83 articles
Alto
Alto: the second-highest choral part (SATB) and, as contralto, the lowest principal female classical voice, historically also a high male falsetto voice (countertenor). Ranges differ by national convention (G3–C5 vs G2–E4).
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri (1750–1825), Italian composer and Hofkapellmeister of the Habsburg court in Vienna; wrote about 40 operas including Axur, re d'Ormus, taught Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, and is falsely famed as Mozart's poisoner via Pushkin and the film Amadeus.
Aria
Aria: Italian for 'air'; a self-contained solo vocal piece in opera, oratorio, or cantata, contrasting with recitative. Key forms include the Baroque da capo aria (ABA) and the 19th-century cavatina-cabaletta.
Baritone
Baritone: the middle male classical voice type between tenor and bass, range about G2–G4, classified by tessitura and passaggio; Fach subtypes include Kavalierbariton, Heldenbariton, and Spielbariton, with roles such as Rigoletto, Scarpia, and Don Giovanni.
Bass (voice type)
Bass (voice type): the lowest common male singing voice, typically E2–E4, below baritone and tenor. Subtypes include basso profondo, basso cantante, bass-baritone, and Russian oktavists; known for Sarastro, Osmin, and Wotan roles.
Basso profondo
Basso profondo (Italian for "deep bass"), also called contrabass or oktavist, is the lowest bass voice type, heard in opera and Russian Orthodox choral music.
Bel canto
Bel canto ("beautiful singing") is the Italian vocal technique and early Romantic opera style of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, defined by legato, even registers, agility, and ornamentation.
Bian lian (变脸)
Bian lian (变脸, face-changing) is the signature stunt of Sichuan opera: performers switch painted silk masks instantly on stage using wiping, blowing, thread-pulling, and breath techniques. Originating in the 1930s play Guizheng Lou, it is a national intangible cultural heritage, reportedly a 1987 state second-level secret, with a Guinness record of 29 changes.
Candide (operetta)
Candide is Leonard Bernstein's 1956 comic operetta based on Voltaire's 1759 satirical novella, with lyrics mainly by Richard Wilbur and a book by Lillian Hellman. A Broadway flop, it was radically revised many times, notably in 1973 and 1988, and is famed for "Glitter and Be Gay" and its overture.
Castrato
Castrato (pl. castrati): a male singer castrated before puberty, usually in Italy, to preserve a high soprano-like voice for church and opera; famous stars like Farinelli, ended by the 1903 Vatican ban, last castrato Alessandro Moreschi recorded 1902–1904.
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry), Mascagni's one-act verismo opera premiered at Rome's Teatro Costanzi on 17 May 1890 after winning the Sonzogno competition, adapted from Verga and usually paired with Pagliacci.
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), German opera composer, reformer of 18th-century opera with Calzabigi's Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste, and Paris tragédies lyriques including Iphigénie en Tauride (1779).
Classification of operas by subject, setting and language
Classification of operas by subject, setting, and language groups operas by story source, setting, and sung language rather than formal genre, with censorship often forcing settings to shift.
Coloratura
Coloratura, Italian for "coloring", is highly ornamented vocal writing, rapid runs and trills on one syllable, and by extension the agile soprano voice type that specializes in it.
Coloratura soprano
Coloratura soprano: operatic soprano type specializing in agile runs, leaps, and trills, from Italian 'coloration'. Range about C4–F6; subtypes lyric and dramatic coloratura; signature role Mozart's Queen of the Night with written F6s.
Comic opera
Comic opera is a genre of humorous opera that developed in the early 18th century. It features alternating spoken dialogue and musical numbers across several national traditions, such as the French opéra-comique.
Contralto
Contralto: the lowest of the three standard female classical voice types, also called alto in choral use. Defined by a D4–E4 tessitural center, dark timbre, passaggi near C4 and F4; rare in opera, with lyric, dramatic, and character Fach subtypes.
Cosima Wagner
Cosima Wagner, born Francesca Gaetana Cosima Liszt, was a German opera director, daughter of Franz Liszt and wife of Richard Wagner, who led the Bayreuth Festival from 1883 to 1907.
Countertenor
Countertenor: male classical singer using trained falsetto or head voice in contralto/mezzo range. Subtypes bassus and altus; modern revival founded by Alfred Deller after Tippett's 1943 discovery; core repertory Handel, Britten's Oberon, Glass's Akhnaten.
Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold (WWV 86A), the Vorabend of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen, composed 1851–1854, premiered Munich 1869; opens with the E-flat Rhine prelude and introduces the ring, Alberich, Wotan, and Valhalla.
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz, Weber's three-act German Romantic opera (libretto Friedrich Kind), premiered Berlin Schauspielhaus 18 June 1821; Wolf's Glen magic-bullet scene; founding work of German Romantic opera.
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is Johann Strauss II's three-act operetta, libretto by Haffner and Genée after Meilhac and Halévy's Le Réveillon, premiered 5 April 1874 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, and a staple of New Year's Eve opera programming.
Die Walküre
Die Walküre, Wagner's 1870 three-act music drama, is the second opera of Der Ring des Nibelungen; its incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, Wotan's defying daughter Brünnhilde, and the Ride of the Valkyries make it the most performed Ring opera.
Diva
Diva, from Italian and Latin for "goddess", is a celebrated female opera singer or prima donna; the term, first attested in English in 1864, now also describes any talented, commanding female performer and, pejoratively, a temperamental or demanding woman.
Don Juan
Don Juan (Don Giovanni, Don Juan Tenorio) is the legendary Spanish seducer archetype, created by Tirso de Molina in El Burlador de Sevilla, retold by Molière and Mozart, and reimagined by Byron, Pushkin, and modern film.
Engelbert Humperdinck (composer)
Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921) was a German composer and teacher whose fairy-tale opera Hänsel und Gretel, premiered in 1893, made him the creator of the German Märchenoper genre.
Fach
Fach (plural Fächer; Stimmfach) is the German opera voice-classification system grouping singers and roles into categories like dramatic soprano or Heldentenor by tessitura, timbre, weight, and passaggio, codified in Kloiber's Handbuch der Oper.
Faust (opera)
Faust is Charles Gounod's five-act French opera (1859, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris) on a libretto by Barbier and Carré after Goethe's Faust Part I; the most performed French opera after Carmen, famous for the Jewel Song and Golden Calf aria.
Flower Duet
The Flower Duet ("Sous le dôme épais") is the Act I soprano and mezzo-soprano duet by Léo Delibes from the 1883 opera Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and Mallika; famous from the 1980s British Airways commercial and films.
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli (Gian Franco Corsi, 1923–2019), Italian opera, theatre and film director; over 120 operas, La bohème at La Scala, Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth, La Traviata; Italian senator and honorary KBE.