Essays on Opera

Monteverdi wrote, “Let the word be the master of the melody, not its slave.” The debate over the relative importance of words and music has continued for hundreds of years. Which do you think is more important in opera: Words or Music? What does opera…

The Magic Flute I recently saw The Magic Flute, which was performed by Opera Coeur d’ Alene. It was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The play was performed at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium in Boswell Hall in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. I attended it…

The Seraglio: An Opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail also known, as the Seraglio is an opera of three acts in ‘singspiel’. It was written by, none other than, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 19th century. A singspiel, which means “song play”, is a form…

The opera Gianni Schicchi is an entertaining musical drama in the form of a solitary act by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. The writer’s solitary comical opera, it contains the outstanding soprano aria “O mio babbino caro” (“Oh My Dear Father”). The work debuted at New…