The term opera is merely an abbreviation of opera in musica, or more precisely a dramatic stage performance set to music. In its past, opera has aroused more passion and criticism than any other musical genre. However, the opera that we are so used to today is born from a wide succession of changes, which developed over a period of six centuries beginning in Italy at the end of 15th century. But how did it all begin? Where and how did such a passionate feeling for this art form come from? .
It is believed that opera flourished in Florence at the end of the 16th century thanks to a group called the Camerata, who got their name from the fact that a mixture of artists, musicians and writers, would all meet in chambers to discuss the nature of the Greek tragedy. It is important to remember that the idea of Humanism, or more clearly the revival of all that was Greek and Latin, characterised this period of renaissance Italy. At the head of the Camerata was Vincenzo Galilei who deduced that music had played a substantial part in Greek tragedy by adding embellishments of rhythm, melody as well as metre to the spoken drama.
This group attempted to imagine how the ancient Greek dramas had sounded like and came up with what we nowadays call "monody", which is an oratorical solo vocal line with simple instrumental accompaniment. Whereas before this, the prevalent style of music had been characterised by several vocal lines singing independent melodies at the same time, which would end up, intertwined amongst them. This was called polyphony whose main objective was to enhance and project the words by putting emphasis on them with the help of singular instruments, for example a clash of notes would help convey the anguish and anger felt by an actor or a falling note to convey a sigh. This change was later considered one of the most influential developments in what concerned the dramma per musica of the 17th century.
