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Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on or around dramatic historic events. The term is particularly applied (sometimes specifically used in its French-language equivalent grand opéra, ) to certain productions of the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1860;'French opera of the Romantic period, sung throughout, generally in five acts, grandiose in conception and impressively staged.' (Grove Music Online definition of 'grand opéra': consulted 27 August 2011) 'grand opéra' has sometimes been used to denote the Paris Opéra itself.
The term 'grand opera' is also used in a broader application in respect of contemporary or later works of similar monumental proportions from France, Germany, Italy, and other countries.'Nineteenth-century opera of a certain large-scale type.' Charlton (2003), p.xiii
It may also be used colloquially in an imprecise sense to refer to 'serious opera without spoken dialogue'.'Grand opera', Oxford Companion to Music
Several operas by Gaspare Spontini, Luigi Cherubini, and Gioachino Rossini can be regarded as direct precursors to the genre. These include Spontini's La vestale (1807) and Fernand Cortez (1809), Cherubini's Les Abencérages (1813), and Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe (1827) and Moïse et Pharaon (1828). All of these have the characteristics of size and spectacle that would become hallmarks of grand opéra. An especially important forerunner was Giacomo Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto (1824). Produced by Rossini in Paris in 1825, this opera successfully blended the Italian vocal style with German orchestral techniques, introducing a wider range of musical-theatrical effects than traditional Italian opera. With its exotic historical setting, on-stage bands, and themes of culture clash, Il crociato exhibited many of the features that would form the basis of grand opera's popularity.
What became the essential features of 'grand opéra' were foreseen by Étienne de Jouy, the librettist of Guillaume Tell, in an essay of 1826:
Division into five acts seems to me the most suitable for any opera that would reunite the elements of the genre: ... where the dramatic focus was combined with the marvellous: where the nature and majesty of the subject ... demanded the addition of attractive festivities and splendid civil and religious ceremonies to the natural flow of the action, and consequently needed frequent scene changes.quoted in Charlton (2003), p. 150
This was followed in 1829 by Gioachino Rossini's swansong, Guillaume Tell. Rossini, a master of Italian opera, recognized the potential of new technology and larger-scale production, including bigger theatres and orchestras. In this undoubted grand opera, he proved he could meet these new demands. However, his comfortable financial position and the change in political climate after the July Revolution persuaded him to quit the field, making Guillaume Tell his last public composition.
Over the next few years, Véron brought on Auber's Gustave III (1833, libretto by Scribe, later adapted for Verdi's Un ballo in maschera), and Fromental Halévy's La Juive (1835, libretto also by Scribe), and commissioned Meyerbeer's next opera Les Huguenots (1836, libretto by Scribe and Deschamps), whose success was to prove the most enduring of all grand operas during the 19th century. These demanding productions required expensive singers; for example, Les Huguenots was known as 'the night of the seven stars' because it needed seven top-grade artists.
Having made a fortune in his stewardship of the Opéra, Véron cannily handed on his concession to Henri Duponchel, who continued his winning formula, if not to such financial reward. Between 1838 and 1850, the Paris Opéra staged numerous grand operas of which the most notable were Halévy ’s La reine de Chypre (1841) and Charles VI (1843), Donizetti's La favorite and Les martyrs (1840) and Dom Sébastien (1843, librettos by Scribe), and Meyerbeer's Le prophète (1849) (Scribe again). 1847 saw the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's first opera for Paris, Jérusalem, an adaptation, meeting the grand opera conventions, of his earlier I Lombardi alla prima crociata.
For production statistics of grand opera in Paris, see List of performances of French grand operas at the Paris Opéra.
By the 1860s, taste for the grand style was returning. La reine de Saba by Charles Gounod was rarely given in its entirety, although the big tenor aria, "Inspirez-moi, race divine", was a popular feature of tenor recitals. Meyerbeer died on 2 May 1864; his late opera, L'Africaine, was premiered posthumously in 1865. Giuseppe Verdi returned to Paris for what many see as the greatest French grand opera, Don Carlos (1867). Ambroise Thomas contributed his Hamlet in 1868, and finally, at the end of the decade, the revised Faust was premiered at the Opéra in its grand opera format.
After virtually disappearing from the operatic repertory worldwide in the 20th century, Meyerbeer's major grand operas are once again being staged by leading European opera houses.Solare, Carlos Maria. Report from Berlin. Opera, vol. 67, no. 2, February 2016, pp. 193–194.
Giuseppe Verdi's Aida (1871), despite having only four acts, corresponds in many ways to the grand opera formula. Its immense success, both at its world premiere in Cairo and in its final form in its Italian premiere in Milan (1872), led to an increase in the scale of operas by other composers that followed. This trend was particularly noticeable in works that also featured free-flowing forms, dynamic declamation, and impressive stage effects. The "tumult" scene in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1876), for example, was built almost entirely in a spoken style with orchestral support, while audiences were deeply captivated by dramatic spectacles like the burning ship at the end of Act 2 or the exploding castle in Gomes's Il Guarany. Other works from this time included Gomes's Fosca (1873) and Salvator Rosa (1874), and Ponchielli's I Lituani (1874).
This style continued, though with less frequency, with later notable works including Gomes's Maria Tudor (1879) and Lo schiavo (1889); Marchetti's Gustavo Wasa (1875) and Don Giovanni d'Austria (1880); and Ponchielli's Il figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885). The last of these works, such as Alberto Franchetti's Asrael (1888) and Cristoforo Colombo (1892) and Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Medici (1893), coincided with the rise of verismo, an antithetical genre defined by its narrative concision and absence of dance. Italian composers began to modify vocal forms to better suit these new dramatic needs. As the Turin critic Ippolito Valetta observed in 1898, audiences' interest was flagging in long, inflated operas, as the public now preferred performances of two hours or so.
Meyerbeer himself was German by birth, but directed nearly all his mature efforts to success in Paris. Richard Wagner's Rienzi, the composer's first success (produced Dresden, 1842) is totally Meyerbeerean in style. Wagner was at that time a sincere admirer of the older composer, who assisted him in arranging performances of Rienzi and Der fliegende Holländer in Dresden and Berlin. As described above, Wagner attempted in 1860/1861 to recast Tannhäuser as a grand opera, and this Paris version, as later adapted for Vienna, is still frequently produced today. Götterdämmerung, as noted by George Bernard Shaw,G. B.Shaw, ed. Dan Laurence, Shaw's Music, 3 vols., London 1981, vol. 3, p. 469 shows clear traces of some return by Wagner to the grand opera tradition, and a case could also be argued for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.See Grove, Opera.
Meyerbeer's only mature German opera, Ein Feldlager in Schlesien is in effect a Singspiel, although act 2 has some of the characteristics of grand opera, with a brief ballet and an elaborate march. The opera was eventually transformed by the composer to L'étoile du nord.
In many German-language houses, especially in Vienna, where Eduard Hanslick and later Gustav Mahler championed Meyerbeer and Halévy respectively, the operas continued to be performed well into the 20th century. The growth of anti-Semitism in Germany, especially after the Nazi Party obtained political power in 1933, spelled the end of the works of these composers on German stages until modern times when La Juive, Les Huguenots, Le prophète and L'Africaine have been revived.
During the National Revival, many Czech composers adopted the grand opera model to create works based on national and historical subjects. Examples include Karel Šebor's The Templars in Moravia (1865) and The Hussite Bride (1868), as well as Karel Bendl's Lejla (1868) and Bretislav (1870). However, the success of Antonín Dvořák's grand operas provides a particularly important case study. His three full-scale works—Vanda (1876), Dimitrij (1882), and Armida (1904)—dealt with overtly political and religious themes. Dimitrij, in particular, was a quintessential grand opera featuring impressive crowd scenes, extended duets, and a ballet. It proved a resounding success with audiences at both the Provisional and National Theatres, despite being seen as "old-fashioned" by some critics. This stood in sharp contrast to the less successful premiere of Zdeněk Fibich's more Wagnerian The Bride of Messina at the National Theatre in 1884. Ultimately, while some composers like Bedřich Smetana with Dalibor explored other aesthetics, the grand opera style remained a powerful medium for Czech composers to express national sentiment.
British composers began experimenting with grand opera conventions in the 1830s–40s, though often derivative of continental models. John Barnett's The Mountain Sylph (1834, Lyceum) integrated music and drama innovatively, influenced by Weber and French opera. His Fair Rosamond (1837, Drury Lane) featured grand opera elements like large choral tableaux. Michael Balfe emerged as the most prominent figure, blending Italian lyricism with French spectacle in works like Joan of Arc (1837), The Bohemian Girl (1843), and the Paris-composed The Daughter of St Mark (1844). Edward Loder's Raymond and Agnes (1855) also showed French influence. Later efforts approached Meyerbeerian scale: William Wallace's Lurline (1860) included expansive scenes and opposing choruses, while Charles Villiers Stanford's The Veiled Prophet (1881) featured processions, ballet, and political conflict. Arthur Sullivan's Ivanhoe (1891), commissioned for the Royal English Opera House, was explicitly conceived as English grand opera, boasting massive resources (large orchestra, chorus, elaborate staging) but faced criticism for dramatic incoherence and financial failure. By century's end, composers like Frederick Cowen ( Harold, 1895) struggled to reconcile Wagnerian techniques with grand opera traditions, often resulting in stylistic disunity.
From the 1850s, demographic shifts, including an influx of German immigrants post-1848 and broader European emigration, gradually shifted preferences. Large opera houses were built, and Italian opera, later supplemented by German repertoire, supplanted English-language performances. All serious opera, regardless of origin (Auber, Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner), was termed "grand opera." By the 1880s, New York's cultural scene, epitomized by Edith Wharton's observation of the Italian translation tradition, saw the Metropolitan Opera (opened 1883) under Leopold Damrosch and later Anton Seidl champion German-language performances. French grand operas like Les Huguenots, Guillaume Tell, La Muette, La Juive, and Karl Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba, sung in German, gained significant popularity in the 1880s-1890s.
San Francisco experienced mixed success with grand opera, such as the Bishop and Bochsa Company's English La Muette (1854) and Robert le Diable (1855), often hampered by limited resources for spectacle.
American compositional efforts emerged mid-century. William Fry's Leonora (1845, Philadelphia; envisioned with Ann Childe Seguin in the title role), often cited as the first American grand opera, leaned on Italian models, while his earlier Aurelia the Vestal (1841) engaged grand opera themes like religious conflict. New Orleans' strong French tradition arguably stifled local composition, though works like Eugène Prévost's opéra comique La Esmeralda (1840) were popular. Post-Civil War, composers often trained in Germany. Later attempts combined grand opera themes with Wagnerian or modernist influences, including Walter Damrosch's The Scarlet Letter (1896, Boston), criticized for its Germanic weight, John Knowles Paine's unperformed Azara (1883-98) featuring Christian/Muslim conflict and local colour, and Victor Herbert's highly publicized Natoma (1911, Philadelphia), set in Mexican-era California. Ultimately, Wagner's dominance and German musical training ensured grand opera's influence on American composers remained largely indirect by the early 20th century.
Native Latin American composers, often trained in Europe, began creating serious operas linked to expressions of national identity, though largely modelled on Italian and German forms rather than directly on French grand opera.
In Brazil, Emperor Pedro II fostered Italian opera in Rio de Janeiro (1844-56). The most significant figure was Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836–96), whose works like Il Guarany (1870, Milan), an opera-ballo featuring stylized indigenous music and spectacle, premiered successfully in Italy but dealt with Brazilian subjects. Later composers studied in Europe: Leopoldo Miguez (1850–1902), influenced by Wagner and Franchetti, composed Os saldunes (1901, Rio, in Italian) set in Roman Gaul. Francisco Braga (1868–1945), a pupil of Jules Massenet in Paris and visitor to Bayreuth, wrote Jupira (1900, Rio, in Italian).
In Argentina, Arturo Berutti (1858–1938), considered the first nationalist composer, studied in Leipzig and Italy. His lyric dramas Pampa (1897) on gaucho life and Yupanki (1899) on Inca Empire blended Italianate style with Wagnerian influences and national history.
Elsewhere, composers like Mexico's Cenobio Paniagua (1821–82) set Italian libretti (e.g., the Huguenot-themed Catalina di Guisa, 1859) within an Italian musical framework, incorporating epic qualities reminiscent of grand opera. Ultimately, the pervasive influence of Italian models and the later impact of Wagner overshadowed direct engagement with French grand opera in the development of Latin American national operatic traditions.
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