An Opera is “… a staged drama set to music in its entirety, made up of vocal pieces with instrumental accompaniment and usually with orchestral overtures and interludes”. (Weinstock, 2014) However, in reality it is far more complicated than that: the genre Opera is broken down into many sub-genres all of which have distinct characteristics which set them apart. Some of these sub-genres include the: German Opera, Italian Opera, Opera Buffa and Opera Seria. By the turn of the seventeenth century the Opera became a part of world culture; becoming established world-wide. Because it became so widespread it underwent many changes and alterations to suite different cultures and beliefs. One of the major changes was the development of a divide between Opera Seria (serious Opera) and Opera Buffa (comic Opera). Both Opera Buffa and Opera Seria had ancestors in the seventeenth century from which they developed, however, …show more content…
Grout, Jay and Palisca wrote that the Italian Opera Seria "…aimed to be clear, simple, rational, faithful to nature, of universal appeal, and capable of giving pleasure to its audiences without causing them undue mental fatigue." (Grout, Jay, & Palisca, 1988) It can be said that Opera Seria is the stereotype of the genre; Mozart himself even referred to the setting of Opera Seria libretto as “Opera pure and simple”. The majority of the Libretto from Italian Opera Seria that were set around 1720 were referred to as “drammi per musica” or in English “dramas for music” (Rice, 2008). Opera Seria developed in areas such as Venice and Naples in the start of the seventeenth century. The sub-genre Opera Seria is characterised by tragic plots, seriousness, solidity and lack of frivolity. As Opera developed composers and librettists found that more people were attending Operas with humorous content. Thus composers and librettists decided to compose Operas that were more humorous; ergo the advent of the Opera