MUSIC OF ROMANTIC PERIOD OPERA

• Richard Wagner


  • Born in Leipzig, Germany on May 22, 1813
  • Attended Leipzig University
  • Inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Introduced new ideas in harmony and form, including extremes of chromaticism
  • Advocated a new form of opera called "music drama" where musical and dramatic elements were fused together
• Richard Wagner died at the age of 69


  February 13, 1883
• Giuseppe Verdi


  • His characters are ordinary people and not those of the royal family like those found in German operas
  • Almost all of his works are serious love stories with unhappy endings
  • Expressive vocal melody is the soul of a Verdi opera
• Giuseppe Verdi died in Milan, Italy


  January 27, 1901
• Giacomo Puccini


  • Born in a poor family in Lucca, Italy on December 22, 1858
  • Studied at the Milan Conservatory
  • Belonged to a group of composers who stressed realism, drawing material from everyday life and rejecting heroic themes from mythology and history
• Franz Peter Schubert


  • Developed lieder (German word for "songs") to have a powerful dramatic impact on listeners
  • Tapped the poetry of writers like Johann Goethe
  • Considered the last classical composer and one of the first romantic ones
• Franz Peter Schubert's works


  • Piano pieces
  • String quartets
  • Operetta
  • Symphony no.8 in B minor (Unfinished symphony)
• Franz Peter Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria


  January 31, 1797
• Franz Peter Schubert died in Vienna, Austria at age 31


  1828