Abstract

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THE VIEW OF REALISM IN THE ART OF OPERA: VERISMO

Hilmi Yazici


Encountered in caves with primitive men, the concept of art has had a continuous development and change from the ancient times to the present day. The art has always kept its place in lives of man as a part of social, economical and cultural developments performed by man for ages. Along with the concept of art developing and changing in time, many different types of wordings and many branches of arts have been formed. As the materials of arts were shaped and changed, the arts were also likely to be separated to different branches. However, among many different styles formed with the development of music, “opera” is of a vital importance. The art of opera has passed through many different periods during its development period, also with the effect of interest by people. As well as the development performed by opera itself within this period, social, political, economical and cultural alterations have also been effective in addition to the movements of thoughts. Especially the effects of the movements of thoughts developing in the 19th century became important on individuals on a large scale, and these effects were also seen in opera, as in other arts. All developments and awareness in society seen in the 19th century led to serious intellectual movements. One of the most important movements developing in this period was also “the movement of realism”, that is, “realism” appearing in the field of literature. The movement of realism effective in literature in the 19th century became influential on opera as well and was called “verismo”. While the appearance of verismo movement in opera is evaluated in this study, several important composers representatives of the movement will be mentioned, and social, cultural and political factors leading to the movement will be examined.