Following the publication of John Polidori‘s initial vampire story, and its popularization by being adapted for the stage in France, it was also adapted for the stage in Germany by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter under the title Der Vampyr, oder die todten Braut in 1821. It was this German play that then became the basis of the script written by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, which Heinrick August Marshner (1795–1861) turned into the first vampire opera. Der Vampyr premiered in Leipzig on March 28, 1828.
Following Ritter’s lead, the Wohlbrück script has Lord Ruthven meet the (Satan-like) Vampyrmeister to beg for more time on earth. He is given a deal—he can have three more years if he brings the Vampyrmeister three virgin brides. He celebrates his first kill with a light song about the joy of killing. He then kills Emmy and goes after Malwine as his third. Introduced to Malwine’s family as the Earl von Marsden, he attempts to draw the young woman away from Aubrey her true love. Aubry is helpless because of an oath previously made to Lord Ruthven, which, if he breaks, will cause him to become a vampire. However, Ruthven is ultimately thwarted.
Marshner’s work was quickly followed by a similar adaptation, also named Der Vampyr, by Peter Josef von Lindpainter (1791–1856). The script, by Caesar Max Heigel, follows closely the plot of Charles Nodier‘s prior Parisian production, even though the characters’ names are shifted around. The vampire has, for example, become known as Graf Aubri. Lindpainter’s opera has been largely forgotten, while Marshner’s was produced for the first time in England in 1829, and in recent decades in London in 1976. In 1992 the British Broadcasting Company filmed a version of the opera (with a new script by Charles Hart), which played on American television and has been released on CD and video. Marshner’s opera was also revived for a performance in Boston in 1980. (A list of recent public performances can be found http://www.operone.de/opern/vampyr.html.)
Following the German productions of the 1820s, the genre seems to have exhausted itself as a subject for opera. However, there were a number of attempts to turn the vampire play into a musical. Various productions added songs and Gilbert and Sullivan produced their own vampire operetta, Ruddigore, which enjoyed a successful run after its opening in January of 1887. Like all of their work, Ruddigore was a satire, in this case of Dion Boucicault‘s The Vampire. Throughout the twentieth century, a host of Dracula musicals have been written and staged, including Seven Brides for Dracula by Tim Kelly and Larry Nestor, Count Dracula, or A Musical Mania from Transylvania by Lawrence O’Dwyer (1974), Dracula by Kingsley Day (1978), and My Fair Dracula by William Lockwood and Franklyn J. Wyka (1996). However, opera seems to be the one contemporary media that has chosen not to take a bite out of the Vampire Lord.
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Dreaming about being in an opera, or even just watching an opera, can be about dramatizing our feelings, or dramatizing the roles we feel that we play in life. Alternatively, feeling like one is on stage, or the desire to be on stage (the desire to be noticed).
a genre of musical dramatic art. The literary foundation of opera (the libretto) is presented by means of the resources of musical dramaturgy and, above all, through forms of vocal music.
Opera is a synthesis that unites in a single theatrical presentation numerous art forms, including drama, music, the representational arts (sets and costumes), and choreography (ballet). Historically, several specific forms of opera music have developed. Although there are some general principles in operatic dramaturgy, all of its components are open to different interpretations, depending on the type of opera. The vocal forms of classical opera are diverse. The characters of the heroes are most fully revealed in solos (the aria, arioso, arietta, cavatina, monologue, ballad, and song). Recitative—the intonational and rhythmic imitation of human speech in music—has various functions in opera. In many instances, it is used to connect the solos, which are complete in themselves, and to provide for continuity in the plot and in the music. Often, the recitative carries the action in musical dramaturgy. In some operatic genres, particularly comic opera, conversational speech is used instead of recitative, usually in dialogues. In opera, a musical ensemble (duet, trio, quartet, quintet, and so forth) accompanies the stage dialogue and action. The special features of the musical ensemble make it possible to create conflict situations and to show the clash of characters and ideas, as well as the development of the plot. For this reason, ensembles are often used in the culminating or concluding moments of an operatic act.
The chorus is treated in different ways. It may be used in the background and have no connection with the main line of the plot. Sometimes it serves as a special kind of commentator on the action. Its artistic possibilities make it an excellent vehicle for depicting scenes from popular life and revealing the relationship between the hero and the masses (for example, in M. P. Mussorgsky’s folk music dramas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina).
In operatic dramaturgy the orchestra plays an important role: the symphonic means of expression makes possible a fuller rendition of images. Opera also includes independent orchestral interludes called overtures and entr’actes (introductions to each act). Another component of an operatic presentation is ballet, or choreographical scenes, in which the fluid, plastic images of the dance are combined with musical images.
The history of opera is closely connected with the cultural and historical development of human society. Often, opera has been a unique ideological outpost of musical art, reflecting the most pressing issues of the times, including social inequality, the struggle for national independence, and patriotism.
Musical theater originated in folk festivals and games. Even in the ancient Greek Dionysian games and Greek tragedies, music played an important role. It was an essential component of medieval popular religious (“sacred”) presentations. Opera took shape as an independent genre at the turn of the 17th century. In a few centuries, many national operatic schools, styles, and types of operatic works developed. In many European national cultures, the elaboration of the principles of a new type of musical dramatic presentation was associated with the rise of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance. These musical experiments first met with success in Italy, the classic country of the Renaissance. A group of philosophers, poets, musicians, and artists (the Florentine Camerata, 1580) called for the revival of classical tragedy. In music the ideal of the Florentines was simplicity, a natural manner of expression. In their presentations they subordinated music to poetry. The first operas, Dafne (1597–98) and Euridice (1600), with music by J. Peri and texts by O. Rinuccini, were written in this spirit. The next landmark in operatic history was C. Monteverdi’s La Favola d’Orfeo (1607). An artist with a great gift for writing tragedies, he created works distinguished for profound dramatic expression and masterful characterization.
In France, an operatic school developed somewhat later than in Italy (second half of the 17th century). Operas by the founder of the French school, J.-B. Lully (Alceste, 1674, and Armide et Renaud 1686), are associated with the classical theater of Racine and Corneille. Lully created the classical French lyric tragedy (tragédie lyrique; lyric, that is, musical tragedy), a harmoniously constructed, monumental composition consisting of five acts, a prologue, and an epilogue-apotheosis, with the climax at the end of the third act. The foundation for the vocal music was a melodic recitative. J.-P. Rameau developed the traditions of Lully’s lyric tragedy.
In the 17th century an original operatic genre, the zarzuela, took shape in Spain. In England, opera is associated with the composer H. Purcell (Dido and Aeneas, 1689). H. Schütz (Dafne, 1626) was the first German operatic composer. At the turn of the 18th century, the Neapolitan school of opera became very important in Italian music. It was headed by A. Scarlatti, the creator of the opera seria (literally, “serious opera”), a new type of operatic work. Emotionally detached arias, in which singers could demonstrate their virtuosity, matched the heroic, mythological themes and lofty content of the opera seria. Gradually, the literary dramatic content became merely a background for the virtuoso arias of the soloists. Associated with the opera seria is the work of G. F. Handel. Among operas of this type, his are outstanding for their dramatic tension and for their melodically and harmonically rich musical language (for example, Julius Caesar, 1724; Tamerlane, 1724; and Rodelinda, 1725).
By the mid-18th century, the artistic possibilities of the opera seria had been exhausted. It no longer satisfied the aesthetic requirements of the time, and it was replaced by a new, more democratic art form, the comic opera, whose comic themes and lively music were in sharp contrast to the forced enthusiasm and bombastic, static arias of the outmoded classicist opera. National varieties of comic opera developed. In Italy, the opera buffa, which grew out of the interludes of the opera seria and theatrical comedies, was established in the work of G. B. Pergolesi (The Maid as Mistress, 1733) and reached the high point of its development in the operas of G. Paisiello (The Miller’s Wife, 1788) and D. Cimarosa (The Secret Marriage, 1792). In England the comic opera took the form of the “ballad opera” (The Beggar’s Opera [1728], adaptations of melodies by J. Pepusch). The Spanish form of comic opera was the tonadilla (M. de García’s El criado fingida, 1804). The most outstanding composers of French opéra comique were E. Duni (The Artist Who Was in Love, 1757), F. A. Philidor (The Gardener and His Master, 1761), and A. E. Grétry (Richard Coeur de Lion, 1789). In Austria and Germany the comic opera was known as the Sing-spiel (K. von Dittersdorfs Doktor und Apotheker, 1786, and J. A. Hiller’s Lottchen at Court, 1766).
The creative work of the greatest reformers of operatic art, C. W. Gluck and Mozart, reflected the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment. Gluck created the heroic musical tragedy, in which he achieved the organic unity of all musical dramatic expressive means (for example, Orfeo ed Euridice, 1762, and Alceste, 1767). Drawing on the achievements of the opera buffa and the Singspiel, Mozart created fine, realistic models of the comedy (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), the drama (Don Giovanni, 1787), and the philosophical tale (The Magic Flute, 1791).
The first Russian operatic presentations, which date from the 1770’s, were slice-of-life comedies (M. M. Sokolovskii’s The Miller Magician, Deceiver, and Matchmaker, 1779; The St. Petersburg Arcade, revised with a new title, As You Live, Thus You Will Be Known, by M. A. Matinskii and V. A. Pashkevich, 1782; and E. I. Fomin’s The Coachmen, 1787). From the very beginning, Russian opera developed as a democratic genre based on folk and everyday music and closely associated with contemporary literature.
Representative of the response to the Great French Revolution were monumental dramatic works of an agitational character (Grétry’s The Republican Maiden, or the Festival of Virtue, originally entitled The Festival of Reason, 1794), as well as other heroic genres of opera, such as the rescue opera (L. Cherubini’s Lodoiska, 1791; and J. F. Lesueur’s The Cave, 1793). The term “rescue opera” reflects the genre’s typical plot situation, which culminates in the triumph of lofty humanistic ideas and the victory of the “good.” The dramatic art of the rescue opera relied on the use of contrasting images and scenes. Beethoven’s Fidelio (1805; third version, 1814) is an outstanding example of the German rescue opera. Comic opera continued to develop in the creative work of F. Boieldieu (The White Lady, 1825) and D. F. Auber (Fra Diavolo, 1830). The typical features of Italian comic opera were brilliantly reflected in the work of G. Rossini (The Barber of Seville, 1816).
The beginning and middle of the 19th century are associated with the establishment of romanticism in the national schools of opera. In Germany the first romantic operatic composer was C. M. von Weber (Der Freischütz, 1820). Wagner’s early operas were in the romantic style (Rienzi, 1840; Derfliegende Holländer, 1841). In France the romantic style was embodied in the creative work of G. Meyerbeer, who is associated with the development of the grand opera (Robert le Diable, 1830; Les Huguenots, 1835). Italian romantic opera is represented by the works of V. Bellini (La Sonnambula and Norma, both 1831) and G. Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor, 1835), as well as by Verdi’s early works (Nabucco, 1841; I Lombardi, 1842). Outstanding among Russian operas of the romantic period is A. N. Verstovskii’s Askold’s Tomb (1835).
The 19th century was marked by the development and flowering of Russian opera. The most outstanding composer of Russian classical opera was M. I. Glinka. His operas—the folk patriotic Ivan Susanin (1836) and the fairy-tale, epic opera Ruslan and Liudmila (1842)—are the most brilliant examples of realism in operatic art. A. S. Dargomyzhskii created Russia’s first slice-of-life drama, The Mermaid (1855).
The flowering of Russian opera during the 1860’s is associated with the composers known as the Russian Five. Many masterpieces of classic opera were composed, old genres were revived, and new ones were created. Among the new genres were Mussorgsky’s folk music dramas (Boris Godunov, 1869; second version, 1872; and Khovanshchina, completed by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1883), which, with unprecedented power, sounded the theme of the struggle and suffering of the people. Also representative of the new operatic genres established in Russia were A. P. Borodin’s epic Prince Igor (completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Glazunov, 1888) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas, including the fairy-tale opera The Snow Maiden (1881), the opera-bylina (epic folk song) Sadko (1896), the operatic legend The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia (1904), and the satiric opera The Golden Cockerel (1907).
Among the greatest phenomena in the Russian musical theater was the operatic creativity of P. Tchaikovsky. Subtle psychology and a profound revelation of man’s spiritual world are the hallmarks of his operas (Eugene Onegin, 1878; The Sorceress, 1887; and The Queen of Spades, 1890). He also turned to historical patriotic themes (The Maid of Orleans, 1879; Mazeppa, 1883), as well as folk and everyday themes (The Little Shoes, 1885). The operatic repertoire was also enriched by A. G. Rubinstein (The Demon, 1871), A. N. Serov (The Power of Evil, 1871), S. I. Taneev (Oresteia, 1894), and S. V. Rachmaninoff (Aleko, 1892).
In Italy, the classic composer of realistic operas was Verdi, the creator of diverse types and genres of operatic drama (Rigoletto, 1851; La Traviata, 1853; Aïda, 1870; Otello, 1886; and Falstaff, 1892). Characteristic of French musical theater of the second half of the 19th century is the lyric opera, a genre that replaced the grand opera, of which it was, to a considerable degree, the antithesis. The French lyric opera is represented by C. Gounod’s Faust (1859), L. Delibes’ Lakmé (1883), and J. Massenet’s Manon (1884). The acme of operatic realism in 19th-century French music is G. Bizet’s Carmen (1874). The vivid, emotional quality of its images and the originality of its musical language have won it a place among the greatest operatic classics.
German opera of the second half of the 19th century is associated with Wagner, who had a tremendous impact on European musical art. Like Gluck, Wagner fought for the unity of music and drama. A system of leitmotivs was the foundation of his operatic drama. Striving for wholeness, or unity, in the development of musical ideas, he rejected the practice of dividing acts into separate numbers. He assigned the orchestra a special role in his complex, psychologically refined operas. However, scrupulous adherence to these principles gave rise to contradictions in his creative work. His reformist operas are Tristan und Isolde (1859), the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (1854–74), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1867), and Parsifal (1882).
In the last decade of the 19th century a new tendency known as verismo emerged in Italian opera. Outstanding veristic operas include P. Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) and R. Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci (1892). Elements of verismo are also encountered in the work of G. Puccini (Manon Lescaut, 1892; La Bohème, 1895; Tosca, 1899; and Madame Butterfly, 1904).
The liberation movement in 19th-century Eastern Europe gave rise to national schools of opera. Czech, Polish, and Hungarian opera entered the international repertoire: Smetana’s The Brandenburgers in Bohemia (1863) and The Bartered Bride (1866), S. Moniuszko’s Halka (1847), and F. Erkel’s Hunyadi László (1844) and B ánk b á n (1852).
In prerevolutionary Russia a similar process led to the establishment of national operatic cultures among a number of peoples. Representative of these national schools are the Ukrainian composers S. S. Gulak-Artemovskii (The Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube, 1863) and N. V. Lysenko (Natalka Pol-tavka, 1889), the Georgian composer M. A. Balanchivadze (Perfidious Daredzhan, 1897), the Azerbaijani U. Gadzhibekov (Leili and Medzhnun, 1908), and the Armenian A. T. Tigranian (Anush, 1912).
Musical trends of the late 19th century and the early 20th were expressed in operatic art. The impressionist style is represented by C. Debussy’s operas (Pelléas et Mélisande, 1902), and the expressionist style, by the works of R. Strauss (Salome, 1905;Elek-tra, 1908), A. Schönberg (Erwartung, 1909; Die glückliche Hand, 1913), A. Berg (Wozzeck, 1921), and P. Hindemith (Cardillac, 1926; revised version, 1952). Tendencies toward neoclassical stylization were reflected in a number of works by I. Stravinsky, including the operatic oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927). Among the 20th-century composers of various nationalities and schools who have made important contributions to the development of opera are D. Milhaud (The Poor Sailor, 1927; Christopher Columbus, 1930), C. Orff (The Moon, 1938; The Prudent Woman, 1942), M. de Falla (La Vida breve [Life Is Short], completed in 1905 and staged in 1913), Z. Kodály (Háry János, staged 1926), L. Janá-ček (Her Foster-daughter, 1903), G. Enesco (Oedipe, 1932), and P. Vladigerov (Tsar Kaloyan, 1936). G. Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935) has won recognition as a landmark in 20th-century opera. Written in a vivid musical language and based on folk music, it was the first American musical drama to deal with serious social problems.
The evolution of opera in the capitalist countries has been complex. Opera has been penetrated by various modernistic tendencies that have distorted and damaged it. Nonetheless, progressive artists continue to create valuable works by combining the achievements of modern music with the principles of operatic realism. Among these progressive works are operas by the French composer F. Poulenc (La Voix humaine, 1959), the Italian composer L. Dallapiccola (The Prisoner, 1948), and G. C. Menotti, an Italian-born composer who lives in the USA (The Medium, 1942; The Consul, 1950). The most important achievements in modern English opera are the works of B. Britten (Peter Grimes, 1945; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1960) and A. Bush (Wat Tyler, 1950).
Soviet operatic art, which developed after the Great October Socialist Revolution, occupies a special place in the history of opera. Relying on classical traditions and the method of socialist realism, Soviet composers strive for a faithful depiction of reality and history in all their complexities. The Soviet musical theater developed as a multinational theater. In some republics, including Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, and Bashkiria, a national musical theater was created after the establishment of Soviet power.
Among the new currents in Soviet opera was a turn to contemporary themes. In the 1930’s the song opera (based on the song, the foundation of musical dramaturgy) took shape in works by I. I. Dzerzhinskii (The Quiet Don, 1934; staged 1935) and T. N. Khrennikov (Into the Storm, 1939, revised version, 1952). Among the outstanding achievements of Soviet opera are S. S. Prokofiev’s Simeon Kotko (1939) and War and Peace (1943; final version, 1952) and D. D. Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Katerina Izmailova, 1932; revised version, 1962). Brilliant national classics have been created—Z. P. Paliashvili’s Daisi (1923), A. A. Spendiarov’s Almost (1928), and U. Ga-dzhibekov’s Ker-ogly (1936). The heroic struggle of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) was reflected in Soviet operas, including D. B. Kabalevskii’s Taras’ Family (1947; revised version, 1950), Iu. S. Meitus’ The Young Guard (1947; revised version, 1950), and Prokofiev’s Story of a Real Man (1948; staged in 1960). Important contributions to Soviet opera have been made by R. M. Glière, K. V. Molchanov, V. I. Muradeli, S. M. Slonimskii, A. N. Kholminov, Iu. A. Shaporin, V. Ia. Shebalin, and R. K. Shchedrin.
Among the composers from the fraternal republics who have made major contributions to Soviet opera are F. Amirov, M. Ashrafi, S. A. Balasanian, E. G. Brusilovskii, V. A. Vlasov, D. G. Gershfel’d, N. G. Zhiganov, A. K. Zhubanov, M. O. Za-rin’, E. A. Kapp, B. N. Liatoshinskii, G. I. Maiboroda, and A. M. M. Magomaev. Other composers from the fraternal republics who have made important contributions to Soviet opera are A. Maldybaev, V. Mukhatov, D. Ovezov, Sh. M. Mshvelidze, V. J. Klova, Sh. Saifiddinov, Iu. V. Semeniako, A. L. Stepanian, O. V. Taktakishvili, E. K. Tikotskii, V. G. Fere, L. A. Khamidi, and A. G. Shaposhnikov.
The operatic art of the European socialist countries is developing in a socialist realist vein. Among the composers from these countries are P. Dessau (the German Democratic Republic), L. Pipkov (Bulgaria), E. Suchoň (Czechoslovakia), and S. Szokolai (Hungary).
M. R. VOLKOVA