Project Gutenberg 2025-05-08 Public domain in the USA. 278 Lee, E. Markham (Ernest Markham) 1874 1956 Lee, Ernest Markham Crowest, Frederick James 1850 1927 10002933 The story of opera $aLondon :$bThe Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., $c1909. The Music story series Jane Robins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "The Story of Opera" by E. Markham Lee is a historical account written in the early 20th century. The work explores the development and transformation of opera as an art form, tracing its origins, evolution, key contributors, and various national schools. Intended as both an accessible introduction and a reference, the book covers significant composers, styles, reforms, and performance practices in opera, while also providing guidance for listeners and students. Its likely audience ranges from interested amateurs to more serious students seeking an up-to-date and readable overview of the operatic tradition. The opening of "The Story of Opera" frames opera as a complex, somewhat artificial yet deeply expressive art form, setting it apart from spoken drama due to its reliance on continuous music to accentuate emotion and storytelling. Beginning with a discussion on the difficulty of defining opera, the author highlights its essential characteristic: a staged drama in which music is a fundamental, not merely decorative, component. The text then outlines the historical development of opera, introducing the reader to major innovations, reforms, and national schools, from the early Italian experiments to the repertories of Germany, France, and England. The narrative covers the roles of key reformers such as Monteverdi, Gluck, and Wagner, depicts the cyclical nature of operatic trends and reforms, and establishes the importance of understanding both music and dramatic content to fully appreciate opera's significance. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/storyofopera00leee/page/n9 20200412151017lee 1909 GB Reading ease score: 54.9 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. en Opera ML Text Category: History - Other Category: Art Category: Music 528569 2025-06-30T06:11:13.298756 text/html 491769 2025-05-08T13:20:04 text/html 19429176 2025-06-30T06:11:26.895685 application/epub+zip 4526515 2025-06-30T06:11:16.868766 application/epub+zip 375294 2025-06-30T06:11:15.344717 application/epub+zip 4891610 2025-06-30T06:11:32.742625 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 4829567 2025-06-30T06:11:24.730706 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 385510 2025-06-30T06:11:11.240725 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 365603 2025-05-08T13:20:04 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16364 2025-06-30T06:11:32.909620 application/rdf+xml 21672 2025-06-30T06:11:15.642705 image/jpeg 3439 2025-06-30T06:11:15.492724 image/jpeg 19461165 2025-06-30T06:11:14.190752 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog