What are the characteristics of Italian opera? Tell us a little about its history.

Italian opera and French opera are quite different, but there is also a lot of connection.

The rise of Italian opera is the earliest, such as the earliest surviving opera "Eurediti" is Italian opera.

The main feature of Italian opera is that the singing adopts bel canto singing, the melody and singing are very beautiful and soft, the whole play will feel very comfortable to listen to from beginning to end, and there are very few dissonances (Puccini is an exception in this regard, because he will be more or less influenced by Wagner's dissonant chromatic scale and the grotesque style of the 20th century), and solo singing and duet are the main parts; The early Italian opera was the works of Monteverdi and Handel, and later through Mozart and Rossini, Italian opera reached its peak in Verdi's time.

French opera was much later than Italian opera, and the French at that time hoped to develop opera with its own unique style like Italy, so as to satisfy popular tastes; French opera is an innovation based on Italian opera, and compared with the latter, it incorporates more choral and dance (ballet) scenes, which is more atmospheric (although it may not sound as good as opera); There are not many representatives of French opera, but there is only one, and then there is Meyerbel, and Rossini also wrote one ("Wilhelm Diehl", a very good work).

Characteristics of Venetian opera in the 17th century: The development and innovation of Monteverdi and others in opera creation changed the opera from a simple narrative form to a dramatic form, and the subject matter gradually changed from pastoral life as the background of the story to tragicomedy, adding more scenes of daily life. They propelled opera to take a big step forward.

In the middle of the 17th century, Italian opera was largely established in Venice, and the Venetian opera style had the following characteristics: the historical repertoire became the most successful opera; The solo became the dominant form of singing in opera; Arias and recitatives are separated, and arias are increasingly valued by authors and popular with audiences; The new bel canto style is absolutely dominant in opera singing. The development of the plot tends to be complex; The structure of the script is gradually rigorous, and the set equipment of the stage is basically mechanized, which can simulate naval battles, storms, gods, elephants and lions in motion, and can also be raised and lowered.

Some of the best achievements of Venetian scenography were still used until the 19th century.