OPERA 



4390 



OPERA GLASS 



The following is a list of the leading operas 

 of the early days and of the modern school: 



n p , -rii 



Italian Th? Barber of Scrillc and William 



Tell, by Rossini : II Trovatorc. Aida. La Trari<ita, 



-to and Ernani. by Yrnli : Xorma. by Bel- 



'i-i<i (// Lanunermoor and Lncrctia Borgia, 



by Donizetti. 



German Don Giovanni and The M<tfric Flute. 

 by .M-'/.ai-t : Fiiielio. by Beethoven; Der Fn i- 

 | \\VU-r. 



French The Hur/uenots, by Meyerbeer; Fra 

 Diavolo, by Auber : Faust and I{<neo and Juliet. 

 by Gounod : i-y r,<--rt;fs I'.i/.et : Mianon 



and Htiinlrt by Ainbroise Thomas. 



English Kiuft Artlu,r. by Purcell ; The Beg- 

 gars' Opera, by Pepusch ; The Bohemian Girl, by 

 Balfe. 



>Iolrn Opera 



Germany Tannhauscr, Lohmarin, The Fli/in<i 

 Dutchman, Tristan and Isolde. The Meister- 

 singers, Siegfried, Das Itlu inaold. Die Walkiirc, 

 The Gottcrdainmcrnng and Parsifal, by Wagner; 

 Fulomc and Don Quixote, by Richard Strauss; 

 Martha, by Fioto\v. 



Italian Cavalleria Rnsticana and Iris, by Mas- 

 cagni ; I Pagllacci, by Leoncavallo ; Tosca, La 

 - , The Girl of the Golden West and Madame 

 Butterfly, by Puccini. 



French Samson and Delilah and Proserpine, 

 by Saint Saens ; Thais and Le Jongleur de Notre 

 Dame, by Massenet ; Pelleas et Melisande, by De- 

 bussy ; Louise, by Charpentier. 



English The Troubadour and The Cricket on 

 the Hearth, by Mackenzie ; The Lady of Lyons, 

 by Cowen. 



American Natoma and Madeleine, by Victor 

 Herbert; Mona, by Horatio W. Parker; Poia, by 

 Arthur Nevin ; The Sacrifice, by Frederick S. 

 Converse. 



Russian Mazeppa, Joan of Arc and The En- 

 chantress, by Tchaikovsky. 



Comic Opera, or Opera Bouffe. Comic opera 

 is a farcical form of opera, in which the charac- 

 ters, subject matter and music are intended to 

 burlesque the more serious style of opera; 

 for success it depends as much on its literary 

 sprightliness as on its musical qualities. It had 

 its rise in the /'nt< rmczzo played between the 

 acts of a dramatic piece. Offenbach (1819- 

 1882) of Cologne is regarded as the inventor 

 of the modern form of opera bouffe. He wrote 

 sixty-nine lyrical caricatures and engaged a 

 theater in Paris for their production. When 

 dialogue is interspersed with the music for the 

 purpose -of plot development, opera bouffe be- 

 comes known as musical comedy, a form ex- 

 ceedingly popular in late years, especially in 

 England and America. 



William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan of Eng- 

 land were the composers of a number of de- 

 lightful light operas, the forerunners of i he- 

 present popular musical comedy, of which The 



Mikado and I'inajorc are still great favorites; 

 Reginald de Kmen's Robin Hood and Rob 

 Roy were among the first American successes 

 along this line. Victor Herbert, who wrote the 

 score for the popular Hahftt hi Toylnnd. It II<ip- 

 ]><>i! in Xunlhitnl. Mill. Matlixtf. Ntn th< art* 

 and many others, now heads the list of Ameri- 

 can composers of musical comedies. A large 

 number of the musical comedies on the modern 

 stage are spectacular shows characterized by 

 cheap music and low comedy, but a few of 

 high order have hern produced within recent 

 years, notably Tin- Mtrry Wnlow and The 

 Chocolate Soldier. 



C<in//c <>]>trd and opera bonjjc are of the 

 same nature, but must not be confounded with 

 nfn'rn. comique, which, though set to music, is 

 often of serious character and contains spoken 

 dialogue. Beethoven's Fidelio and Weber's Der 

 Freischutz belong to the latter class. R.D.M. 



Consult Behenna's Great Operas Told for Chil- 

 dren; Melitz's The Opera Goer's Complete Guide; 

 Upton's Standard Operas: Their Plots and Their 

 Music. 



Related Subjects. The reader who is inter- 

 ested in opera will find much material for study 

 in the articles on the great composers and singers 

 listed under Music, and also in those on the fol- 

 lowing topics : 



Ai'da Lohengrin 



Carmen Nibelungenlied 



Cavalleria Rusticana Parsifal 

 Faust Romeo and Juliet 



OPERA GLASS, a small, double telescope 

 which magnifies the object upon which it is 

 focused. In principle it is the same as the 

 telescope, with which Galileo discovered the 

 satellites of Jupiter. It consists of a double- 



OPERA GLASS 

 In its ordinary and most convenient form. 



convex lens for its object glass, and a double- 

 concave lens for the eyepiece. The image of 

 the object is magnified by the convex lens. 

 The concave lens serves to direct the enlarged 



