▪ I. opera, n.1
(ˈɒpərə)
[a. It. opera, a. L. opera labour, pains, exertion, a work produced, f. opus, oper- work; cf. F. opéra (17th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. a. A dramatic performance in which music forms an essential part, consisting of recitatives, arias, and choruses, with orchestral accompaniment and scenery; also, a dramatic or musical composition intended for such performance, a libretto or score.
| 1644 Evelyn Diary 19 Nov., It is the work of Bernini,..who, a little before my coming to the citty [Rome], gave a publiq Opera (for so they call shews of that kind) wherein he painted the scenes [etc.]. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Opera..In Italy it signifies a Tragedy, Tragi-Comedy, Comedy or Pastoral, which (being the studied work of a Poet) is not acted after the vulgar manner, but performed by Voyces in that way, which the Italians term Recitative, being likewise adorned with Scenes by Perspective, and extraordinary advantages by Musick. 1659 Evelyn Diary 5 May, I went to visite my brother in London, and next day to see a new Opera, after the Italian way, in recitative music and sceanes, much inferior to the Italian composure and magnificence. 1661 Pepys Diary 2 July, Went to Sir William Davenant's Opera. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2042/4 The Opera of Albion and Albanius..is to be Printed. 1685 Dryden Albion & Albanius Pref., An Opera is a poetical Tale or Fiction, represented by Vocal and Instrumental Musick, adorn'd with Scenes, Machines and Dancing. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 18 ¶2 Arsinoe was the first Opera that gave us a Taste of Italian Musick. 1740 Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 277 The scheme was to have but one theatre for plays, and another for operas. 1819 Byron Juan i. cciii, If any person doubt it, I appeal..To plays in five, and operas in three acts. 1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 526/2 Wagner..has written the Libretti as well as the Music of all his later Operas. |
| fig. 1693 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 207 We may..expect towards the latter end of this Great Opera, that the Scenes will thicken..and the Fashion of this World will pass yet more swiftly away. |
b. at or to the opera includes the notion of the place:
cf. at the play.
| 1645 Evelyn Mem. June, This night [at Venice]..we went to the Opera where comedies and other plays are represented in recitative musiq.., with variety of sceanes painted.., and machines for flying in the aire,.. one of the most magnificent and expensive diversions the wit of man can invent. 1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 518/2 If we would know what Mozart really meant, we must study him, not at the Opera, but in his own delightful Scores. |
2. (Usually
the opera.) As a branch of dramatic
art. (
Cf. the drama,
tragedy,
comedy, etc.)
| 1759 Goldsmith Bee No. 8 Some years ago the Italian opera was the only fashionable amusement among our nobility. 1763 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. xii. 201 Venice was the Place where the Opera first appeared in Splendor. 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. IV. 18 This [end of 16th c.] seems the true æra whence the opera, or drama, wholly set to Music..should be dated. 1881 Baring-Gould Germany ix. 249 It is in the Opera and the Oratorio that the most flourishing descendants of the old Mystery Plays are to be met with. 1884 G. A. Macfarren in Encycl. Brit. XVII. 87/2 The masques performed at Whitehall and at the Inns of Court were of the nature of opera. |
3. With qualification denoting a particular branch or kind; as
ballad-opera (see
ballad n. 6);
comic opera (see
comic A. 1), also in
Fr. form
opéra comique;
grand opera (see
grand A. 8 b);
opera bouffe (
= F.
opéra bouffe, also
ellipt. bouffe, and in
It. form
opera buffa), comic opera,
esp. of a farcical character, an operatic extravaganza; also
attrib. or as adj.; (hence (
nonce-wds.)
opera-ˈbouffer, an actor in opera bouffe;
opera-ˈbouffeish adj., having the character of opera bouffe);
opera magica (
rare), opera with a fantastic or supernatural subject;
opera semiseria, seriocomic opera;
opera seria, serious or tragic opera,
spec. a type of Italian opera flourishing in the 18th century, usually with a classical or mythological subject;
horse opera: see
horse n. 28 a;
soap opera: see as main entry.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 18 ¶1 It is my Design in this Paper to deliver down to Posterity a faithful Account of the Italian Opera. 1802 C. Wilmot Let. 31 Jan. in Irish Peer (1920) 39 We have been to the Opera Buffa or the Italian Opera. 1817 Examiner No. 486. 253 This lady at the Italian Opera is respectable: on the English stage she was formidable. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 617 Grand Opera..may contain any number of acts, and ballets or divertissements, but if spoken dialogue is introduced it becomes a ‘comic’ opera. |
| 1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xvi. 235 Mademoiselle Helena Schneider, the opera bouffe singer. 1878 L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine I. iii. 58 Offenbach outdoes himself in a new opera-bouffe—‘Suzanne et les Vieillards’. 1895 G. B. Shaw Let. 31 Aug. (1965) I. 553 Such are the opera bouffe depths to which I have descended. 1937 New Statesman 25 Dec. 1102/2 The opéra-bouffe Jupiter who attempts to cuckold him [sc. Amphitryon] by assuming his form. 1970 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. (ed. 2) 187/2 A special type of comic opera is represented by the opéras bouffes of Offenbach. |
| 1882 J. J. Jennings Theatr. & Circus Life 76 There is something so indescribably funny in the costumes, in the facial make-up, and all that, of the happy opera-bouffer or festive burlesquer. 1888 Pall Mall G. 29 Nov. 14/1 The opera bouffers from the Gaiety Theatre. |
| 1889 T. A. Guthrie Pariah i. vi, One of the opéra-bouffeish cabanes came creaking..over the sand. |
| 1801 F. Burney Jrnls. & Lett. 22–24 Apr. (1975) V. 267 Mad⊇ d'henin made a party for us all to meet again the next day, & go to the Opera Buffa. 1842 Ainsworth's Mag. II. 78 It is satisfactory to see the Italian Opera..returning to the opera buffa of Fioravanti. 1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 9 The period in which the history of the Intermezzo merges permanently into that of the Opera Buffa, its legitimate heir. 1963 Auden Dyer's Hand 184 For Falstaff, time does not exist, since he belongs to the opera buffa world of play and mock action. 1965 C. Hibbert Garibaldi & his Enemies i. i. 13 He [sc. Mazzini] joined the Carbonari..but the opera buffa ceremony of the ritualistic initiation, in which he was required to swear allegiance to unknown leaders on a bared dagger..struck him as absurd. 1968 S. Towneley in New Oxf. Hist. Music IV. xv. 837 Cavalieri divides the work into three acts. And he suggests the intermedii should intersperse them—a practice which a century later helped in the creation of opera buffa. |
| 1744 H. Walpole Let. 22 July (1903) II. 40 Young Churchill has got a daughter by the Frasi; Mr. Winnington calls it the opéra comique; the mother is an opera girl; the grandmother was Mrs. Oldfield. 1765 H. Walpole Lett., to G. Montagu 22 Sept., The Italian comedy, now united with their opera comique, is their most perfect diversion. 1866 G. H. Lewes Jrnl. 30 Dec. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) IV. 328 A wretched opera comique—Cartouche. 1879 J. Hullah in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 379 The renascence of ‘opera comique’ in France dates from the latter part of the 17th century. 1897 R. Kipling Capt. Cour. 133 The opera-comique crew..greeted him as a brother. 1955 Times 6 May 14/7 It was doubtful whether, had it not been for Grétry, we should have had some of the striking later developments of opéra comique. 1976 New Yorker 16 Feb. 110/3 In 1870, Verdi was toying with the idea of writing an opéra comique. |
| 1956 Auden & Kallman Magic Flute Pref. p. xiv, We have written the dialogue in verse, because it seemed to us the right medium for the spoken word in an opera magica. 1963 Auden Dyer's Hand 484 Die Zauberflöte..stylistically, an opera magica. |
| 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xvi. 290 The stereotyped insipidity of the Italian opera semiseria since Rossini. 1959 Times 21 Aug. 13/2 The world première of Heimo Erbse's Julietta, an opera semiseria. 1970 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. (ed. 2) 601/2 Opera semiseria is a serious opera including comic elements, e.g., Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. |
| 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 392/2 Seria (It.), serious, grave, tragic, as, Opera seria, a tragic opera. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus. II. 513/2 The gradual development of the Opera Buffa from the Interludes which were formerly presented between the Acts of an Opera Seria, or Spoken Drama. 1892 G. B. Shaw How to become Mus. Critic (1960) 211 The public had been educated by Gluck to expect at least a show of seriousness in an opera seria. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XX. 124/2 Opera seria is classical Italian opera with secco-recitative; almost always..on a Greek or Roman subject, and,..with a happy ending... The only great classic in opera seria is Mozart's Idomeneo. 1951 M. Cooper Russian Opera i. 14 The Empress Catherine,..favoured the opéra comique—the opera of social comment and ideas—rather than the more exclusively musical opera seria. 1975 New Yorker 31 Mar. 82/1 Sometime in mid-1780, Mozart was commissioned to write the principal work, an opera seria, for the Munich carnival season. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. general, as
opera ballet,
opera band,
opera bill,
opera-book,
opera-box,
opera chorus,
opera company,
opera-dancer,
opera-goer,
opera-going,
opera hero,
opera-maker,
opera-master,
opera-night,
opera repertory,
opera-singer,
opera-song,
opera stage,
opera ticket;
opera-going,
opera-mad adjs.| 1899 Daily News 23 May 5/6 As Lumley truly prognosticated, 1845 saw ‘the culminating point in the History of the *opera ballet in England.’ Now, in opera, the ballet is a mere divertissement. 1955 Times 1 July 7/4 In the production at the Louvre on Tuesday the piece was given in the form of an ‘opera-ballet’. 1964 Conc. Oxf. Dict. Opera 23/1 So popular did the opera ballet become in Paris that Wagner had to rewrite and develop the opening scene of Tannhäuser..to meet the demands of the Parisians. |
| 1798 T. Holcroft Diary 14 Oct. in Mem. (1816) III. 48 Gave young Watts the letters of recommendation for the *opera band. 1814 J. Mayne Jrnl. 2 Sept. (1909) 30 The orchestra consists of nearly sixty performers, whereas our opera band seldom musters forty. |
| 1712 Addison Spect. No. 405 ¶1 The *Opera Bills for this Day. |
| 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 196 Like Mendelssohn he [Beethoven] was in earnest in pursuit of an *opera-book. |
| 1811 Times 21 Jan. 3/2 You have permitted an anonymous paragraph to appear in your columns, reflecting on a noble young lady, and accusing her of..authorising an act of..injustice, by the improper disposal of an *Opera Box... It is a gross..falsehood; neither is it true that this was the cause that induced Mr. Taylor to deprive the Portland family of their Opera box. 1828 J. Ebers Seven Yrs. King's Theatre iv. 82 It had been customary with my predecessors to publish, at the commencement of every season, a little book, specifying that boxes were taken for the season by the different subscribers—a sort of Opera-box directory. 1831 Peacock Crotchet Castle 302, I think an opera box a very substantial comfort. 1865 D. G. Rossetti Let. 28 June (1965) II. 560 Couldn't you work up the Opera-box design? |
| 1840 H. Cockton Life Valentine Vox xi. 72 His real name is Growlaway. He's in the *Opera chorus, and a regular trump he is too. 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xvi. 275 It is an Italian opera chorus; one ought not to think of Handel in connection with it. |
| 1827 W. Clarke Every Night Bk. 146 There are several persons in the *opera-company besides those we have mentioned. 1880 Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 512/2 A rival Opera Company was established at the ‘Little Theatre, in Lincoln's Inn Fields’. |
| 1759 Goldsm. Voltaire Wks. 1881 IV. 11 A kept mistress, an actress, or an *opera dancer generally compose the society. 1853 Lytton My Novel x. xxiv, The walls were covered with..the portraits of opera-dancers. |
| 1710–11 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 107, I..dined with Ford upon his *Opera-day. |
| 1712 Oldisworth Odes of Horace viii. 35/1 Unless some unexpected Copy should step forth like an *Opera God out of a flying Chariot. |
| 1850 ‘J. Timon’ Lorgnette (ed. 2) i. 21 A prim clergyman, who, though he is not an *Opera-goer, has yet a good ear for a fiddle. 1854 H. Morley Jrnl. 15 July (1866) 91 The opera-goer who enjoyed that musical farce..now finds the enjoyment of it trebled by the addition of Ronconi's..drolleries. 1883 Harper's Mag. Nov. 887/1 The opera-goer, that is to say, the citizen in an opera hat and an opera frame of mind. 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xix. 358 The bourgeois opera-goer of 1880 had not only the opportunity of hearing an international repertory. 1955 P. Vincent in H. Van Thal Fanfare for E. Newman 177 It appears that each opera-goer has his own preference for a particular ‘school’ of opera. 1975 Country Life 13 Nov. 1312/1 For Russian audiences, memories of the book [sc. War and Peace] may perhaps give the opera a sort of unity which it lacks for most English opera-goers. |
| 1833 Macaulay in Life & Lett. (1880) I. 359 *Opera-going damsels. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. I. ii. xviii. 359 It was enough for them to go on in their old way, only having a grand treat of opera-going (to the gallery) when Hans came home on a visit. 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xvi. 239 In it the most intimate experience of the soul is made into an opera and presented to the opera-going public, to the mass. 1949 Penguin Music Mag. VIII. 16 The beginning of my opera-going was marked by outstanding failure. 1955 P. Vincent in H. Van Thal Fanfare for E. Newman 175 The first years of opera-going are among our most satisfying. |
| 1834 J. R. Planché Deep, Deep Sea in Extravaganzas (1879) I. 164 To sing a song—As *Opera heroes choose Always to do, when they've no time to lose. 1855 W. B. Wood Pers. Recoll. Stage v. 113 As the representative of opera heroes..he had no superior. |
| 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 493 Had I run *opera-mad..or election-mad, I might have found companions enow to keep me in countenance. |
| 1776 J. Wallace in D. Garrick Private Corr. (1832) II. 140 She had objections to both: Saturday was *Opera-night; Monday degraded her. |
| 1716 Pope Lett. to Jervas 7 July (1735) I. 253 Some Italian Chymists, Fidlers, Bricklayers, and *Opera-makers. |
| 1813 Sir R. Wilson Priv. Diary II. 186 The Crown Prince was still in Leipsic..dressed like an *opera-master. |
| 1822 De Quincey Confess. 107 Tuesday and Saturday were the regular *Opera nights. |
| 1898 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms (rev. ed.) 329/2 Their works are still part of every *Opera repertory. |
| 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 17 The bobolink's..*opera-season is a short one. |
| 1742 Fielding Miss Lucy in Town Wks. 1882 X. 312 One is an *opera-singer. |
| 1737 Pope Hor. Ep. ii. ii. 11 A perfect genius at an *Opera-song. |
| 1763 D. Garrick Let. in R. B. Peake Mem. Colman Family (1841) I. 90 The famous Gabrielli pleased me much; she has a good person, is the best actress I ever saw on an *opera stage, and has the most agreeable voice I ever heard. 1948 Penguin Mus. Mag. VII. 58 Wagner..in the end..had to sell out to the commercial opera-stage. |
| 1755 Lady W. W. Montague in Poems by Eminent Ladies II. 170 There was a time (oh! that I could forget!) When *opera-tickets pour'd before my feet. 1820 Byron Let. to Murray 12 Nov., I happened to have a spare Opera ticket. |
b. Special combs.:
opera-cloak, a cloak of rich material worn by ladies at the opera or in going to or returning from evening parties (hence
opera-cloaked adj.);
opera-girl, (
a) a girl or woman who dances in the ballet of an opera; (
b)
pl. a greenhouse plant,
Mantisia saltatoria, called also dancing-girls;
opera-glass,
-glasses, a small binocular for use at theatres, concerts, etc.;
opera-hat, a hat suitable for use at the opera;
spec. a tall hat which folds flat, and when open is kept in shape by springs; a crush-hat;
opera-hood, a lady's hood for use at operas, or in going to evening parties, etc.;
opera-house, a theatre for the performance of operas.
| 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz (1836) 1st Ser. II. 47 There..was the young lady, wrapped up in a *hopera-cloak. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxvi. 363 Maidens in white with scarlet opera-cloaks. |
| 1760 Foote Minor i. Wks. 1799 I. 243 An *opera girl is as essential a piece of equipage for a man of fashion as his coach. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xvi, Her mother was an opera-girl. 1866 Treas. Bot. 815/2 Opera-girls, Mantisia saltatoria. |
| 1738 R. Smith Optics 377 There is an instrument sold in the shops which some call an *opera-glass, others a diagonal perspective; it is properly a reflecting perspective, so contrived for viewing a person in a publick place that no one can distinguish who it is you look at. 1842 Brande Dict. Sci. etc. s.v., The common opera-glass is nothing else than the Galilean telescope, invented by Galileo in 1609. |
| 1810 Irish Mag. III. 226 Strutting as gentlemen, by aid of..silk stockings, *opera hats. 1813 Love Sick Frog (song) (B.L. Mus. Libr. G. 383. h. 37) 3 Off he set with his Opera Hat... On the road he met with a Rat. 1827 Sir J. Barrington Pers. Sk., I found mine host decked out in his best jacket and a huge opera-hat. |
| 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5839/3 The *Opera-House in the Hay-Market. 1976 New Yorker 9 Feb. 81/1 The decision to present this production in the large opera house of the Academy instead of in the pleasant new theatre downstairs did it no good. |
c. Applied to styles of women's underclothing suitable for wearing with evening dress, characterized by low tops and narrow shoulder-straps, as
opera combinations,
opera shape,
opera top.
| 1923 Weekly Dispatch 18 Feb. 14 (Advt.), Pure Wool Opera Combinations... Ribbon shoulder straps. |
| 1928 Daily Mail 31 July 1/1 (Advt.), Artificial silk vest..opera shape. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 18 Oct. 19/1 (Advt.), Women's ‘Turnbull's’ Mixture Combinations, with low neck, short or no sleeves, with opera tops and ankle length. 1923 Daily Mail 17 Feb. 4 (Advt.), Ladies' Pure Wool Combinations,..opera tops, ribbon straps. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 72 Vest..sometimes with shoulder-straps, and known as ‘Opera top’. |
Hence
ˈopera v., to take to the opera.
| 1853 Reade Chr. Johnstone 318 He will fête you, and opera you. |
▪ II. ‖ opera, n.2 (
ˈɒpərə)
pl. of
opus n. ‘work’,
q.v. In this sense
operas is used by Southey,
perh. after
It. opera (
sing.) a work (
pl. opere works).
| 1808 Southey Lett. (1856) II. 16 The two volumes are in the printer's hands,..one reason..was..to have all my operas in the same size. 1834 Ibid. IV. 374 Allan Cunningham has sent me his ‘Burns’... My own operas will come into this form when I am gone. |