A (Brief) Introduction to Opera

Many people think of opera as an elitist, wealthy affair. With this blog, we'd like to change that.

Opera is all about sensitivity. All you have to do is let yourself be carried away by the music, the story, the voices, not forgetting the staging, which is just as important as it is in the theatre. An opera can be seen and heard.

If all these elements are brought together, it really is possible to spend an extraordinary evening; to experience soaring highs and dramatic lows, be moved, and maybe even cry.

Whether it lasts an hour like Bartok’s Blue Beard or twenty-nine hours like Stockhausen’s Licht, a seven-opera cycle, opera is a truly powerful experience.

With this short guide, we hope to give you a taste of opera, and make the art form more accessible. At Theatre in Paris, we believe that opera should never be intimidating - just amazing.

First and foremost, what is opera?

Opera is a musical genre that combines music, singing, staging (and sometimes dance) to tell a story. Originating in Italy towards the end of the 16th century, the form has since undergone many evolutions through different styles and schools.

(Brief) Opera Glossary

• Aria: An aria is a long song, sang as a solo in an opera. It often expresses a character's emotions at a key moment. Example: “Nessun dorma” by Puccini.
• Bel canto: An Italian singing style from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries characterised by beauty of tone, vocal flexibility and virtuosity. Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti were its masters.
• Cavatine: A lyrical aria, often short and expressive, sung without repetition.
• Coloratura: Very ornate and virtuoso vocal passages, typical of the soprano repertoire. Example: “Der Hölle Rache” in The Magic Flute by Mozart.
  (Keep reading to find out what a soprano is!)
• Duetto: A song sung by two characters.
• Finale: The last scene of an act, often spectacular and involving several characters.
• Intermezzo: An instrumental piece played between two scenes or acts.
• Leitmotiv: A musical motif associated with a character or an idea, often used by Wagner.
• Libretto: The text of the opera, often written by a librettist.
• Overture: An orchestral piece that introduces an opera.
• Recitativo (Recitative): A song that is close to speech, used to advance the action between arias.
• Surtitles: Translations projected above and/or to the sides of the stage to help you understand the text being sung.

Can you tell the different types of voice in opera? Read on to find out…

The Different Types of Female Voice and Their Roles

There are three main types of female voice:

★ SOPRANO

The soprano voice is perhaps the best-known, it is also the highest-pitched voice among women.
Great sopranos include Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, Lucia Popp, Gundula Janowitz, Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and Sonya Yoncheva.
Listen to Porgi Amor with Gundula Janowitz.

Often attributed to heroines, the soprano can be found in roles such as Violetta in La Traviata by Verdi, or the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute by Mozart. There are many operas that feature soprano voices, and they are among the most famous in the operatic repertoire. These roles often require great virtuosity, impressive vocal power and dramatic interpretation.

• Some famous operas with key soprano roles:
• • Lucia di Lammermoor, by Donizetti features a coloratura soprano in the famous mad scene.
• • The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, by Mozart requires a high tessitura and formidable vocalises.
  Listen to the Queen of the Night with Lucia Popp.
• • In Puccini’s Tosca, the aria “Vissi d'arte” highlights the dramatic intensity of the title role.
• • Norma, by Bellini offers an extremely demanding role with the famous aria “Casta diva”, where purity and power of tone are essential.
• • Madame Butterfly explores a more lyrical and emotional register with “Un bel di, vedremo”.
• • Rusalka, by Dvořák (“Song to the Moon”).

★ MEZZO-SOPRANO

The mezzo-soprano voice has a lower vocal register than the soprano, often associated with the roles of the mother, magician or rival.
Some great mezzo-sopranos: Christa Ludwig, Marilyn Horne, Fiorenza Cossotto, Shirley Verrett, Janet Baker, Cecilia Bartoli, Elīna Garanča, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote and Marina Viotti.

Operas featuring mezzo-soprano roles often offer complex, passionate characters with great dramatic depth. Unlike sopranos, mezzo-soprano characters are often femmes fatales, mothers, witches or young men in drag.
Carmen by Bizet, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, the child in Ravel’s The Child and the Spells, or Cheribino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro are fantastic examples of mezzo-soprano roles and the variety of characters this voice type can play.

• Some operas with key mezzo-soprano roles:
• • Bizet’s Carmen is undoubtedly the most emblematic, with its free and sensual heroine singing the famous Habanera and the Seguedilla.
• • Samson and Dalilah, by Saint-Saëns highlights Dalila's spellbinding voice with “Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix”, one of the most famous arias in the repertoire.
• • In La Cenerentola, by Rossini, Angelina (Cinderella) shines with her vocal agility and expressiveness, particularly in “Nacqui all'affanno”.
  Listen to Marina Viotti in Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
• • Giulio Cesare, by Handel offers Cleopatra and Cornelia, two splendid roles in which the mezzo can express virtuosity and emotion.
• Cross-dressing roles are also common:
• • Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, by Strauss is a striking example.
• • Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, offers a charming and mischievous role with “Voi che sapete”.

★ Contralto

Finally, the contralto voice is the deepest and rarest female voice, often reserved for roles of imposing characters, such as Erda in Wagner’s The Ring of The Nibelung.
The great contraltos are: Marian Anderson, Kathleen Ferrier, Ewa Podleś, Maureen Forrester, Nathalie Stutzman, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Sara Mingardo.
Listen to ‘Ombra mai fu’ by Handel.

Contraltos, the lowest female vocal range are often given less prominence than sopranos or mezzo-sopranos, but they play essential roles in opera. Their deep, warm voices lend a unique dramatic intensity, often associated with maternal, supernatural or transgender characters.
These roles, although less common, allow contraltos to showcase the full richness of their vocal range and expressiveness.

• Some famous operas with contralto roles:
• • Orpheus in Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck, is often entrusted to a contralto and shines in the deeply moving aria “Che farò senza Euridice?”
• • Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, a mysterious psychic who sings “Re dell'abisso”.
• • Madame Quickly in Falstaff, brings a touch of comedy with “Reverenza!”.
• • In Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, the fearsome La Cieca plays a dramatic role as a protective mother.
• • In Handel’s Rinaldo, the role of the sorceress Armida is sometimes performed by a contralto, making use of their deep and powerful vocal range.

The Different Types of Masculine Voice and Their Roles

For men, there are 4 main types of voice:

★ Tenor

Tenor. The high-pitched male voice, the quintessential voice of operatic heroes. Notable examples include Rodolfo (in Puccini’s La Bohème) or Don José (in Bizet’s Carmen).
Many operas star tenors as this vocal range often embodies romantic heroes, passionate lovers, or tragic figures. Tenor roles require a combination of power, agility, and great expressiveness.

• Some famous operas with tenor roles:
• • Puccini’s La Bohème features the lead character, Rodolfo, whose aria “Che gelida manina” is a key emotional and lyric moment.
• • In Tosca, the character of Cavaradossi shines with “E lucevan le stelle”, a heartbreaking aria.
  Listen here to “Pacido Domingo E lucevan le stelle”, an extract from Tosca.
• • With Verdi’s La Traviata, the tenor Alfredo enjoys the opportunity to shine with De' miei bollenti spiriti.
• • Rigoletto, highlights the Duke of Manuta with the famous “La donna è mobile”.
• • La Fille du Régiment, in the Bel Canto repertoire, Donizetti highlights Tonio with “Ah! Mes amis”, a fantastic aria featuring nine high Cs (not an easy feat!).
• • Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles, gives Nadir the unforgettable “Je crois entendre encore”, showcasing the tenderness and agility of the tenor voice.
  Listen here to Roberto Alagna in Les Pêcheurs de perles

★ Baritone

The baritone has an intermediate vocal range, often assigned to complex characters or antagonists. Some examples of characters performed by baritones: Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca or Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.
Baritones hold an essential place in opera, often portraying powerful and complex characters: kings, villains, authoritarian fathers, or tormented heroes. Their voices, deeper than tenors but higher than basses, combine power, expressiveness, and elegance.

• Some famous operas with baritone roles:
• • Il trovatore, highlights the Count of Luna with “Il balen del suo sorriso”, an aria of great lyrical beauty.
• • Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra, are other Verdian operas with roles requiring intense dramatic depth.
• • In Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the titular role is a baritone, particularly notable for “Fin ch’han dal vino.”
• • Les Noces de Figaro, features Figaro, a lively and expressive baritone, singing “Non più andrai”.
• • Gounod’s French opera Faust, gives the character Valentin the famous aria “Avant de quitter ces lieux”.
• • Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, magnificently showcases the baritone voice with the nostalgic aria “Kogda bï jizn”.

★ Bass

The Bass: This voice is the deepest and most often attributed to wise men or authoritative figures. Here are a few examples of characters played by basses: Sarastro in The Magic Flute or Moussorgski's titular Boris Gofounov in Boris Goudonov.
The great basses are: Fédor Chaliapine, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Boris Christoff, Samuel Ramey, René Pape and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

• Some famous operas with bass roles:
• • Philippe II in Verdi’s Don Carlo, an intense dramatic role, with the deeply moving aria “Ella giammai m’amò”, expressing solitude and despair.
• • Boris Godounov in Moussorgski’s Boris Godounov, a demanding title role, with emotional scenes like Bor’s monologue.
• • Osmin in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a role that is comic yet vocally demanding with formidable low notes, best heard in “O wie will ich triumphieren”.
• • Bartolo in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, a whirlwind comic role, with the famous aria “A un dottor della mia sorte”.
• • Don Magnifico in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Cendrillon’s stepfather, a burlesque role with challenging arias.

★ Countertenor

Finally, the countertenor. Some of the most famous countertenors: Alfred Deller, Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky and Jakub Józef Orliński.

In opera and baroque musique, the countertenor often is used for specific roles that play on the particularities of their voice. The countertenors are often associated with male characters that are androgynous or even feminine, because of the softness and lightness of the voice. These characters can also be young men, spirits, angels or deities. Airy and light, their voices are ideal for portraying roles of great purity or an ethereal nature. Some countertenors can also perform comic or quirky characters in comic operas. The uniqueness of their voice, sometimes perceived as unusual, can add an extra dimension to comic or eccentric roles.

• Some famous operas with countertenor roles:
• • Idoménée in Mozart’s Idomeneo, a tragic character, often sung by countertenors in certain modern productions.
• • Gismondo in Handel Gismondo, a god, in the oratario “Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno”.
• • Zoroastre in Rameau’s Zoroastre, a mythical character, warlord, and sage.
• • Arbace in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, a noble and celestial role.
• • The Roitelet in Le Rossignol, by Stravinsky, a celestial character, often sung by a countertenor.

A (Brief) History of Opera

★ The Baroque Period

Monteverdi’s 1607 L’Orfeo marked the birth of opera, and the Baroque period. With this came the rise of opera seria and opera buffa, with composers such as Handel and Lully.

French Baroque opera, born in the 17th century, is distinguished by its elegance, expressive declamation and integration of dance and chorus. Jean-Baptiste Lully, the father of lyric tragedy, imposed a style in which music and text served the drama, as in Armide and Atys.
His successor, Jean-Philippe Rameau, enriched harmony and orchestration, with works such as Hippolyte et Aricie and Les Indes galantes, combining heroism and exoticism.

Unlike Italian opera, French Baroque opera favoured dramatic recitative and avoided excessive vocalization. Dance plays a central role, influenced by the tradition of court ballet.
Other composers, such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Médée) and André Campra (L’Europe galante), contributed to this golden age. This style influenced opera right up to Gluck (1714-1787) and Berlioz (1803-1869). Today, it is enjoying a revival...

★ The Classical Period

In the classical era (18th century), Mozart (1756-1791) revolutionised the genre and left his mark on the history of opera through his melodic genius, his dramatic sense and his ability to give unprecedented psychological depth to his characters. He composed in several styles: opera seria (serious opera), opera buffa (comic opera) and singspiel (with spoken dialogue).
He composed several operas seria, in which he went beyond the fixed conventions of the genre by deepening the dramatic expression of the characters. Idomeneo (1781) is a major example. La clemenza di Tito (1791), Mozart's last opera, brings a great humanity to the protagonists.
Mozart also revolutionised the opera buffa by introducing social complexities and exceptional musical richness. Le nozze di Figaro (1786), set to a libretto by Da Ponte, criticises the society of his time with rare finesse. Don Giovanni (1787) blends comedy and tragedy in a gripping drama. Cosi fan tutte (1790) explores the games of love with a subtle balance of lightness and melancholy.
This great composer also shone in the singspiel, an opera with spoken dialogue, where he combined fantasy and depth. Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) impresses with its virtuoso tunes and rich orchestration. The Magic Flute (1791), a symbolic and philosophical work, blends fairytales and Masonic ideals, while exploiting vocal contrasts (the Queen of the Night versus Sarastro).

★ The Romantic Period

In the Romantic period (19th century), opera became more expressive and grandiose. Thanks to composers like Verdi in Italy with La Traviata and Aida, and Wagner in Germany with The Ring of The Nibelung, Das Rheingold, Ride of the Valkyries, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.

What distinguishes these two composers?
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883) are two of the greatest opera composers of the 19th century. Although they were contemporaries, their styles, philosophies and musical approaches differed profoundly.

Verdi embodies the Italian Bel Canto tradition, with its emphasis on melody and vocal expressiveness. His operas are rooted in emotion and human drama, with melodies that are immediately memorable. He favoured more classical forms and orchestration that supported the voice without overpowering it. His major works include La Traviata, Rigoletto and Aida, where singing is king and the theatre remains direct and accessible.

Wagner, on the other hand, revolutionised opera by developing the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), fusing music, poetry and staging into a dramatic continuum. He abandoned traditional arias in favour of the leitmotiv, a musical motif associated with a character or an idea, creating a complex architecture of sound. His orchestration is dense and demanding, transforming the orchestra into a central player. His major works, such as Tristan und Isolde, The Ring of The Nibelung and Parsifal, are monumental and often very long.

★ Post-Romantic and Modern Period

In the post-romantic and modern period (in the 20th century), Puccini composed masterpieces such as Madame Butterfly. Debussy, Strauss and others renewed the approach to opera.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) had a profound impact on the development of opera, bringing major musical innovations and pushing back the boundaries of dramatic and orchestral expression. Although influenced by Wagner, Strauss forged his own style, combining a mastery of the orchestra, harmonic richness and an exploration of the psychology of the characters.
He revolutionised opera orchestration. His use of the orchestra as a character in its own right, both supporting and commenting on the action, transformed the operatic experience. His dense, complex orchestration created intense, nuanced atmospheres. Works such as Salomé (1905) and Elektra (1909) feature an extremely rich and dynamic orchestra, where the instruments interact with the voices, often in a frenetic way, to underline the psychological tensions of the characters.
This composer introduced a more in-depth psychological analysis of the characters. He also contributed to the modernisation of the operatic form by incorporating new structures that went beyond the conventions of traditional opera. His operas, such as Der Rosenkavalier (1911), combine a rich heritage of Romantic opera with a new dimension, possessing influences of comedy and more refined dialogue. In short, Strauss redefined opera by enriching the orchestral language and tackling more complex themes, in which emotions and psychology mark a decisive stage in the evolution of this musical genre.

★ Contemporary Opera

With contemporary opera, it is very easy to say that opera is not an art of the past. Modern operas explore new musical and thematic forms, sometimes incorporating multimedia technologies.

• Here are a few that come to mind:
• • Nixon in China, by John Adams, a captivating and minimalist opera exploring the historical visit of Richard Nixon in China, mixing politics and personal tensions during a time of upheaval.
• • Lear, by Reimann, a dramatic and psychological opera that dives into the madness of King Lear, inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy, with a dark and complex music.
• • Le Grand Macabre, by Ligeti, is a grotesque and surreal opera, merging dark comedy and thoughts on death, in a satire of the human condition.

Operas are waiting for you!

We hope that this blog has been a useful guide to the alluring world of operas. Paris is lucky enough to have such an incredible opera scene (including the magnificent Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille), so what better way to spend a fantastic evening?

We should add that, unlike theatre, opera can be heard without staging. These are known as concert operas. This is the preferred option if you want to concentrate on the music and the voices. The orchestra and chorus are on stage and the singers sing their arias in turn or together. This type of opera allows you to discover a work in all its orchestral and vocal splendour.

Long live opera!

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