Forerunners to Opera

This month, our topic will be opera. Because it is a broad topic that we could literally spend months discussing, I will only hit a few opera highlights throughout history this month and perhaps we can explore other additional operas in future months.
 

Though the first opera was not composed until the year 1600, opera characteristics existed within various Renaissance genres years before operas emerged onto the musical scene. Here are a few forerunners to opera with their descriptions:

 

Pastoral drama: play with songs throughout

Madrigal: poem set to music with multiple voice parts

Intermedio: musical interlude performed between acts of a play (usually the topic related to mythology)

Greek tragedy

 

Next time we will discuss two major early operas, dating around the turn of the 17^th century. Think about how these operas may be similar or different to others you may be more familiar with.