Editing Opera (section)

===Contemporary, recent, and modernist trends===

====Modernism====
Perhaps the most obvious stylistic manifestation of modernism in opera is the development of [[atonality]]. The move away from traditional tonality in opera had begun with [[Richard Wagner]], and in particular the [[Tristan chord]]. Composers such as [[Richard Strauss]], [[Claude Debussy]], [[Giacomo Puccini]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=Derek B. |title=Orientalism and Musical Style |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|date=1998 |volume=82 |issue=2 |page=323 |doi=10.1093/mq/82.2.309 |jstor=742411}}</ref> [[Paul Hindemith]], [[Benjamin Britten]] and [[Hans Pfitzner]] pushed Wagnerian harmony further with a more extreme use of chromaticism and greater use of dissonance. Another aspect of modernist opera is the shift away from long, suspended melodies, to short quick mottos, as first illustrated by [[Giuseppe Verdi]] in his ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''. Composers such as Strauss, Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky adopted and expanded upon this style.

[[File:Schiele - Bildnis des Komponisten Arnold Schönberg . 1917.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Arnold Schoenberg in 1917; portrait by [[Egon Schiele]]]]
Operatic modernism truly began in the operas of two Viennese composers, [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and his student [[Alban Berg]], both composers and advocates of atonality and its later development (as worked out by Schoenberg), [[dodecaphony]]. Schoenberg's early musico-dramatic works, ''[[Erwartung]]'' (1909, premiered in 1924) and ''[[Die glückliche Hand]]'' display heavy use of chromatic harmony and dissonance in general. Schoenberg also occasionally used [[Sprechstimme]].

The two operas of Schoenberg's pupil Alban Berg, ''[[Wozzeck]]'' (1925) and ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' (incomplete at his death in 1935) share many of the same characteristics as described above, though Berg combined his highly personal interpretation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique with melodic passages of a more traditionally tonal nature (quite Mahlerian in character) which perhaps partially explains why his operas have remained in standard repertory, despite their controversial music and plots. Schoenberg's theories have influenced (either directly or indirectly) significant numbers of opera composers ever since, even if they themselves did not compose using his techniques.
[[File:Igor Stravinsky Essays.jpg|thumb|upright|Stravinsky in 1921]]
Composers thus influenced include the Englishman [[Benjamin Britten]], the German [[Hans Werner Henze]], and the Russian [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]. ([[Philip Glass]] also makes use of atonality, though his style is generally described as [[minimalist music|minimalist]], usually thought of as another 20th-century development.)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/periods-genres/modern/minimalism-guide/|title=Minimalist music: where to start|website=Classic FM|access-date=15 December 2019|archive-date=13 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213090903/https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/periods-genres/modern/minimalism-guide/|url-status=live}}</ref><!--Most readers will find it startling to hear Glass associated with atonality.-->

However, operatic modernism's use of atonality also sparked a backlash in the form of [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassicism]]. An early leader of this movement was [[Ferruccio Busoni]], who in 1913 wrote the libretto for his neoclassical [[number opera]] ''[[Arlecchino (opera)|Arlecchino]]'' (first performed in 1917).<ref>Chris Walton, "Neo-classical opera" in {{harvnb|Cooke|2005|p=108}}</ref> Also among the vanguard was the Russian [[Igor Stravinsky]]. After composing music for the [[Sergei Diaghilev|Diaghilev]]-produced ballets ''[[Petrushka (ballet)|Petrushka]]'' (1911) and ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' (1913), Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism, a development culminating in his opera-oratorio ''[[Oedipus rex (opera)|Oedipus rex]]'' (1927). Stravinsky had already turned away from the modernist trends of his early ballets to produce small-scale works that do not fully qualify as opera, yet certainly contain many operatic elements, including ''[[Renard (Stravinsky)|Renard]]'' (1916: "a burlesque in song and dance") and ''[[L'Histoire du soldat|The Soldier's Tale]]'' (1918: "to be read, played, and danced"; in both cases the descriptions and instructions are those of the composer). In the latter, the actors declaim portions of speech to a specified rhythm over instrumental accompaniment, peculiarly similar to the older German genre of ''[[Melodrama]]''. Well after his Rimsky-Korsakov-inspired works ''[[The Nightingale (opera)|The Nightingale]]'' (1914), and ''[[Mavra]]'' (1922), Stravinsky continued to ignore [[serialism|serialist technique]] and eventually wrote a full-fledged 18th-century-style [[diatonic]] number opera ''[[The Rake's Progress]]'' (1951). His resistance to serialism (an attitude he reversed following Schoenberg's death) proved to be an inspiration for many{{who|date=October 2012}}<!-- if references had a page number it might be possible to replace weaslely phrase with a concrete example --> other composers.<ref>{{harvnb|Parker|1994|loc=ch. 8}}; ''The Viking Opera Guide'' articles on Schoenberg, Berg and Stravinsky; [[Malcolm MacDonald (music critic)|Malcolm MacDonald]], ''Schoenberg'' (Dent, 1976); [[Francis Routh]], ''Stravinsky'' (Dent, 1975).</ref>

====Other trends====
A common trend throughout the 20th century, in both opera and general orchestral repertoire, is the use of smaller orchestras as a cost-cutting measure; the grand Romantic-era orchestras with huge string sections, multiple harps, extra horns, and exotic percussion instruments were no longer feasible. As government and private patronage of the arts decreased throughout the 20th century, new works were often commissioned and performed with smaller budgets, very often resulting in chamber-sized works, and short, one-act operas. Many of [[Benjamin Britten]]'s operas are scored for as few as 13 instrumentalists; [[Mark Adamo]]'s two-act realization of ''[[Little Women (opera)|Little Women]]'' is scored for 18 instrumentalists.

Another feature of late 20th-century opera is the emergence of contemporary historical operas, in contrast to the tradition of basing operas on more distant history, the re-telling of contemporary fictional stories or plays, or on myth or legend. ''[[The Death of Klinghoffer]]'', ''[[Nixon in China]]'', and ''[[Doctor Atomic]]'' by [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]], ''[[Dead Man Walking (opera)|Dead Man Walking]]'' by [[Jake Heggie]], ''[[Anna Nicole]]'' by [[Mark-Anthony Turnage]], and ''Waiting for Miss Monroe''<ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-06-12 |title=A Dutch Take on a Cultural Icon|author=George Loomis|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/arts/13iht-loomis13.html |access-date=2023-12-08}}</ref> by [[Robin de Raaff]] exemplify the dramatisation onstage of events in recent living memory, where characters portrayed in the opera were alive at the time of the premiere performance.

The [[Metropolitan Opera]] in the US (often known as the Met) reported in 2011 that the average age of its audience was 60.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wakin |first=Daniel J. |title=Met Backtracks on Drop in Average Audience Age |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/met-backtracks-on-drop-in-average-audience-age/ |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 February 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204235718/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/met-backtracks-on-drop-in-average-audience-age/ |archive-date= 4 February 2021}}</ref> Many opera companies attempted to attract a younger audience to halt the larger trend of greying audiences for [[classical music]] since the last decades of the 20th century.<ref>General reference for this section: {{harvnb|Parker|1994|loc=ch. 9}}</ref> Efforts resulted in lowering the average age of the Met's audience to 58 in 2018, the average age at [[Berlin State Opera]] was reported as 54, and [[Paris Opera]] reported an average age of 48.<ref name="age2018">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/arts/music/paris-opera-young-audiences.html |title=An Unlikely Youth Revolution at the Paris Opera |last=Grey |first=Tobias |date=19 February 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211171621/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/arts/music/paris-opera-young-audiences.html |archive-date=11 February 2021}}</ref> ''[[New York Times]]'' critic [[Anthony Tommasini]] has suggested that "companies inordinately beholden to standard repertory" are not reaching younger, more curious audiences.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Tommasini|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Tommasini|date=2020-08-06|title=Classical Music Attracts Older Audiences. Good.|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/arts/music/classical-music-opera-older-audiences.html|access-date=2022-11-30|archive-date=30 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130052518/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/arts/music/classical-music-opera-older-audiences.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Smaller companies in the US have a more fragile existence, and they usually depend on a "patchwork quilt" of support from state and local governments, local businesses, and fundraisers. Nevertheless, some smaller companies have found ways of drawing new audiences. In addition to radio and television broadcasts of opera performances, which have had some success in gaining new audiences, broadcasts of live performances to movie theatres have shown the potential to reach new audiences.<ref>{{cite web |title=On Air & On Line |url=http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_alternates.aspx |publisher=The Metropolitan Opera |year=2007 |access-date=4 March 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120105836/http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_alternates.aspx |archive-date= 20 November 2007}}</ref>

====From musicals back towards opera====
By the late 1930s, some [[Musical theatre|musicals]] began to be written with a more operatic structure. These works include complex polyphonic ensembles and reflect musical developments of their times. ''[[Porgy and Bess]]'' (1935), influenced by jazz styles, and ''[[Candide (operetta)|Candide]]'' (1956), with its sweeping, lyrical passages and farcical parodies of opera, both opened on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] but became accepted as part of the opera repertory. Popular musicals such as ''[[Show Boat]]'', ''[[West Side Story]]'', ''[[Brigadoon]]'', ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street|Sweeney Todd]]'', ''[[Passion (musical)|Passion]]'', ''[[Evita (musical)|Evita]]'', ''[[The Light in the Piazza (musical)|The Light in the Piazza]]'', ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)|The Phantom of the Opera]]'' and others tell dramatic stories through complex music and in the 2010s they are sometimes seen in opera houses.<ref>{{cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |title=''Sweeney Todd'', Royal Opera House, London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/dec/17/classicalmusicandopera1|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London |date=17 December 2003 |access-date=15 December 2016 |archive-date=10 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510220401/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/dec/17/classicalmusicandopera1 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[The Most Happy Fella]]'' (1952) is quasi-operatic and has been revived by the [[New York City Opera]]. Other [[Rock musical|rock-influenced musicals]], such as ''[[The Who's Tommy|Tommy]]'' (1969) and ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'' (1971), ''[[Les Misérables (musical)|Les Misérables]]'' (1980), ''[[Rent (musical)|Rent]]'' (1996), ''[[Spring Awakening (musical)|Spring Awakening]]'' (2006), and ''[[Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812]]'' (2012) employ various operatic conventions, such as [[through-composed music|through composition]], recitative instead of dialogue, and [[leitmotif]]s.