--- Geraldine Consoli <gconsoli@n...> wrote:
> Am I correct in thinking the first operas where
> always in Italian and
> that Mozart was one of the first composers to use
> his native language in
> an opera?
Dear Geraldine and list,
it is difficult to asnwer the question(s) with yes or
no, judge for yourself:
The first opera was 'Dafne' from the Italian composer
Jacobo Peri, composed 1594 (the work is lost). The
first composer who’se opera’s are still being
performed is Monteverdi (Orfeo, 1608). In 1637 the
frist opera theatre in Italy was opened, 1671 the
‚Academie de Musique et de Danse‘ in France.
The first German opera was based on a translation of
the libretto of the above mentioned Dafne, and was
composed by Heinrich Schuetz (Dafne 1627). The first
opera theatre in Germany was in the rich city of
Hamburg, and was opened in 1678 with Theiles opera
‚Adam und Eva‘ (so with an opera in German). About
seventy years later several national types of opera
had been developed, of which the ‚Singspiel‘ was the
most important. The first major opera in the Germanic
countries was Mozart’s ‚Die Entfuehrung aus dem
Serail‘.
This was the beginning of a development of
Germanisation of opera in Germany, a development that
was stopped by Herbert von Karajan, who had the
autority (and the common sense) to go back to
performances of Italian and Russian opera's in the
original language.
As for England: I think this was not part of your
question, but you’ll probably know that Handel wrote
many opera’a, but his first opera’s were German, with
an Italian interlude. Later of he wrote Italian
opera’s. The first English opera was 'Cupid and Death'
(1653) and the first major English opera was Purcell’s
'Dido and Aeneas' (1689). Most of this information is
based on ‚Groot Elseviers Operaboek‘ and on ‚The
Larousse encyclopedia of music‘.
Best greetings,
Dre
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