|
|
As our technical, educational, culinary, and religious horizons have expanded over time so have our artistic possibilities. Music, which to some of us is one of the more enjoyable pastimes of today, has traveled down several roads in history. The contributions of sacred and secular, music of the church and people, developed one of the most beautiful art forms known to us as opera. Opera is generally understood to be a form of drama that uses vocal and instrumental music to tell its story. It is derived from specific traditions, but it has a wonderful adaptability to a huge diversity of styles. It is the culmination of all performing arts and has the unique ability to present issues of human emotions in a vital and direct manner that reach people willing to follow its path. While opera has a growing presence in America, anyone that is not in that circle would not consider it The American Pastime. Just as a newcomer to baseball, which is considered an American pastime, would probably find it difficult to understand and curious of its origin, so are the people who are first introduced to opera. Both music and theater existed in some form for hundreds of years before an opera was written. Before the birth of Christ the ancient Greeks dressed in goat skins and danced around a little altar accompanied by pipes and small harps as they worshiped their god, Dionysus. The countryside served as scenery. The space around the altar was the stage. The little altar, the wine cups, the flowers, the wreaths and or other articles used in this worship ritual were the stage "props". Three hundred years after this (500-400 B.C.) the remote grandparent of modern opera was born. Theseplays, instead of taking place around the little altar in the countryside, were now on stages in front of the same type of altar in outdoor arenas called amphitheaters (from two Greek words: amphi, which means "around" or "on all sides, " and theatron, " to be seen") (Grout, 3). The amphitheater consisted of a stage at one end, a semicircular space in front of the stage with a little altar in the Lantrip 2 center, and around the edge of the semicircle a row of stone seats for the wealthy and influential. The space in front of the stage was called the orchestra, this coming from the Greek word which means dancing. Even today the instrumentalists in front of the stage are still called the orchestra. People waited all night at the portals of the amphitheaters for admission to the Greek festivals, which was an ancient custom and a practice still found today with Americans waiting in line for entertainment events. The theaters of Greece were more than just places of entertainment. Religion, art, and political analyses were all at times presented in the dramas. They did not write down their music so we have no way of knowing what it sounded like. We do know that their dramas were perhaps more often sung than spoken. Their lines were also accompanied by instruments of sorts. Greek life was based on music, the art of reasoning, and the adventure of beauty. The Greek plays had choruses, actors, music, poetry, and dancing. The actors wore large masks which represented comic faces for comedy, tragic for tragedy, and women's faces for feminine impersonations, for women were not allowed to act in the classic Greek theater.
|
