Rulers of the Opera

12" Wooden Ruler made in U.S.A. of American-grown basswood. Opera, from the Italian word for “work”, can be described as a total artwork, combining music, acting, poetry, costumes, set design and sometimes dance or ballet. The first opera still to be regularly performed was L’Orfeo, written in 1607 by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) while at the court of Mantua, in Italy. The creation of an opera is usually a collaboration between a composer, who writes the music, and a librettist, who writes the story, or libretto (from the Italian for small book). The first seven entries on our ruler are all composers, writing in various styles. Three of them, Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and Vicenzo Bellini (1801-1835) exemplify what is known as the bel canto style (from the Italian for beautiful singing), with intricate sung lines requiring vocal agility and pitch control. Later operas started to include particularly dramatic storytelling, particularly in the works o