French in North America (USA)
1740–1741: Famine in Ireland kills ten percent of the population (Ireland)
1744: The First Saudi State is founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud (Arabia)
It’s a general rule—but by no means set in stone—that the older an opera is, the less likely you are to see it performed today. Though much of our current “standard” (whatever that means) operatic repertoire involves works composed after 1800, Baroque opera has enjoyed a renaissance in recent decades, with many artistic directors resurrecting period-accurate instruments to recreate the original Baroque sound as closely as possible.
Beyond this historic re-enactment practice, the operas of Monteverdi, Handel, and Purcell are all likely to appear in pretty much any season in any opera house across the globe, while composers like Vivaldi, Lully, Rameau, and others are recurring favorites in “early” music festivals that celebrate works created well before the 19th century.
Baroque features you’re still likely to hear or see today include:
Aria (“air” in Italian) – a solo song performed during an opera.
Baroque – post-Renaissance epoch named for the Portuguese word “barroco” (“gaudy”).
Da Capo (“from the top” in Italian) – a term used to describe an aria in two parts that circles back to the first part before it finishes.
Diva (“goddess” in Italian) – a prominent female opera singer.
Opera (“opus” or “artistic work” in Italian) – a story told through music with actors who sing instead of speak. A true collaborative art form that synthesizes the talents of vocalists, instrumentalists, visual artists, dancers, practitioners of stagecraft, and others, opera is a direct descendant of “straight drama” or spoken-word plays.
Opera Seria (“serious opera” in Italian) – an opera based on a serious subject, often historical or mythological, sung in Italian.
Opera Buffa (“funny opera” in Italian) – an Italian opera that tells a humorous story, with roots in early-18th century Naples.
Recitativo (“recitative” in Italian) – lines of musical dialogue that occur between operatic scenes; typically accompanied by a keyboard instrument or a light orchestral ensemble.
Singspiel (“sing-play” in German) – an early German opera that features spoken dialogue as opposed to sung-through recitative.
Tragédie Lyrique/Tragédie en Musique (“lyric tragedy” or “tragedy in music” in French) – the French version of opera seria, pioneered by composer Jean-Baptiste Lully; usually features a ballet as part of the action.
Writer
Eleni Hagen
Producer
Kenny Neal for
Kennedy Center Education
Digital Learning
Updated
April 19, 2024
Unfortunately, a lot of people think they don’t, and most of them have never seen one. In this audio story, opera fan Eleni and opera skeptic Samantha discuss how their experiences with opera as children influenced their opinions of the art form as adults.
A soprano is a soprano because they can sing high and a bass is a bass because they sing low, right? Not really...
A beginner’s guide to some of opera’s most challenging female roles and a unique look at how opera does girl power.
Opera has always been addicted to love, and its romances can range from the hilarious to the dramatic. But don’t expect a standard “Boy Meets Girl” story when you take your seat at the opera house.
A quick overview of Handel’s 1724 tragic opera set in the Ottoman Empire.
A quick overview of Handel’s 1735 epic tale of knights and sorcery.
A quick overview of Purcell’s 1689 opera about fate.
A quick overview of Monteverdi’s 1643 opera set in the Roman Empire.
A quick overview of Monteverdi’s 1607 tragic opera.
A quick overview of the oldest surviving opera.
Eric Friedman
Director, Digital Learning
Kenny Neal
Manager, Digital Education Resources
Tiffany A. Bryant
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement
JoDee Scissors
Content Specialist, Digital Learning
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Orpheus and Eurydice, painted by Edward John Poynter.
Orpheus and Eurydice, painted by Louis Doukis.
Aeneas Takes Leave of Dido, painted by Guido Reni.
