How To Enjoy Opera - Tips For Newbies - The Overture

Every field of human activity feature light-hearted, oftentimes silly introductory procedure whose original purpose no one remembers anymore. One of the requirements at job interviews, for instance, is that the candidate and the employer's representative spend some time smiling sheepishly and lying politely to each other. At dinner, one is presented with a variety of appetizers and drinks. In a movie theatre, the show does not begin until the viewer has taken in the "previews," which had in times immemorial replaced the news reel (which had since fallen victim to TV news). And so forth.

The overture was originally a piece of music performed at the opera theatre before the actual show started. The lights would still be on (the candles in the big overhead chandelier would still be lit). The whole purpose was to signal to those in the theatre that it was time to stop chatting and start looking for their seats. Towards the end of the Baroque period, opera composers had gained enough respect to require that ALL of their music, including overtures, be given the listener's undivided attention. Most of the public went along with the idea. This prompted the composers themselves to take overtures seriously.

The overture started to take on meaning. Some composers used catchy musical phrases and even entire themes and melodies in their overtures. Others, like Guiseppe Verdi, would write an independent brief symphonic opus. Still others, like Richard Wagner, preferred to present in their overtures a brief musical synopsis of the entire opera. Some of opera overtures are performed in concert halls today - as independent symphonic pieces.

Giacomo Puccini, the most renowned verismo opera composer, dismissed the idea of writing overtures altogether, being firmly convinced that opera music's purpose was to depict the action. Since there is no action when the curtain is down, there is no reason for music to be playing.

Today, the overture is performed with the curtain down, and the lights off. It is customary to applaud when it's over, even though in many good operas there is no clean break between the overture and the beginning of the action.

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