How To Enjoy Opera - Tips For Newbies - What Is An Opera Score

An opera score is the final draft of the composer's work. It is the sheet music for an opera, with all the parts (individual instruments, orchestra sections, singers) included. Once the score is ready, enough copies are produced for each participant to get at least one (the conductor, each orchestra member, each singer, the director, the prompter, the lights engineer).

Once he finds a suitable story for a new opera and gets a libretto done (see my article on libretti), the composer begins to work on a SHORT SCORE - a sketch, a light version of the entire opera. The short score normally includes the themes, melodies, and singing parts. Most of it can be performed on the piano.

Once the short score is ready, the composer begins to ORCHESTRATE it - adding various instruments to it (and sometimes changing some of the initial themes and melodies as he sees fit). Orchestration is hard work that that usually takes several months to complete.

Some opera composers pay too much attention to their orchestration. As a result, the melodic aspect of their operas suffer.

Giuseppe Verdi's orchestration is at times ascetic - the great Italian maestro relied heavily on his melodic gift to produce good opera music. And yet, when the moment calls for it, Verdi's orchestra is present in full force, capable of truthfully depicting thunderstorms, earthquakes, revenge, hope, love, yearning, longing, passion, etc.

Richard Wagner's orchestration methods were somewhat ahead of the composer's time. Wagner nearly doubled the standard size of the orchestra, and even today, when you look into the orchestra pit at a Wagner performance, you'll see how tightly packed with musicians it is.

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