n and the Metropolitan Opera House are
popularly spoken of as Italian operas, so German opera popularly means
Wagner's lyric dramas, in the first instance, and a style of
performance which grew out of Wagner's influence in the second. As
compared with Italian opera, in which the principal singers are all
and the _ensemble_ nothing, it means, mayhap, inferior vocalists but
better actors in the principal parts, a superior orchestra and chorus,
and a more conscientious effort on the part of conductor, stage
manager, and artists, from first to last, to lift the general effect
above the conventional level which has prevailed for centuries in the
Italian opera houses.

[Sidenote: _Wagner's "Musikdrama."_]

[Sidenote: _Modern Italian terminology._]

In terminology, as well as in artistic aim, Wagner's lyric dramas
round out a cycle that began with the works of the Florentine
reformers of the sixteenth century. Wagner called his later operas
_Musikdramen_, wherefore he was soundly abused and ridiculed by his
critics. When the Italian opera first appeared it was called _Dramma
per musica_, or _Melodramma_, or _Tragedia per musica_, all of which
terms stand in Italian for the conception that _Musikdrama_ stands for
in German. The new thing had been in existence for half a century, and
was already on the road to the degraded level on which we shall find
it when we come to the subject of operatic singing, before it came to
be called _Opera in musica_, of which "opera" is an abbreviation. Now
it is to be observed that the composers of all countries, having been
taught to believe that the dramatic contents of an opera have some
significance, are abandoning the vague term "opera" and following
Wagner in his adoption of the principles underlying the original
terminology. Verdi called his "Aida" an _Opera in quattro atti_, but
his "Otello" he designated a lyric drama (_Dramma lirico_), his
"Falstaff" a lyric comedy (_Commedia lirica_), and his example is
followed by the younger Italian composers, such as Mascagni,
Leoncavallo, and Puccini.

[Sidenote: _Recitative._]

In the majority of the operas of the current list the vocal element
illustrates an amalgamation of the archaic recitative and aria. The
dry form of recitative is met with now only in a few of the operas
which date back to the last century or the early years of the present.
"Le Nozze di Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"
are the most familiar works