Dramma per musica

What it means

Dramma per musica, literally “drama through music,” was the original Italian term for what later became known as opera. It stresses the claim that the music carries and expresses an already dramatic plot, rather than the plot merely serving as a pretext for musical numbers.

Musical use

The term was coined in the circle of the Florentine Camerata around 1600, a group of scholars and musicians who sought, through the new, text-driven stile rappresentativo, to revive ancient Greek tragedy in musical form. Early works such as Jacopo Peri's Dafne and Euridice, and Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), were described in this sense as dramma per musica and are considered founding works of the operatic genre.

Dramma per musica should be distinguished from the later opera seria, which often carried the term in its title during the 18th century but differs from the freer early experiments through fixed dramaturgical conventions such as the da capo aria and a stronger standardisation. It also differs from the secular madrigal comedy, which did without a continuous staged plot and production.

Performance practice

In early dramma per musica works, listen especially for the declamatory vocal style close to spoken text, known as monody or recitar cantando, the forerunner of later recitative. If you take part in a performance of such works yourself, follow the text's natural speech rhythm rather than forcing it into a rigid musical metre.