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British Society and Culture

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British Society and Culture
The Development and Impact of Opera in the United Kingdom

Introduction
Opera, is a first class culture and a perfect composition of music, art and drama, and the greatest and most elegant art that British people own(Jefferson, 1976). Because the status of opera is changing, opera is becoming a characteristic of cultural life that opens to public. In recent years, watching opera has become popular entertainment activity for the leisure time of people in the UK(Storey, 2000).

According to Jefferson, one factor of opera which attracts british people is its ability to produce various sensations and meanings for different audiences (1976). At the opera ,people may become a participant of the story to feel the traditional art. In addition, opera is not only a vital part of development in the British culture, but also it could provide knowledge and historical understanding of story to people. However, opera culture has affected significantly the development of the UK until now.

The purpose of this report is to present the development of opera its impact on the development of the UK and to discuss how popularity of opera among British people .

1. The development of opera
1.1 The history of opera in the United Kingdom
It is argued that opera was invented by a group elites of Florentine in the late sixteenth century. Although there was a strong dispute about the origin of opera, there was a approve of idea about it's commercial beginnings(Maclary, 1985, cited in Storey, 2000). Opera in the UK had a long history. In the late nineteenth century, opera just performed to the royal family and people who had authorities in the UK( Dent, 1940). After that , opera played a prominent role in the cultural life of the UK that was enjoyed and comprehended by different jobs of urban British people. Nevertheless, opera house became a public place of all social classes in society(Zelochow, 1993, cited in Storey, 2000). According to brief introduction of Victoria

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