Opera : Passion, Power, Politics

Lavish exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the history of opera via seven operas the cities they premiered in.

I loved the fact this show put the operas into their social and political contexts and that each section had a similar rhythm with a contemporary map of the city, prints of the opera houses and portraits of the main protagonist. I also like the large, blackboard like fact board in each section which gave a simple outline of the story and why the opera was ground-breaking.

It was great to have the audio tour as this would have been a strange show without music however I found it didn’t always trigger in the right places and in comparing the experience with the other people I was with we had each missed certain sections as we’d stood in different places.

Needless to say I liked the earlier sections best as I preferred this music and they fell into periods I love in art. The Venice section was luscious and focused the city as one of entertainment focusing on L’Incoronazione de Poppea as the first public opera. I also loved the section on London in 1711 looking at Handel and was charmed to see a fan with the seating plan of the Theatre Royal Haymarket on it.

Other magical items around the show included the draft of Cherubini’s aria from Figaro in Mozart’s own hand and the models of stage sets for the original production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsehsk. I also liked Degas’s picture of the dancers in a 19th century opera seen through the orchestra.

Closes on 25 February 2018.

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