Origin of opera--Peri and the Florentines--Monteverde--Cavalli
introduces vocal melody to relieve the monotony of
recitative--Aria developed by Alessandro
Scarlatti--Characteristics of Italian opera from Scarlatti to
Verdi--Gluck's reforms--German and French opera--"Les
Huguenots," "Faust," and "Carmen"--Comparative popularity
of certain operas here--Far-reaching effects of Wagner's
theories--Their influence on the later Verdi and contemporary
Italian composers--Wagner's music-dramas--A music-drama not an
opera--Form wholly original with Wagner--Gave impetus to
folk-lore movement--Krehbiel's "Studies in the Wagnerian
Drama"--Wagner and anti-Wagner--Finck's "Wagner and His
Works"--Wagner a melodist--Examples--Unity a distinguishing
trait of the music-drama--Wagner's method illustrated by
musical examples--The Curse Motive--The Siegfried, Nibelung,
and Tarnhelm motives--Leading motives not mere labels--Their
plasticity musically illustrated--The Siegfried horn call
developed into the motive of Siegfried, the hero, and into the
climax of the "Goetterdaemmerung" Funeral March--An
illustration from "Tristan"--Wagner as a composer of absolute
music--His scores the greatest achievement musical history, up
to the present time, has to show 260