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From the very first opera performance in Italy in 1607, to the origins of some of the world’s most recognisable music, and modern day experimental productions, we’ll share a timeline of how opera has changed over the last 400 years.
Its origins can be traced back to the late 16th century in Italy, where it quickly gained popularity and spread to other European countries. Since then, opera has evolved and undergone many changes, adapting to the cultural and musical trends of the times.
Opera originated in Italy around 1600, but its story began many years earlier with the birth of Jacopo Peri in 1561. During his time at the famed Medici court, Peri cultivated the idea of dramatic singing through his work with Florentine poets, musicians, and writers.
The history of opera has a relatively short duration within the context of the history of music in general: it appeared in 1597, when the first opera, Dafne, by Jacopo Peri, was created. Since then it has developed parallel to the various musical currents that have followed one another over time up to the present day, generally linked to the ...
John Blow's tragic opera, Venus and Adonis, today considered the first English opera, has its première, either in London or at the court of Windsor. Read more... 15 Feb 1686. Lully's final collaboration with the librettist Quinault, the tragédie lyrique Armide, has its première at the Paris Opéra.
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The first musical theatre work that we might define as an opera today was Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, composed in the late 1590s. Unfortunately little of Peri’s score survives so Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo of 1607 takes the crown as the earliest work that you are able to hear.
