The widespread modern stereotype of the opera as elitist and stodgy stands in stark contrast to what audiences thought of it in mid-17th-century. Back then, it was popular and breathtakingly new. “Taken together, it is one of the most magnificent diversions the wit of man can invent,” wrote the English diarist John Evelyn after seeing his first opera in Venice in 1645.
Sponsored by princes and local nobles, these early productions were performed in banquet halls and ballrooms with admission by invitation only. There was little distinction between the stage and the audience, and the latter would wear masks and join in. The spectacle was often exaggerated to impress visiting dignitaries.
When composers started writing for the public stage, however, they had to learn how to cater to the masses by grabbing attention and drawing the public into the story once the music took over in a “game of push and pull between the stage and the audience,” according to Carter.production, composers and producers figured out how to consolidate opera’s appeal to the masses in Venice. By the end of the 17th century, there would be nine opera houses in the city.
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