Shakespeare in Opera

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Jeremy Tambling (University of Hong Kong)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1692

Places

Italy (Location)
United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Music (any)
- Classical Music
  - Opera

A list of operas deriving from Shakespeare (1564-1616), whose writing career parallels the birth of modern opera – Monteverdi was born in 1567 – would exceed 270. That number does not account for Shakespeare's indirect and immeasurable influence on operatic writing through songs for his plays, or his impact on specific composers such as Verdi, who saw Shakespeare's use of tragedy and comedy together as vital to his own art, or on Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (1870-72), which, like Shakespeare's histories, attempts to bring a whole nation onto the stage. Any listing of operas inspired by Shakespeare, as is given here, is bound to be selective.

Writing operas from Shakespeare's plays began, primarily, at the end of the e…

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2023 words

Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Shakespeare in Opera". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1208, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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