Early romantic opera

It is important to understand that at this point in time there were two main styles of opera, Italian and German. Italian opera was very much a vehicle of good melodies and exciting tunes with less emphasis on drama while German operas was more concerned with drama and perhaps less so with memorable tunes.

In Germany, Beethoven wrote only one opera, first performed in 1805 and called 'Leonore', which after several revisions eventually became known as 'Fidelio'. The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Listen to the jailer’s aria, ‘If you don’t have any money’, sung by Rocco, a baritone.  

 

(A prison scene from the Scottish opera production of 'Fidelio'. Photograph by Bill Cooper.)

Italian Bel Canto

At the beginning of the Romantic period three Italian composers are most important in the development of opera, Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.
All three composers were renowned for the compositions in the ‘Bel Canto’ (beautiful singing) style of long and smooth melody. Rossini composed his operas right at the start of the Romantic period and in 1817 produced the very successful 'La Cenerentola' (Cinderella), a not serious, but quite touching tale as the main character develops from a folk-song-like scullery maid to a full-blown coloratura soprano when she becomes royalty at the end of the opera. One of the most famous of Rossini's arias is from his comic opera, ‘The Barber of Seville’. The aria, sung by the barber, Figaro, a baritone voice, is a bright and happy sound, ‘I am the barber everyone wants’.

   All three wrote many operas in the bel canto style often with a melody over what is very like a vamp played by an orchestra, with the seriousness of the music often described by the rhythm in the accompaniment. Listen to this quite light-hearted aria, sung by a mezzo soprano with the bel canto style of singing.