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Greensboro Opera - Opera terms Category: General technical and industrial > Opera Date & country: 04/06/2011, USA Words: 53

Act
The division of sections of the story similar to Acts in a play

Apron
The forward part of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra pit.

Aria
A song for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment. Arias appear in cantatas, oratorios, and operas beginning in the 17thc. They emphasize musical and emotional expression more than text. Often reflective rather than descriptive of action, arias provide lyric interludes that temporarily halt the action of the plot.

Basso Profundo
The lowest and often serious bass voice. Sarastro in Mozart

Basso Cantante
A bass voice that demonstrates a melodic, lyrical quality, such as the role of King Philip in Verdi

Basso Buffo
A bass voice that specializes in comic roles often seen in operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti. The title role in Donizetti

Bass
The lowest male voice. There are several types of bass voices, outlined below. A typical bass role is that of Boris in Mussorgsky

Baroque
The period in music history that spans from ca. 1600 to 1750. During the Baroque period, opera was born through the efforts of the Florentine Camerata and operas of Monteverdi (Orfeo). Late Baroque operas would include those of G. F. Handel (Rinaldo).

Baritone
A male voice with a range between that of a Bass and Tenor. Baritone roles can be expressive and lyrical, such as Figaro in Rossini

Blocking
The moving of people around the stage by the stage director to effect the patterns to be followed in the performance of the opera.

Brava!
A term used during applause to commend the performance of female performers on stage. Bravo for male performers, Bravi for the entire ensemble or male and female performers together.

Cavatina
Popular in 18th c. Italian opera, this is a short, simple solo song, often instrumental.

Cantata
A musical form usually encompassing chorus and soloists or a solo voice and instrument based on a narrative text. The most well-known cantatas are by J. S. Bach who set scriptural texts.

Camerata
A group of Florentine writers and one musician who regularly met in the late 1600s to discuss art and experiment with art form. The

Cadenza
A musical flourish, often spontaneously sung by the performer at the close of an aria or section of an aria. Until the mid 1800s, cadenzas were expected to be improvised by the singer, and were rarely notated by the composer. An example of a cadenza would be the long passage for flute and soprano during the mad scene sung by the title role in Donizetti

Cabaletta
A brisk aria in Italian opera, usually on the heels of a more lyrical, thoughtful aria. The cabaletta usually expresses a contrasting state of mind frequently inspiring the character to a course of impassioned action. The term cabaletta comes from

Chorus
the vocal ensemble of men and women who represent townspeople, relatives, guards, who contribute and comment on the action of the plot.

Classical
The period in music history that falls after the Baroque and before the Romantic: ca. 1750

Countertenor
A high male voice that often sings within the contralto and mezzo soprano range. Popular in the baroque period, the countertenor portrayed young, virile men or innocent, blushing adolescents. Until the 1830s, countertenors were often

Composer
the individual who writes the music and sets the text to music including the orchestrations, the vocal parts, and the chorus parts.

Coloratura
A type of soprano, usually, but also a term that describes a voice capable of agility: fast and high singing, trills and embellishments. Coloratura sopranos of note: Lily Pons, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Natalie Dessay. The Bell Song from Lakm

Duet
A musical composition for two performers.

Embellishment
Decorations or extra notes added to an existing melodic line. In the Baroque and the bel canto eras, embellishing a vocal line whenever it was repeated was standard practice.

Falsetto
A heady, light voice common to the male voice when used to imitate a female voice.

Finale
The end of the scene, act, opera where often the entire ensemble gathers for the last musical scene.

Grand Opera
Opera that is completely sung from beginning to end, with no spoken dialogue. This style of opera treats serious, dramatic subjects, and in 19th c. French opera, was usually epic in scale, providing spectacle with a full-scale ballet inserted in the middle of the opera.

Heldentenor
A tenor voice with a brilliant top register and a robust baritone-like middle and low voice, capable of great stamina. Wagner wrote for the

Intermezzo
A short musical composition usually offered between the acts of a longer operatic work. These were light-hearted in nature, with very small casts: La serva padrona by Pergolesi is an example. The term can also refer to an instrumental interlude between acts of operas, such as the Intermezzo in Mascagni

Legato
A smooth, connected style of singing and playing.

Marking
A practice used by singers to conserve their voices in rehearsals. Either singing an octave up or down in order not to sing extremely high or low, or in a light quality to avoid singing strenuously for hours at a time can preserve a singer

Ornamentation
The decorative notes, trills, appogiaturas, cadenzas that enhance a melodic line, often when it is repeated.

Orchestra Pit
The area below the stage, usually, where the orchestra is situated. The conductor is on a podium in the orchestra pit, visible to the singers on stage, the orchestra in the pit and occasionally to the audience.

Orchestra
The group of musicians that accompany a staged presentation. In the Baroque period, an orchestra consisted of strings and pairs of woodwinds, and continuo; from 1760 forward, orchestras grew in size. Romantic period orchestras may include up to 100 players as in the operas of Berlioz, Puccini, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Oratorio
A musical composition for chorus, orchestra and soloists whose text is usually religious, serious or philosophical. Generally not staged, oratorio was Handel

Overture
The instrumental introduction to a musical drama or oratorio; often the overture presents themes or

Pitch
The location of a sound on a scale; intonation.

Proscenium
The part of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra pit.

Props
Articles used by the performers to enhance the plot, i.e., handkerchiefs (Othello), bottles of wine (L

Prompter
A member of the musical staff who sits in a small box under the apron of the stage and cues the chorus and singers just before their entrances. Prompters are particularly welcome in European opera houses, where jet-lagged singers, who have not had the benefit of long rehearsal periods, rely on their help.

Prelude
An instrumental introduction to an act within a musical drama.

Range
The zone in which a voice sings, i.e., soprano range, mezzo soprano range, tenor range, etc.

Raked stage
A stage that is sloped upward toward the rear of the stage allowing audience patrons seated at the back of the theater to see performers at the rear of the stage.

Romantic
the period of music between ca. 1830 and 1920 during which time composers such as Beethoven, Verdi, and Wagner found inspiration in painting and nature.

Set
A construction on stage built to suggest place and time in which the singers enact the story of the opera plot.

Soubrette
A lightweight soprano voice or soprano role found in comic operas and operettas. The soubrette usually is flirtatious, savvy and often must dance and deliver dialogue. Adele in Die Fledermaus is a typical soubrette role.

Soprano
The highest range of the female voice; lyric soprano is warm, graceful; dramatic soprano is fuller and heaver, e.g. A lyric soprano role would be Mim

Stage right/left
The sides of the stage from the performer

Tessitura
The average range of a particular role, i.e., the tessitura of the Queen of the Night in Mozart

Tenor
The highest natural male voice.

Tempo
The rate of speed of a musical composition or section, i.e., andante (going along), largo (quite slow), prestissimo (very fast).

Upstage/Downstage
Positions on stage; upstage is toward the rear of the stage and farthest from the audience while downstage is toward the lip of the stage, closest to the audience. On a raked stage, performers at the rear of the stage were actually higher in position (up) while performers at the front of the stage were lower in position (down).

Zarzuela
A Spanish popular musical theatrical presentation blending dialogue and music in skits and dramas ranging from one to three acts that satirize aspects of daily life. Early zarzuelas were performed in the Palacio de la Zarzuela in Madrid

A capella
Unaccompanied vocal music