How popular was opera?

gary

Captain
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
During the ante-bellum and Civil War era?

I suspect that there were travelling companies that brought them to the major metropolitan areas. If a city was big enough, it could even have its own symphony orchestra or if it was a town, a town band that could play the popular airs of the period.

I also suspect that then and now, people wanted to keep up with the Jones and tried to get the latest from Europe here. I know in Washington's day he did and always believed that when he bought stuff, they sent him out of date fashion.
 
The county where I was born in NC had a civil war era population of about 5000. The city which is the county seat had a population of about 1500, including slaves. Before there was a church and before there was a courthouse built, there was an opera house on Main Street. That has always seemed odd to me.
 
Music played a very large part in most everyone's life. If you couldn't go to a concert, you made your own. If you couldn't carry a tune, you could play something. There was never a time when music was absent. (You'll note here the rarely said word, "never.") One of my best ever memories was a family in Missouri who, after shamelessly pigging out on a modest dinner after church, would pick up their guitars, banjos, fiddles, etc. and sing and play and have such a good time.

Grand opera, and its lesser versions has always been (Note again the rarely said word, "always.") a presentation of the select few who have refined the craft of using voice as an instrument.

And here I'll get some flak. But an Eileen Farrel, a Barbara Streisland, a Sherrill Milnes, a Richard Tucker, et alii, represent a level of professional excellence that the likes of the heavy-metal bangers will never, ever achieve.

As a people, we cannot pleasantly survive without our music. Now, we don't have to make our own, as they did then. But to return to the original question, grand opera exhibited, then as now, the creme de la creme of those who've worked really hard to get where they are.

Doesn't much matter whether you like opera or not, these people didn't get where they are by whanging on something in a garage.

Oh! Hey! I'll try to make a relevant comparison here. Pick a general, any general. Did he rise to prominance because he favored whatever was popular at the moment? No. He was a thinker.

Guess I blew that one.

Ole
 
To amplify a little on what Ole said, Civil War era Americans couldn't go out and buy a CD for their preferred musical tastes, or rent a movie from Blockbuster so live entertainment was the norm. Moreover, education was much more oriented toward the humanities and much less toward scientific pursuits.

It was a different time.
 
But here is the crux, Diddy, virtually no one was devoid of music. Can't get a CD? Pick up a guitar or a juice harp or whatever. You had music

And I'm reasonably certain that it was not a CW thing. You had to have it. If wasn't readily available, you just had to do it yourself.

Go to the most desolate of society right here and now. In that wretched refuse is music. Double-dog.

Ole
 
Opera houses hosted many kinds of music. Minstrel shows were wildly popular, as were singing groups like the Hutchinson Family Singers. Airs from operas were considered proper for parlor performances... minstrel show songs, less so! :smile:

Zou
 
Mine goes to . That's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten.



Actually, I believe "opera houses" would now be called either a theater or a concert hall. The Italian Opera as we know it would not likely have been much of a draw. Consider that money was made on sheet music, and traveling companies no doubt would have performed mostly those songs which could have been sung or played by the masses in between visits.
 
Dang! Handler. Just throw a blanket over me and choke out my oxygen.

I'm going to have to agree, however, that Italian Grand Opera was at or about the same then as it is now. It requires formal dress and generally escapes understanding, but those boogers could sing like you can't rightly believe.

Here was the epitome of the voice as an instrument. Unamplified. Straight up. Last row can hear. The essence of a vocal musician (note that I didn't say singer) is the peak of a very old craft. Danged few can step up to that line. And with that, I'll tip my hat to my buddy, Sherrill Milnes.
 
Ah, something about which I know a bit.
Selections from opera would have been something that, due to the increased proliferation of sheet music, would have become part of the larger cities music scene.
Grand Opera of the sort represented by Verdi, early Wagner would have required a skill that would perhaps be beyond most performers. "Home-grown/trained" singers/performers and those self-taught would more than likely, gather around the piano in the parlor for at home entertainments. Most young ladies in particular, were expected to be able to "play the piano a little" and sing. Guitars, mouth organs, bones, etc. were more for the porch :~D
OTOH, operetta, comic operas were very popular, most likely d/t the more lively stories and the somewhat perceived to be easier music. Offenbach's work was exceptionally popular during the 50s and 60s.

American composers from the 40s on wrote many songs that became inextricably associated with the Civil War. Like most any wartime period, music blossomed to soothe the fears, encourage and uplift the spirit and nourish the heart and soul. Folk music from the Appalachians and the Irish and Scots immigrants spoke to the people and crossed battle lines.

One of my favorite songs of the day is "All Quiet Along the Potomac". I also love that much maligned, "Vacant Chair".
Sorry to ramble on so much, but music has been part of my life since childhood and American Popular music is a favorite.
Jeanne
 
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