report on Opera

Opera is a glorious spectacle, a splendid but uneven fabric of music, drama, dance, poetry, and stage architecture, imperfect by nature yet endowed with magic. -Mary Jane Matz, Opera: Grand and Not So Grand Opera was originally a pure art, surviving on subsidies from royalty, nobility, and aristocracy. But with the opening of the first public opera house in Venice in 1637, opera has gradually become a marketable commodity, competing with popular entertainments. Today, this art …

…eir love, then suddenly sinks, then falls, slowly but surely, until you are convinced of their impending doom. Bibliography: Eaton, Quaintance. The Miracle of the Met Meredith Press, New York; 1968. Dizikes, John. Opera in America Yale University Press, New Haven; 1993. Harries, Susie & Meirion. Opera Today St. Martins Press, New York; 1986. Matz, Mary Jane. Opera: Grand and not so Grand William Morrow & Company, Inc. New York; 1966. Simon, Henry W. Festival of Opera Hanover House, New York; 1957.