The fourth revolution of opera:
How would it be if the orchestra were able to replicate the recitation?

Opera 4.0 is currently instigating the fourth revolution in opera history by going back to the essentials of opera: recitation. This approach will make opera accessible to a broader public.

When opera was "invented" in the Renaissance, the sole aim of the circle of artists, poets and thinkers associated with the Florentine Camerata was to make the classical texts more exciting. In order to achieve this they had the idea of underlaying the stories with music and having the text be sung. From then on opera swiftly became an art form in its own right, with the music developing its own role and importance. In three main stages of development the relationship and balance between music and text was constantly reevaluated.

It may be that linguistic rhetoric is a recurring issue nowadays, especially in historical performance practice, but Opera 4.0 introduces new dimensions to this aspect of performance: Words and music are of equal importance and are able to develop their rhetorical power with many different affects. As a result, today’s audience is able to share the passion of the protagonists with renewed thrill, both in the recitatives and the arias.