Studied by 3 people
bel canto
Italian style in which beautiful voices are the focus (orchestra is secondary
Gioacchino Rossini
Famous for both opera buffas (now) and bel canto opera (then), suddenly gave up opera (1792-1868)
Gaetano Donizetti
After Rossini, wrote more than 60 operas and died young (1797-1848)
Vincenzo Bellini
Most refined of early bel canto composers, not as many operas (1801-1835)
Carl Maria von Weber
Founder of German Romantic opera, had supernatural subject matter (1786-1826)
Giuseppe Verdi
Famous opera composer involved in the Risorgimento (1813-1901)
Richard Wagner
German opera composer (that got exiled for 13 years by helping with a failed revolution) that had a "hypnotic personality" and wrote anti-Semitic writings and operas later used by Nazis (1813-1883)
Giacomo Puccini
Main Italian opera composer after Verdi, w/ realist tendencies and varied locales in his operas
Gesamtkunstwerk
Wagner's "total work of art"
Leitmotiv
leading musical motive associated with some person, thing, idea, or symbol; guides the listener through a story
thematic transformation
variation-like technique in which the changing of motives could show a person/idea developing and changing “under the impact of dramatic action”
Note 
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