Opera developed in different ways across Europe through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Particularly noticeable were both the similar advancements and dissimilar progress made by Italy, France, and England all within their own operatic spheres. Although the initial goal may have been opera, that is not necessarily the exact route each country took. Each one deviated from the Italian formula to create their own style, improve upon it, or to advance what they already had into something new and more suited to their audience’s tastes.

Italian opera was by far the one that made the most progress, relatively speaking. Early Italian opera was called favola in musica or a musical fable and started as early as 1600. In this new style of sung, staged drama, there was an alternation between what was first regarded as “heard” and “unheard” music. “Heard” music is music that is sung by a character and is perceived as music by the other characters while “unheard” music is the opposite. These would become arias and recitative, respectively. Recitative, or “unheard” music, was used to set the scenes and move the action toward what would be an emotional high point in the aria that followed the section, so the recitative would be used to imitate impassioned speech of various kinds. To do this effectively, there was often a use of speech-like rhythm and the basso continuo was very static, so that the voice would move in and out of dissonance with what was being played to help it feel more like speech rather than a song. The Italians were also infatuated with virtuosic singing and high voices. Therefore, especially as opera grew, ornamentation became more and more necessary in an Italian opera and all the parts were given either to natural sopranos or castratos. There was not nearly as much concern about text clarity with the Italians as there was with the French, because they valued talented singers who were able to show off their voices and impress the crowd over intelligibility of the text. Initially, there was fairly even sharing between arias, recitative sections, and the occasional madrigal that was dropped in for a chorus section to sing. However, as time went on, particularly by the eighteenth century, arias began to dominate opera more and more. This ultimately led to the development of different styles of arias such as the Da Capo aria to keep the audience entertained. Generally, opera would have been only for those in the upper echelons of society, but with the opening of Teatro San Cassiano in Venice in 1637, opera became a means of entertainment for the general public. Due to this influx of attention from many more people from a greater range of social classes, there was an effort to mix high tragedy with low comedy, so as to appeal to the majority of the audience. This resulted in a flamboyant, grandiose production that entertained masses of people for centuries to come.

French opera took some time to develop. Unlike the Italians, the French had a strong tradition of ballet and spoken theatre. So, when opera was beginning to find an audience here, it needed to incorporate those things if it wanted to survive. The result was called tragedie lyrique, which was crafted explicitly to glorify the king based around historical or mythological plots of monumental proportions. Because this genre came to be to glorify the ruler of the country, there were a few things that were made prominent concerns. One thing that dominated the French preference was the need to have words understood at all times. While this is all well and good, that meant that very virtuosic singing and ornamentations meant to show off singers’ voices was all but prohibited. They did not want anything that was too virtuosic because it would obscure the words and muddle the clarity. This mixed with the fact that the French felt strongly about their spoken theater traditions resulted in much more emphasis on recitative in French opera than the airs, or song portions. This treatment of recitative and air was opposite of where the Italians ended up by the eighteenth century. Because the importance was placed on the recitative portion, it carried the emotional heft of the scenes, was much more tuneful than Italian recitative, and had a more active bassline. However, there were also frequent rests and metrical shifts in an attempt to match as closely with how the words would have been spoken and to maintain as much of their clarity as possible.

English opera took the longest to grab a hold of an audience and grow roots. Like the French, the English also had a strong tradition of spoken theatre and many were not fond of the idea of turning all the speaking to singing. They could handle the idea of spoken scenes mixed with sung numbers in a theatrical event much like a musical, called a semi-opera, but actual opera style was not very popular until the twentieth century and few Baroque operas actually met with success. Ironically, some of the few that actually made headway in England were in Italian rather than English. Purcell and Handel were the foremost composers of this genre at the time and Handel having had multiple run-ins with bankruptcy and ever the businessman, knew he needed to do something to get a firmer grasp on English viewers. This is where the oratorio comes in. Instead of having a huge, staged production like an opera, an oratorio merely spelled out the staging that would be happening, leaving the majority up to the audience’s own imaginative capabilities. There were also no costumes or elaborate sets of any kind and the texts were religiously based. This sat much better with English audiences than the dramatic push and pull of opera that was not religiously based and relied on lavish sets, costumes, and even Italian singing stars in some cases to entertain the audience. There was also an increased use of a chorus that acted as the narrator, commentator, and also participant. This greater use of a chorus allowed for a popular “sing-a-long” feature to develop in which cases the audience would be given a booklet at the start of the performance and they would be able to sing along with the chorus parts if they chose to do so. Oratorios were also able to be performed in more spaces and at more times of the year than its secular counterpart due to its sacred roots, and this also played a part in its garnering of success.

Overall, Italian, French, and English opera all have just as many similarities as differences. While the similarities are important, they are not what makes each country’s tradition unique. The differences are what truly lead to progress and development, as is evident here. If it were not for the initial unpopularity of opera in England, oratorios may have never been written. Or, on the other side, if opera had not gained as prominent a following as it did in Italy and spread, opera may never have developed into the grandiose tradition that it is today.