Creation Of Opera Research Articles

How are Mozart’s Operas Indebted to Enlightenment Ideals?

This paper undertakes a rigorous examination of the Enlightenment ideals embodied within Mozart's operas and their subsequent influence. Mozart's musical compositions were profoundly shaped by the Enlightenment era, reflecting the aspirations of freedom, democracy, and equality. The article points out that Mozart incorporated cultural elements and enlightenment ideas from different countries into his opera creation, especially his work Don Giovanni was deeply influenced by cultural traditions, combining musical tragedy with comedic characteristics. The article also mentions that Mozart embodies the idea of equality in the Enlightenment through the assignment of roles in the opera, and each character has the opportunity to have direct contact with Don · Giovanni, showing the directness and equality of the characters. In addition, the article discusses how Mozart spread the ideas of the Enlightenment through his opera, and how his operas reflected the spirit of freedom, reason, and openness. "Don Giovanni" can become his masterpiece, through careful character shaping and musical stage design, it conveys the core values of the Enlightenment, has a profound impact on the society at that time, and has become a classic in the history of music.

A Brief Analysis of the Creative Style and Causes of opera "Bathe Moon"

It is an accepted fact that the peak of Chinese opera creation is mostly around the "Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties". In the opera involving the "moon worship", it is found that in the creation content of these three generations, the description of "sacrifice" and "blessing" does not reach the exaggerated "batch", but the quantity is also considerable. This can not help but produce two questions, why in the period of autocratic prosperity, such a religious story plot will be loved by most opera writers for a time? Why does the creation presented by the yue u present this kind of "simple and complicated" creation style? In order to uncover the causes of this phenomenon, we need to return to the context of The Times and culture at that time for comprehensive exploration.

CONDUCTING PERSONALITIES OF THE ITALIAN SCHOOL. CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERPRETATION

The art of conducting presents various typologies and characteristics that belong to the structure and personality of each individual conductor - the foundation of defining artistic individuality. Opera creation forces us to pay more attention to the technical aspects of the individual study of the conducting-interpretive gesture, which must always be correlated and complemented by the dramaturgical and psychological course of the characters.

한국신작오페라의 소재다변화 양상 연구

Starting in 1950, Korean Opera, which has a history of 73 years to date in 2023, served as an motive to pave the way for the creation of Korean opera through the “MOM Creation Contest” organized by Korea National Opera in 2009. Since then, it has been changed to the Creative Factory of Performing Arts organized by the Arts Council Korea since 2014, and new operas have been discovered every year through continuous support until 2023, and 17 new operas have been finally selected. This study examined the diversified aspects of material utilization for new operas discovered through the Creative Factory of Performing Arts, focusing on the material of the libretto, which is the first work and basic element of the creation of an opera.
 In order to study the material diversification of new opera selected through the Creative Factory of Performing Arts, six classification criteria were set, each of which is a genre, method of libretto, original foundation, the spatial background of work, the temporal background of work, and basic material. In addition, in order to help understand, this study also examined aspects of the diversification of materials of new operas in overseas opera theaters such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, and France.
 As a part of the development of cultural contents, I hope that this study will help understand the trend of diversification through the recently discovered Korean new operas, help revitalize creation, and further promote convergent development in all fields of performing arts.

A Review of Zhejiang Folk Opera Creation since the 21st Century

A Review of Zhejiang Folk Opera Creation since the 21st Century

The Achievements and Prospects of Thematic Anhui Huangmei Opera Creation (2012-2023)

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, due to the demands of social background and political orientation, Anhui Huangmei Opera has emerged numerous thematic plays in line with ideological propaganda. The new plays focus on hot topics such as poverty alleviation and the centenary of the founding of the Party, aiming to praise the spirit of fighting poverty and the immortal achievements of the Party and the people. These created works highlight the Chinese national spirits and fine traditions. Such plays adhere to the people’s creative orientation, demonstrating the regional culture represented by Anhui Huangmei Opera; and the innovative use of theatrical techniques, making it far from the norm. This study reviews the existing achievements of Anhui Huangmei Opera’s thematic creation, summarizes the shortcomings and defects of the creation, and then puts forward suggestions in order to promote the further development of Huangmei Opera’s thematic repertoire creation.

Fumbling towards community-engaged opera creation: A reflexive dialogue

This article analyses reflections of two years of an opera creation project that integrated professional artists with community participants. The authors, who were involved as artists in the project, explore one line of inquiry guiding the larger project: can the perceived exclusive, high-cultured opera medium welcome amateur performers successfully? What is the nature of the collaboration? The authors integrated critical discourse studies (CDS) with arts-informed research practices to inform methodology. The analysis is presented as a scripted dialogue, focusing on three interconnected themes: the relationship of opera to community music; tensions of inclusivity in a creative project occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic; and considering creative and decision-making processes in co-creation. We examine how our experiences were organized though language and connected to discourses of inclusivity and excellence in community music.

Creation of Drama Art Based on Deep Learning and Evolution Strategy

The rapid development of information technology has promoted the growth of deep learning, artificial intelligence, and big data technology. Nowadays, the artistic form of traditional opera creation is accepted and respected by people—more and more people like the art form. However, the artistic creation of traditional opera needs inspiration. The essence of inspiration creation is to reconstruct its objective structure. The deep learning algorithm’s essence is to extract all of the attributes of sample self-learning input data and use them as inspiration for artistic production. First, this paper briefly introduces the deep learning and evolution strategy and uses these algorithms in opera art creation to construct 1 + λ. With the help of this evolutionary algorithm, an optimal solution is obtained through random evolution. The evolution strategy establishes the evolution function matrix. Starting from the situation of students learning opera art, this article examines the process of creating opera art using an in-depth learning and evolution technique. The results show that 96 percent of the students have contact with opera while watching an opera tour. During this, they were not interested in the performance of literary drama in traditional opera. However, it was noticed that they were deeply interested in martial arts, clown performances, and drama stage performances. Finally, the audience group of opera artistic creation is analyzed in the form of opera animation of “A Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage.” It signifies that the opera’s leading audience group is aged 25 to 29. However, they account for only 30 percent.

The comparative analysis of similarities and differences of U. Hajibeyli’s "Koroglu" and M. Glinka’s "Ivan Susanin" operas

The article reveals the role of Uzeyir Hajibeyli (U.Hajibeyov in the Soviet period) in the formation and development of Azerbaijani classical music. The period of formation and development of the composer's creativity in Azerbaijan is associated with the name of the composer. In the context of the presence of the traditions of Russian classics in the opera works of Azerbaijani composers, for the first time in local musicology, a comparative analysis of the first Azerbaijani classical opera Koroglu by U.Hajibeyli and the first Russian classical opera “Ivan Susanin” by M. Glinka has been conducted. The main differences in the language of music, the tonal basis, the folklore material used, the author's research have shown the existence of common features of these two monumental works. The common features in the operas are manifested in the vivid expression of the will of the people, the heroism of the heroes and the intransigence against the oppressors, reflecting the national tonal structure of both peoples in the struggle and the general heroic character of the operas. The article also includes the history of creation of operas based on European classical opera traditions. In this research work, the common and different aspects of “Köroğlu” and “Ivan Susanin” operas are analyzed in terms of staging in certain time periods. The author also states the importance of Koroglu's hero image for Turkish peoples and as a result of this, the creation of the same name opera by the famous Turkish classical composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun in 1973. In addition, in the article, the author draws attention to the role and importance of the famous Azerbaijani composer and conductor Niyazi in this topic, based on historical data on the staging of A. Saygun's "Köroğlu" opera.

Explore into the Infinite Wonder in Time and Space--On the Pursuit of the Time-Space on an Idea-Sketching Stage in Chinese Opera

Chinese opera is a highly comprehensive opera that attaches paramount importance to imagery. The qualities of simulative performance, including its orientation, immediacy and flowability, constitutes the transcendent and free time-space of the art of Chinese opera. Considering the profound impact that the spirit of idea-sketching (Xieyi in Chinese, which is an aesthetic conception in China that emphasizes on capturing the spiritual essence rather than the superficial appearance) in Chinese traditional culture has on opera creation, an exploration into the impressionist views in Chinese traditional culture will be necessary to understand the beauty of idea-sketching Chinese opera. The creation of opera directors should be based on the traditional Chinese aesthetics centering on spirit conveying and essence capturing. Opera directors need to explore how the idea-sketching spirit contained in Chinese traditional culture can be applied and extended on the opera stage.

El contador de historias y la máquina del sonido: una aproximación a las interacciones musicales en la vida y obra de Roald Dahl

Writer Roald Dahl is responsible for some of the most imaginative stories that universal literature has given us in the 20th century. These stories, their characters, and an inimitable style, have created a unique universe that is part of a cultural heritage which is transmitted from generation to generation. This universe remains in the unconscious of the community in the whole world. The reference, direct or indirect, to the world of music, is one of the resources that the author uses recurrently and intentionally with different purposes: as a metaphor for social criticism, as a resource for dramatization, for psychological characterization of the character, etc. He does it, moreover, with an in-depth knowledge of the resources that this medium offers to literary expression, and of the theoretical substrates of the musical art itself. The present work represents an approximation to the role played by the universe of sounds in Dahl’s work; from the references in his work, the creation of operas or musicals based on his stories, or the use and identifications of his compositions as a teaching resource in training and promoting reading in the earliest stages of education.

Music Iconography, Opera, Gender and Cultural Revolution – The Case Study of the Kwok On Collection (Portugal)

Abstract This study aims to revisit the creation of opera, symphonic versions of opera and ballet (yangbanxi) during the period of the Cultural Revolution of Mao's China. Beginning with the Kwok Collection (Fundação Oriente, Portugal), I aim to establish a new vision of the yangbanxi (production and reception) by means of an analysis of sources with musical iconography. The focus of the study is on questions of gender and the way in which the feminine was an indispensable tool for the construction and dissemination of the idea of a new nation-state. This study thus aims to make a new contribution to the area, showing how the construction of new opera heroines, communist and of the proletariat, is built on the image of the first “heroine-villain” constructed by the regime, Jiang Qing, the fourth wife of Mao Zedong. The title chosen demonstrates the paradox of the importance of woman in opera and in politics at a time when the only image to be left to posterity was that of a dominant male hero, Mao Zedong.

Features of Formation and Development of Azerbaijani Ballet

Azerbaijani Ballet does not have a long history of development and formation; however, during the analysed period, that is, in the 40-90s of the 20th century, it has become an essential element of the musical culture, both in Azerbaijan and around the world. An essential feature of this genre of artistic creation is a combination of factors and principles of musical construction and expression of Western-European music and, at the same time, folk music, dance, and mugham intonations. Ballets were devoted to historical events and people as well as modern social processes and their participants. Ballet pieces are being continuously improved. In Azerbaijan, the creation of operas, designed for performance, contributed to the growth of the musical culture of the younger generation, as well as general culture and maturation of people, respecting cultural values and actively using those values in their life benchmarks. Over time, some students who took an active part in the performance of operas have become recognised musicians and were awarded honorary titles such as the honoured artist, People's Artist of the Republic, and these are–Samir Jafarov, Teymur Amrakh, Zaur Amiraslanov, etc.

Ernest Reyer and his Opera “Sigurd”: French Version of “Wagnerian” Subject

It is examined the creative work of French opera composer and critic Ernest Reyer (1823– 1909), who was also the author of opera “Sigurd”. Relevance of the study lies in the attempt to bring in the Ukrainian musicological context the creative work of Ernest Reyer. The main objective of the study is to answer the question of whether the opera of the French composer Ernest Reyer “Sigurd” belongs to the world wagnerian movement. The study was carried out by using comparative method: comparison was made between E. Reyer’s and R. Wagner’s operatic versions of the ancient German legend about Sigurd. It is presented the short biography of the E. Reyer, by underlineding his dimensioned cultural ties with outstanding contemporaries such as H. Berlioz, G. Flaubert, T. Gautier and others. It is presented the general outlook of composer’s creative heritage and short characteristics of Reyer’s main operatic, ballet and symphonic works. It is described the creative work of E. Reyer as French critic. It is raised a question of E. Reyer’s belonging to the world Wagnerism, which is proved by the creation of opera on the plot of “Poetic Edda” and “The Song of the Nibelungs”. It is analyzed the literature sources of libretto of “Sigurd” (its authors – Michel Carre, Camille du Locle and Alfred Blau). It is examined the synthesis of German legendary subject and traditions of French musical theatre. It is proved the fidelity of E. Reyer to the national operatic traditions that is why this opera can’t be regarded as “Wagnerian” opera. It is underlined such urgent tendency in musical dramatic composition of “Sigurd” as using of leitmotivs. It is presented short review of the modern staging and recordings of opera. The conclusion of the study is to determine the historical value of E. Reyer’s opera “Sigurd” as the unique attempt of an alternative French interpretation of the glorious ancient Germanic and Scandinavian epics, which became the source of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. In “Sigurd” E. Reyer’s “Germanic” plot combines the traditions of the French national musical theater and some of the latest techniques of musical drama, making this opera a landmark of European music culture of the nineteenth century.

Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century by Karen Henson

Reviewed by: Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century by Karen Henson James P. Cassaro Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century. By Karen Henson. (Cambridge Studies in Opera.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. [xvi, 264 p. ISBN 9781107004269 (hardcover). $102.00; (e-book). $79.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Opera has for some time now provided fertile ground upon which varied and multivalent approaches have been used, resulting in a dizzying array of provocative readings of the artform's cultural, sociological, and gendered force. When you think there are no more ways of looking at a blackbird, along comes a study that convinces you otherwise. Such is the case with Karen Henson's Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century. Part of the Cambridge Studies in Opera series, this book is a persuasive narrative that focuses on a generation of singers in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, plotting their interactions with composers—in particular, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, and Jules Massenet—and their impact on the creation of opera and operatic style. In the book's introduction, Henson sets out the methodology for her study, noting that "by the late nineteenth century singers were no longer creators but rather intermediaries, executants, faithful (or disloyal) interpreters" (p. 3), and invoking Verdi's opinion that this generation of singers "specialized in 'not singing'" (p. 4). Central to Henson's study is an understanding of the term physiognomy, a descriptive word, employed quite actively by French critics in the early-nineteenth century, referring to facial features or physical expression that are indicative of character. This is not to be confused with physiology, the science of vocal technique and the mechanics of singing. The shift of emphasis from the beauty of the voice—bel canto—to the visual—i.e. not purely the vocal—informed both singers and audiences about a character's particular motives and relation to others around them. Through this lens, Henson devotes four in-depth chapters to the fin-de-siècle singers Victor Maurel (1848–1923), Célestine Galli-Marié (1837/40–1905), Sibyl Sanderson (1865–1903), and Jean de Reszke (1850–1925). In the concluding chapter, Henson offers shorter evaluations of eight additional singers: Emma Calvé (1858–1942), Victor Capoul (1839–1924), Jean-Baptiste Fauré (1830–1914), Marie Heilbron (1849/51–1886), Paul Lhérie (1844–1937), Paola Marié (1851–1920), Edouard de Reszke (1853–1917), and Josephine de Reszke (1855–1891). The author devotes chapter 1 to the relationship between Verdi and the French baritone Victor Maurel, who created the role of Iago in Otello in 1887 as well as the title role in Falstaff in 1893. In the 1870s, Verdi began to take a much more strident approach to the authority of the composer, limiting the influence of singers and other personnel on an opera's production. In this approach, Verdi composed not with a [End Page 76] particular performer in mind, as he had earlier in his career, but for his pleasure, a stance that made him "indifferent to and supremely in control of performance" (p. 20). Rather than focusing on the singer as the motivating drive of the operatic experience, his emphasis shifted toward the "work" as a concept. Henson characterizes this move as an "anti-performing posture"—a distancing by late-nineteenth-century composers from the singer and from the "very idea of performance" (p. 20). Although Henson uses this concept as the basis for her argument, she and other scholars (James Hepokoski, in particular) note that it was not as rigid in practice as it was in theory. She argues that a distinctive feature of this period was the coexistence of an "anti-performing posture and a more performer-oriented reality" (p. 21). Maurel, for Henson, is a prime example of this coexistence. In order to provide a fuller understanding of the singer, Henson looks at Maurel's other (non-operatic) pursuits, including teaching, directing, writing, and publishing. In a number of his writings, Maurel openly engaged with and criticized Verdi. Ultimately these "extra-vocal" activities led to the composer "distancing himself from what he perceived as their excessive...

Opera acts: singers and performance in the late nineteenth century

Opera Acts explores a wealth of new historical material about singers in the late nineteenth century and challenges the idea that this was a period of decline for the opera singer. In detailed case studies of four figures - the late Verdi baritone Victor Maurel; Bizet's first Carmen, Celestine Galli-Marie; Massenet's muse of the 1880s and 1890s, Sibyl Sanderson; and the early Wagner star Jean de Reszke - Karen Henson argues that singers in the late nineteenth century continued to be important, but in ways that were not conventionally 'vocal'. Instead they enjoyed a freedom and creativity based on their ability to express text, act and communicate physically, and exploit the era's media. By these and other means, singers played a crucial role in the creation of opera up to the end of the nineteenth century.

뮈르제 소설 ＜보헤미안의 생활 정경＞과 푸치니 오페라 ＜라보엠＞의 비교를 통한 오페라 담론의 창작 원리 연구

오페라는 극과 음악을 한데 섞는다고 하는 음악극의 특성 때문에 종종 '극 위주의 오페라' 혹은 '음악위주의 오페라'의 하나로 경도되는 경우가 많다. 오페라 창작을 할 때에 범하기가 쉬운 이러한 오류를 극복하고 두 극단의 균형점이라는 이상적 지향점을 이룬 역사적 선례는 푸치니 오페라 <라보엠>에서 찾을 수 있다. 작곡가 푸치니와 대본작가 일리카와 지아코자가 두 극단에 경도되지 않고 균형점을 찾을 수 있었던 것은 이들이 원작인 뮈르제의 소설 "보헤미안의 생활 정경"의 색깔을 유지하면서 동시에 가장 오페라적인 인물 및 이야기를 재구성함으로써 가능했다. 이들이 택한 전략은 '사건과 인물의 단순화', '낭만화와 인물의 재창조' 및 '분위기의 사실주의적 묘사' 로 요약할 수 있다. 이들의 각색 전략과 그 결과 탄생된 이 오페라의 '에피소드적' 성질은 새로운 창작 오페라의 창작자들에게 좋은 규범이 될 수 있다. A common fallacy found at opera works is to lean either toward 'opera as drama' or toward 'opera as music'. One of the historical examples of opera creation to overcome this fallacy is Puccini's <la boh<TEX>$\grave{e}$</TEX>me>. The composer Puccini and the librettists, Illica and Giacossa, found balance between these two extreme poles, which was made possible by keeping the color of the original novel "scenes de la vie de boh<TEX>$\grave{e}$</TEX>me" and simultaneously by reconstructing the most operatic characters and story. Their strategies, which can be summerized as 'simplification', 'romanticization and re-creation of characters', and 'realistic description of original atmosphere'. There strategy of adaptation and the 'episodic' feature as the outcome can be a good example for creators of new opera works.

Dramatic Text, Music Text:

Even in the midst of their dubious claim that “philosophers did not go to the opera very often,” Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar cannot escape acknowledging the combination of “the splendor of court spectacles, the pomp of national myths, and the sentimental melodramas” that have traditionally driven opera in its social contexts (1).1 Discussions of the Restoration dramatic stage follow the same tripartite preoccupations—they also typically focus on the return of theater to London after the Interregnum, the appearance of women on stage in drama, and the increasing importance of music to theater life before the full arrival of opera seria in the eighteenth century with Georg Friedrich Handel’s appearance in London. However, the specifically interactive relationship between English nationalism, literature, theater, and music is often overlooked. In particular, the role of musical form in these displays of nationalism, especially in conjunction with patriotic libretti, is largely ignored, despite its ability to bridge the divisions between each disciplinary field. Textual studies of libretti rapidly recognize the pro-Imperial feeling that followed the restoration of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660, the Exclusion Crisis’s attempts to prevent the Catholic James II from ascending to the throne in 1685, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James (the last Catholic monarch of England) was displaced by the Hanoverian Protestant William III and Mary II (formalized in 1689). This is readily seen in the histories of John Dryden, Nahum Tate, John Crowne, and many others. Moreover, anti-Papist sentiments frequently appear in an only vaguely coded form as resistance to tensions based on the French and Italian influences via Catholicism on James II and Charles II.

Puccini and the Girl: History and Reception of The Girl of the Golden West (review)

NINETEENTH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY MUSIC Puccini and the Girl: History and Reception of The Girl of the Golden West. By Annie J. Randall and Rosalind Gray Davis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. [xv, 241 p. ISBN 0226703894. $35.] Music examples, bibliography, discography, filmography, illustrations, index. Annie Randall and Rosalind Gray Davis open their monograph Puccini and the Girl: History and Reception of The Girl of the Golden West by tracing their paths to their topic: in the early 1960s, Davis's father, journalist Marvin Gray purchased a set of twenty-nine letters from Puccini to Carlo Zangarini, La fcmciutta del West's librettist, written during the opera's composition. Gray never realized his plans to publish a small volume featuring the letters in their original Italian and English translation, and a history of the opera's creation, however, and it is here that Davis and Randall enter the scene. Inheriting the letters after her father's death, Davis, a former journalist turned independent scholar, also inherited his dreams; in 1996, she met Randall, a musicologist, and revived his project, generating a of the events surrounding La fanciullas, conception, composition, and popular and critical conception (p. 8). Though the scope of Puccini and the Girl is far wider than the twenty-nine letters Davis's father purchased some fifty years ago, at the center of Randall and Davis's account are a wide array of original documents: newspaper articles, items from the Metropolitan Opera archives concerning La fanciulla's 1910 premiere, programs, and related ephemera, as well as the Puccini-Zangarini correspondence. After a comprehensive of La fanriulla which simultaneously offers blow-by-blow descriptions of musical and narrative themes and their interplay, and positions Puccini's compositional strategies in relation to his contemporaries within the genre more broadly (chapter 2), the authors devote the middle section of the book (curiously split into chapters 3 and 4 despite their snared material and narrative trajectory) to these painstakingly gathered, translated, annotated, and-perhaps most importantly-decoded documents. The narrative that emerges, a compelling miseen-scene of Puccini's character and personal life during the composition of Ijifantiulla, is of interest to a broad audience of Puccini scholars and fans alike. Not only do the letters-featured in their entirely even when short and seemingly inconsequential -offer valuable insights into Puccini's relationship with Zangarini and his opera, but we gel a glimpse of his personality and sense of humor: his occasional letterpoems'' to Zangarini are simultaneously charming, manipulative, and wacky. 'I am on the sea / dancing a lot, / and what are you up to? / Do you think of The Girl?' he writes, and later in closing, Many greetings / From the high seas-/ If you want to play, / Cover up well / Ciao (pp. 69-70). The book's appendices, too, are a treasure trove, packed with well-organized and above all, readily accessible materials including the original Italian texts of the letters and a variety of other archival materials, a list of Zangarini's libretti and other works, the Metropolitan Opera's performance history of La fanciulla, and a filmography and discography of the opera. In their introduction, Randall and Davis promise a book that weaves together the letters with other material into a detailed of the opera's creation. (p. 8) Yet the resultant narrative is less a smoothly woven piece of cloth than a series of dense knots of information loosely strung together. Throughout, it is difficult to gain a sense of how each chapter connects to those surrounding it; with the exception of their reappearance in a chapter devoted to La fanciulla's redemption theme, for example, the Puccini letters disappear in the chapters that follow the middle section of the book. Moreover, it is difficult to gain a sense of the authors' agenda, critical perspectives, or personal conneclion to the opera. …

Patronage and Market in the Creation of Opera Before the Institution of Intellectual Property

Have different methods of financing the performing arts had an effect on thequality or diversity of thestock of works to be performed? This paper contrasts experience in the HolyRoman Empire and Italyfrom the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century when copyright lawsbegan to play a major rolein the economics of composition. The period 1751–1790 strongly confirmshypotheses that patron-drivenopera would be expected to be qualitatively superior to market-driven opera. Italian experience from1810–1840, however, suggests that this result cannot be generalized.