While these innovations were going on in the rest of Europe, the aforementioned Italian genius Giuseppe Verdi was creating his own Italian equivalent to Wagner’s ‘Music Drama’ in the definitive musicalizations of Shakespeare, Otello (based, … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theater, Part Eight
Wagner’s new format would form the basis of virtually every opera of the Modernist era, including most if not all of Richard Strauss’ operas. The Wagnerian influences were most obvious in his first two Operas, the twistedly beautiful adaptation of … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theater, Part Seven
The second development that gave the Operatic format a new lease on life is the unified Music Drama that was essentially invented by Richard Wagner. Now I know Wagner was not particularly palatable as a human being, although the hyperbolic terms like … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theatre, Part Six
Two new trends came along around the middle of the 19th century that essentially saved Opera and set the tone for the entire future of the form. The first, more down-to-earth of these developments was a style generally called Verismo, an Italian word … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theatre, Part Five
It’s interesting to note that while all of the aforementioned developments were happening in Western Europe, Russia was going through the process of finding its musical identity as distinct from the West. This process was first sparked by Mikhail … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theatre, Part Four
Another popular type of Opera that emerged a couple of decades after the Bel Canto genre, which was also rather a bad thing for the form in the big scheme of things, was what they used to call Grand Opera. It sprung from the remains of the other … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theatre, Part Three
The next big trend in opera, however, starting roughly in the 1810s, was a destructive one…the style known as Bel Canto. Literally meaning ‘beautiful singing’, this was essentially opera as pretty background noise. I am aware that composers like … [Continue reading]
An Honest History of Musical Theatre, Part Two
All this changed in the 1760s, when Christoph von Gluck, the ‘Great Reformer’ of the opera form, came along. Now, it's debatable whether Gluck's 'innovations' were really the massive breakthrough they're often made out to be...to our modern ears, … [Continue reading]
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