Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born January 27, 1756 and died December 5, 1791. Most anyone has heard of his name although they might not be able to put any of his music to it. He was and always will be one of the most extraordinary composers in our history. He wrote well over 500 symphonies alone. As well as numerous other pieces including operas, concertos and more.

Many new, exciting and inventive operas came from the mind of George Caspar Schurman. He was one of the predecessors of Keiser to Hamburg’s opera theater. Although he was only there for a short while his more prominent works were done in his later years. Schurman was noted for his unique structure and care in voice writing as well as his orchestration. The operas that he produced had magnificent string arrangements which rivaled that of Johann Sebastian Bach. In one of his more famous pieces, Ludovicus Pius, oder Ludewig der …

During this time Handel join Hamburg’s opera orchestra as a violinist in 1703. There he wrote his first opera Almira in 1705 (“Encyclopedia” 292). The libretto from which it was based was written by Friedrich Christian Feustking and derived from the Venetian libretto by Guilio Pancieri (Hogwood 26). It’s a three act opera that was primarily sung in German with few Italian arias and a single aria that was sung in both German and Italian. The Opera involved dance as well, including ballet, a saraband and chaconne which had brought …

The next and second German opera to be composed was in likeness to Schutz’s. It shared the same title; however, it was set to a different libretto written by Opitz in 1627. This version was longer than the original one that Schutz used. This Dafne was composed by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi and Marco Gioseppe Peranda in 1671. The song style within this opera seems to reflect upon the style of Monteverdi than that of typical German characteristics. It is unclear whether either intellectually knew Monteverdi but it is certain that …

Opera, in its conventional form, had first appeared in 1597 in Italy and later expanded toward Germany, France and England (“Encyclopedia” 491). Opera began just three years before the first years of what we now consider to be the Baroque Period (1600-1750 AD) in music. The word “baroque” according to Webster’s Dictionary means: “a jeweler’s trade term for ill-shaped pearls.” This term is in reference to general sound of the music that was composed within this era. Although it had intellectually surpassed that of the prior generations it still did …