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OPERA OP1TZ. 



scenes in recitative and airs, was exhibited in a cart 

 during the carnival of 1606, by the musician Quagli- 

 ata, and four or five of his friends. The first regular 

 serious opera performed at Naples was in 16L5 : it 

 was entitled Amor non ha Legge. During the next 

 half century, the opera not only did not improve, but 

 it degenerated: it became in Italy what it was in 

 France during the last century a grand spectacle 

 addressed to the eye, in which the poetry and music 

 were the last things considered, while the scenery, 

 mechanical illusions, and pantomime, were on the 

 most splendid scale. As Goldoni said long after- 

 wards of the grand opera at Paris, (Tttait le paradis 

 des yeux et I'enfer des oreilles. The first opera buffo. 

 is said to have been represented at Venice in 1624, 

 where also the first stage for operas was erected in 

 1 637. In 1646, the opera was transplanted to France 

 by cardinal Mazarin. (See France, division, Dra- 

 matic Poetry, and Art.) In Germany, carnival plays, 

 in which the peribrmance consisted of singing, existed 

 even in the times of Hans Sachs, (died 1567.) Opitz 

 and others imitated the Italian pieces ; but the first 

 German original opera is said to have been Adam 

 and Eve, played in 1678, in Hamburg. Some con- 

 sider The Devil let Loose the first comic opera in Ger- 

 many. In Sweden, the first Swedish original opera 

 was performed in 1774. The Italian opera was in- 

 troduced into England in the seventeenth century. 

 Handel effected a revolution there, which, however, 

 did not exert a permanent influence on the English 

 opera. The Italian opera did not penetrate into 

 Spain until the second half of the eighteenth century. 

 The Italians draw the line between the opera seria 

 and opera luffa much more distinctly than the Ger- 

 mans, so that the Italian opera seria appears almost 

 insipid to a German ; the buffa, on the contrary, is 

 quite grotesque and quite national, and produces a 

 lively effect when played by Italians. 



Among the most distinguished Italian writers of 

 operas are Apostolo Zeno, and particularly Metasta- 

 sio, who, in the eighteenth century, carried the Italian 

 opera to so great a height. Among the writers of 

 comic operas we must mention Goldoni. Among 

 their composers, Sacchini, Piccini, Jomelli, Cima- 

 rosa, Salieri, Paisiello, Zingarelli, Martini, Rossini, 

 General!, &c., are distinguished. (See Arteaga's 

 History of the Italian Opera) Among the French 

 writers of operas are Quinault, La Fontaine, La 

 Motte, Marmontel, Favart, Sedaine, Etienne, Jouy, 

 Scribe, Theaulon. Among the French composers 

 are Gretry, Monsigny, Rousseau, Dalayrac, Isouard, 

 Boyeldieu, Catel, Menul, and the nationalized Spon- 

 tini and Cherubini. Among the English writers of 

 operas are Addison, Gay, Fielding, Kenrick, &c. The 

 English have no distinguished composers of operas. 



The German opera, as it now exists, originated 

 from the operetta, chiefly cultivated in the latter half 

 of the eighteenth century by Weisse and Hiller. 

 The pieces which are sung became longer and longer, 

 so that at last they took the form of the opera seria ; 

 and when the finale, invented by the Italians, was 

 introduced, general preference was given to that kind 

 of opera. Spoken dialogue and song alternate in it ; 

 but in recent times, the great German composers 

 have changed the prose dialogue also into recitative. 

 The romantic opera is a German production, and 

 composed of the Italian opera seria and opera bvffa. 

 Among the most perfect of the German romantic 

 operas are the magic Flute, Don Juan, Der Frei- 

 schutz, Oberon, &c. Some of the poets who liave 

 written for the German opera are Goethe, J. G. 

 Jacobi, Herklots, Huber, Kotzebue, Schikaneder, 

 Kind, Gehe, &c. The German composers are G luck, 

 Hasse, Mozart, Winter, VVeigl, Reichardt, Kunzen, 

 Vogler, Beethoven, Weber, Spohr, Kreutzer, &c. 



OPERA GLASS, in optics ; so called from its use 

 in theatres, &c. It is sometimes called a diagonal per' 

 spective, from its construction. It consists of a tube 

 about four inches long, in each side of which there is 

 a hole exactly against the middle of a plane mirror, 

 which reflects the rays falling upon it to the convex 

 glass, through which they are refracted to the con- 

 cave eyeglass, whence they emerge parallel to the 

 eye at the hole in the tube. This instrument is not 

 intended to magnify objects more than about two or 

 three times. It is intended for viewing persons at a 

 small distance, so that no one shall know who is 

 observed ; for the instrument points to a different 

 object from that which is viewed ; and as there is a 

 hole on each side, it is impossible to know on which 

 hand the object is situated which is looked at. 



OPHIR ; a country or city to which the Hebrews 

 made voyages in the time of David and Solomon, 

 bringing home gold, ivory, spices, peacocks, &c. 

 Commentators are not agreed as to its situation, but 

 it seems most probably to have been on the eastern 

 coast of Africa, or in the East Indies. 



OPHITES ; a Gnostic sect, which rose in the 

 second century, and held, in common with the Valen- 

 tinians (see Gnostics'), the doctrines of the two prin- 

 ciples, of aons, and of the theogony therewith con- 

 nected. They were peculiar in the worship of a 

 living serpent, which they considered as the emblem 

 of the sensual principle in man and of prudence 

 (sophia). The Ophites kissed the snake, in which 

 they honoured the tempter of Eve in paradise, on the 

 same principle as the pagans worshipped evil deities. 

 Hammer has explained the signification of this em- 

 blem, and its worship, in a different manner, in the 

 Fundgruben des Orients (6th vol., No. 1). 



OPHIUCHUS, or SERPENTARIUS, and SER- 

 PENS ; one of the old constellations, which was an- 

 ciently called sEsculapius. 



OPHTHALMIA (o^aX^of, eye); an inflammation 

 of the mucous membrane, which covers the globe of 

 the eye and of the co-respondent surface of the eye- 

 lids. It is either acute or chronic. It differs very 

 much in its exciting causes. Residence in damp or 

 sandy countries, exposure to the sun, sudden changes 

 of weather, are among the most usual causes. It 

 may also be produced by the suppression of some of 

 the usual discharges, and also by the scrofulous and 

 venereal virus. Its characteristic marks are pain 

 and redness. Of all diseases of the eye it is most 

 frequent. 



OPIE, JOHN, professor of painting at the royal 

 academy, was born in 1761, in Cornwall. His father 

 was a carpenter, and he was intended for the same 

 occupation ; but when very young, he manifested a 

 taste for study, and a strong predilection for the arts 

 of design. When about nineteen, he removed to 

 London ; but his pictures were not admitted into the 

 exhibition at Somerset house till 1786. He after- 

 wards became an academician. He published An 

 Inquiry into the Cultivation of the Arts of Design in 

 England, and delivered lectures at the royal institu- 

 tion. In 1804, he succeeded Fuseli as professor ot 

 painting, and read four lectures on painting, which 

 have been published. He died in 1807. He holds a 

 respectable station among British painters. 



OPITZ, or OPITIUS, a celebrated German poet 

 of the seventeenth century, born at Bunzlau, in 

 Silesia, in 1597, published first a collection of Latin 

 poems, entitled Strenarum Libellus, in 1616. The 

 following year he became a teacher at the gymna- 

 sium of Benthem, on the Oder, and, besides poetical 

 compositions, he published his Aristarchus, sive*de 

 Contemptu Lingua Teutonics (4to). He then studied 

 at Frankfort on the Oder, and, having afterwards 

 visited many cities in Germany and Holland, he 



