The first opera was performed in Florence around 1597. Over four hundred years later, opera has traveled the world and come to encompass many forms. But it will always be Italy's baby.
DRINK
Italian opera costumes are notoriously ornate and heavy--often weighing up to thirty pounds. Add the hot stage lights and strenuous arias, and an opera singer can lose up to five pounds during a performance. Many prominent operas such as La Traviata and La Boheme feature drinking scenes so that players can quench their parched pipes and avoid dehydration.
SINGER
Luciano Pavarotti, who passed away on September 6, was arguably the superstar tenor of his generation. Born in Modena, his thrilling high notes earned him the title "King of the High Cs." In 1988 he received a record 165 curtain calls after singing L'Elisir d'Amore in Berlin. Two years later, he became an international celebrity when his performance of Puccini's "Nessun dorma" was chosen as the World Cup's theme song. Both the aria and the singer became instantly recognizable far beyond the world of opera.
LANGUAGE
A castrato refers to a male who is castrated to preserve his incredibly high-pitched voice. Castrati first sang in church choirs in the 1500s and soon won most of the female leads in Italian operas. By the 1700s, at height of the fad, castrati such as Farinelli and Pacchierotti were European superstars--and more than 4,000 boys a year were losing their family jewels at the behest of desperate parents seeking family fortune. By the early nineteenth century, changes in music--and social conscience--cut the castrati off.
DESIGN
Milan's La Scala is opera's home of worship. When it opened in 1778, the theater boasted over 3,000 seats and a casino. Since then, the temple has featured premieres of many great operas, such as Otello and Falstaff. Wealthy families furnished their boxes with paintings and wallpaper; La Scala's architect, Giuseppe Piermarini, had a fireplace in his. Since those halcyon days, La Scala has been modernized but still retains its most important feature: "Its domed shape provides excellent acoustics," says Catherine Sidoti, an operatic agent. "People in the rear can hear as well as those in the first row." www.teatroallascala.org
