Opera seria, Italiane dramma per musica et melodramma serio aliquando appellata, fuit nobile seriumque operae Italicae genus quod in Europa inter annos fere 1700/1770 dominatum est. Terminus ipse eo tempore est raro usurpatus, commune adhibitus solum postquam opera seria, contra consuetudinem facta, "genus historicum" considerari solebat. Popularis operae seriae aemulus fuit opera buffa , comicum operae genus ex comoedia artis , genere ex tempore peracto, deductum.
Adumbratio perfunctionis Flavii , operae seriae a Handel compositae, quae tres vehementius dicit notissimos operae seriae cantores : Senesinum castratum laeva, divam Franciscam Cuzzoni media, et Gaetanum Berenstadt castratum , artem amantem, dextra.
Antonius Raaff , tenor Germanicus , qui partes titulares in Idomeneo Mozart creavit, hic partes heroicas agit.
Opera seria, semper ad libellos Italianos composits, non solum in Italia ,[1] sed etiam in Austria Habsburgensi , Anglia , Saxonia , et aliis civitatibus Germanicis producta est, etiam in Hispania et alibi. Ea autem in Francia minorem populi favorem habebat, operá Francicá ibi regnante. Felices operae seriae compositores fuerunt Alexander Scarlatti , Hasse , Porpora , Handel , et altero saeculi duodevicensimi dimidio Traetta , Gluck , et Mozart .
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