History of Opera

Daniel Snowman invites us to look at opera from the perspective of the ‘demand’ as well as the ‘supply’, the consumption as well as the production: the opera houses, impresarios, monarchs, money makers, artists and audiences as well as the great works and the people who created them. This magnificent Grand Tour of the mind includes stopovers in Renaissance Italy, Louis XIV’s Versailles, Handel’s London, Mozart’s Vienna, Verdi’s Italy and Wagner’s Germany and Gilded Age America. In the 20th century, opera survived two world wars to become a truly global art form.

The lectures will be richly illustrated, with both images and musical examples, and will touch on a range of compelling historical issues. How widely known would the operas of Handel or Mozart have been during their lifetimes? Why did Mozart remain poor but Verdi became rich? When and why did the prima donna get her fiery reputation? How did a supposedly ‘elite’ art take root in such self-consciously egalitarian societies as the USA and Australia? Does opera have a future – and what exactly do we mean by ‘opera’ anyway?