No country, other than Italy can claim the creation of a music that has been so universally accepted, for so many centuries.
 
This is not the time for me to go into ALL the contributions of the Romans, the Renaissance and the Risorgimento. Although I will briefly mention  that the Roman culture was so influential that it was the foundation of modern law, administration, philosophy and arts, forming the ground that Western civilization is based upon.  The Renaissance revived Western Civilization after the Dark Ages overwhelmed Rome. and brought along numerous political, philosophical, literary, cultural, social and religious reforms. The Risorgimento spawned many of the Social Reforms adopted by FDR, and then copied by the more advanced countries.
Opera arose in Italy from a background of various forms of courtly entertainment. The word "opera" means "work" in Italian (from the plural of Latin opus  meaning "work" or "labour") suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle. 
"Dafne" by Jacopo Peri was the earliest opera, although it was much more like a chamber opera than either the preceding intermedi or the operas of Claudio Monteverdi a few years later. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata". Significantly, Dafne  was an attempt to revive the antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance.

Memories of mom: She helped instill a love of Italian opera

 Times Record;By Gloria Smith; Monday, May 10, 2010 

 
...[on Mother's Day] One of the memories stirring me right now is how 0my mother)  Columbia actually sang us to sleep when my sisters and I were very young. Not with gentle lullabies. Columbia’s passion was opera. Her favorites were "Carmen" and “Madame Butterfly".

She would render Carmen’s "Habanera" aria in her dramatic spitfire way. More gentle serenades included the aria "Un Bel Di" from "Madame Butterfly."

She couldn’t help it, coming from an Italian-American family which, like all Italo-Americans, worshipped grand opera as if it were a religion.

In fact, she once told us that her father, our grandfather Frank, kept the family supplied with the latest opera recordings, especially those made by Enrico Caruso. "When my sisters and I cleaned our rooms each Saturday, we did our chores listening to these records blasting away on the Victrola". she often told us. That’s how they learned the words.

Now Columbia didn’t have as beautiful a voice as her sister Mary who was my godmother. But Columbia had a natural stage presence and she knew how to put over a song with tremendous emotion...

As I was recalling these memories, my thoughts turned to our grandmother, Nonna Jenny. Every Saturday my sisters and I would go to grandma’s house on the corner of the street on which we lived. We’d go in time for Nonna to turn on the radio for the weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcast.

Grandma was the show. She’d explain what was happening to us. She’d heave her breast and sigh when things turned melodramatic. The sisters and I would make sure she’d have enough handkerchiefs to mop up her copious tears.

Opera was truly something sacred to this family. I’m sure if both women were still alive, they’d be attending the live satellite productions that are now shown in local movie houses" the ones so popular with audiences.

The next best things are the memories. Sometimes when Columbia was singing an aria from Bizet’s "Carmen" she’d wrap herself in a colorful Spanish shawl. It was as if Carmen were right in the room with us.

http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2010/05/
10/features/doc4be83fd17ddce146253844.txt
 
 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives) on:
[Formerly Italy at St Louis]