Opera Seria
Eighteenth-century Italian serious opera, where mythic heroes display vocal art in da capo arias
Related
Opera seria was the mainstream serious opera of Italy from the late seventeenth to the eighteenth century: three acts, usually mythological or ancient heroic subjects, with the aria at its centre and recitative doing the storytelling.
Its conventions were strict: a scene typically opens in recitative and closes with an exit aria, where the singer ornaments the da capo and displays technique; castratos and leading sopranos occupied the stage. Metastasio's librettos were set again and again across Europe.
In the later eighteenth century Gluck's reform and the rise of comic opera loosened its grip, yet Mozart's Idomeneo and Rossini's Tancredi still use its frame. It is not a general label for "serious opera": the three-act pattern and the rule of the aria are what define it.
Sources
- 正歌剧的三幕程式、退场咏叹调与阉人歌手，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Opera seria"；本文为原创表述
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