Compare to the composers in other era, the Romantic musicians and composers had a closer connection with other form of arts, including poetry, literature and philosophy. Such experience provided them extra inspirations while composing works and what’s more, these other forms of arts provided them a different dimension to view art and allow them to create new form/ improve original form of music with the broadened view or explore the potential behind the traditional form of music. Noticeably, these composers viewed music as “the most profound of all the arts” (p.261 Kerman). Hence, they treated opera as a formal type of music seriously but not just as a vehicle of song or entertainment like the composers of the previous eras.
Opera became
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What does bel canto mean? Briefly describe this Romantic style. How did it affect the role of the human voice in Italian opera?
Bel canto is an Italian phrase that means “beautiful singing”. It is a romantic style that emphasise the beautifulness of vocal voice. In this style, the the brilliancy of the performance was relatively more important than the representation of emotions and the dramatic expressions. In addition, the technique of the human voice was a major concern as well. Such style constructed an important base for the development of Italian opera in the future days.
It raised the importance of human voice in Italian opera. In the Italian opera of previous days, people tended to focus more on the emotion presentations, self-expression of the music and the actors’ performance on the stage. However, with the flourishing of this style, more and more people put more attention on how human voice performed and what effects it could give to the opera. Hence, the importance of vocal voice in people mind was enhanced. Remarkably, the success of this style even earned this kind of opera a specific name: ‘Bel Canto opera’ and it dominated the early Romantic era.
3. In a sentence of two, summarize the careers of the following early Romantic opera