Classical Motives in the Opera

Abstract

The opera emerges in the sixteenth century with the aim of reviving the Ancient tragedy, in which music played an important role. The discussions at Count Bardi’s initiate a debate which is in the origin of the Opera composition. The revitalization of the Attic tragedy implied, on the one hand, the enrichment of the dramatic text with melody and, on the other hand, to keep the word’s intelligibility. The relation between music and words never abandoned the Opera. In order to study the classical motives in the work of Monteverdi, Händel, Lully or Gluck we have to realize how each one of them approach this issue.