Classic pulp space opera cover, with the usual cliché elements

Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap opera" (see below). Perhaps the most significant trait of space opera is that settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale.

Sometimes the term space opera is used pejoratively to denote bad quality science fiction, but its meaning can differ, often describing a particular science fiction genre without any value judgement.

Changing definition[link]

As David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer note in their 2006 anthology of space operas, "there is no general agreement as to what [space opera] is, which writers are the best examples, or even which works are space opera".^[1] They further note that space opera has had several key and different definitions throughout its history; definitions that were significantly affected by literary politics.^[1] They argue that "what used to be science fantasy is now space opera, and what used to be space opera is entirely forgotten."^[1]

The phrase "space opera" itself was coined in 1941 by fanwriter (and later author) Wilson Tucker, in a fanzine article,^[2] as a pejorative term. At the time, serial radio dramas in the US had become popularly known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap manufacturers. Tucker defined space opera as the SF equivalent: a "hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn".^[3] Even earlier, the term horse opera had come into use as a term for western films. In fact, some fans and critics have noted that the plots of space operas have sometimes been taken from horse operas and simply translated into an outer space environment.

This usage of "space opera" as a term for poor SF, remained in force until about the 1970s.^[1] In other words, many works that are today classified as "space operas" would not have been called by that name originally.^[1]

Beginning in the 1960s, and widely accepted by the 1970s, the space opera was redefined, following Brian Aldiss' definition in Space Opera (1974) as (in the paraphrase Hartwell and Cramer) "the good old stuff".^[1] Yet soon after his redefinition, it began to be challenged, for example, by the editorial practice and marketing of Judy-Lynn del Rey and in the reviews of her husband and colleague Lester del Rey.^[1] In particular, they disputed the claims that space operas were obsolete, and Del Rey Books labeled reissues of earlier work of Leigh Brackett as space opera.^[1] By the early 1980s, space operas—adventure stories set in space—were again redefined, and the label was attached to major popular culture works such as Star Wars.^[1] It was only in the early 1990s that the term space opera began to be recognized as a legitimate genre of science fiction.^[1] Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as "colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes."^[1]

History[link]

Early works related to but preceding the genre contained many elements of what would become space opera. They are today referred to as proto-space opera.^[4] The earliest proto-space opera was written by a few little-known mid-nineteenth century French authors, for example Star ou Psi de Cassiopée: Histoire Merveilleuse de l’un des Mondes de l’Espace (1854) by C. I. Defontenay and Lumen (1872) by Camille Flammarion. Not widely popular, proto-space operas were nevertheless occasionally written during the late Victorian and Edwardian science fiction era. Examples may be found in the works of Percy Greg, Garrett P. Serviss, George Griffith, and Robert Cromie.^[5] One critic cites Robert William Cole's The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236 as the first space opera.^[6] The novel does depict an interstellar conflict between solar men of Earth and a fierce humanoid race headquartered on Sirius. However, the idea for the novel arises out of a nationalistic genre of fiction popular from 1880–1914, called future war fiction,^[7] and many would therefore dispute its claim to be called the first space opera.

Despite this seemingly early beginning, it was not until the late 1920s that the space opera proper began to appear regularly in pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories.^[1][4] In film, the genre probably began with the 1918 Danish film, Himmelskibet.^[8] Unlike earlier stories of space adventure, which either related the invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, or concentrated on the invention of a space vehicle by a genius inventor, pure space opera simply took space travel for granted (usually by setting the story in the far future), skipped the preliminaries, and launched straight into tales of derring-do among the stars. Some early stories of this type include J. Schlossel's Invaders from Outside (January 1925, Weird Tales),^[9] Ray Cummings' Tarrano the Conqueror (1925), Edmond Hamilton's Across Space (1926) and Crashing Suns (in Weird Tales, August–September 1928), J. Schlossel's The Second Swarm (Spring 1928, in Amazing Stories Quarterly), and The Star Stealers (February 1929 in Weird Tales).^[4] Similar stories by other writers followed through 1929 and 1930. By 1931, the space opera was well established as a major sub-genre of science fiction.^{[citation needed]}

The author cited most often as the true father of the genre, however, is E. E. "Doc" Smith. His first published work, The Skylark of Space (August–October 1928, Amazing Stories) is often called the first great space opera.^[4] It merges the traditional tale of a scientist inventing a space-drive with science fantasy or planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs.^[1] Smith's later Lensman series and the works of Edmond Hamilton, John W. Campbell, and Jack Williamson in the 1930s and 1940s were popular with readers and much imitated by other writers. By the early 1940s, the repetitiousness and extravagance of some of these stories led to objections from some fans and the coining of the term in its original, pejorative sense.

Eventually, though, a fondness for the best examples of the genre led to a reevaluation of the term and a resurrection of some of the subgenre's traditions. Writers such as Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson had kept the large-scale space adventure form alive through the 1950s, followed by writers like M. John Harrison and C. J. Cherryh in the 1970s. By this time, "space opera" was for many readers no longer a term of insult but a simple description of a particular kind of science fiction adventure story.^[1]

According to author Paul J. McAuley, a number of mostly British writers began to reinvent space opera in the 1970s^[10] (although most non-British critics tend to dispute the British claim to dominance in the new space opera arena^[1]). Significant events in this process include the publication of M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device in 1975 and a "call to arms" editorial by David Pringle and Colin Greenland in the Summer 1984 issue of Interzone;^[10] and the financial success of Star Wars, which follows some traditional space opera conventions.^[1] This "new space opera", which evolved around the same time cyberpunk emerged and was influenced by it, is darker, moves away from the "triumph of mankind" template of space opera, involves newer technologies, and has stronger characterization than the space opera of old. While it does retain the interstellar scale and scope of traditional space opera, it can also be scientifically rigorous.

The new space opera was a reaction against the old. New space opera proponents claim that the genre centers on character development, fine writing, high literary standards, verisimilitude, and a moral exploration of contemporary social issues. McAuley and Michael Levy^[11] identify Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, M. John Harrison, Alastair Reynolds, McAuley himself,^[10] Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton, and Justina Robson as the most notable practitioners of the new space opera.

Definitions by contrast[link]

Some critics distinguish between space opera and planetary romance.^[12] Where space opera grows out of both the Western and sea adventure traditions,^{[citation needed]} the planetary romance grows out of the lost world or lost civilization tradition.^{[citation needed]} Both feature adventures in exotic settings, but space opera emphasizes space travel, while planetary romances focus on alien worlds. In this view, the Martian, Venusian, and lunar-setting stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs would be planetary romances (and among the earliest), as would be Leigh Brackett's Burroughs-influenced Eric John Stark stories.

Space opera can also be contrasted with "hard science fiction", in which the emphasis is on the effects of technological progress and inventions, and where the settings are carefully worked out to obey the laws of physics, cosmology, mathematics, and biology.

One subset of space opera overlaps with military science fiction, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons. In such stories, the military tone and weapon system technology may be taken very seriously. At one extreme, the genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other it consists of the use of military fiction plots with some superficial science fiction trappings. The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenera, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.^[13]

Assessment[link]

Throughout years 1982–2002, and possibly throughout most of its history, the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel has commonly been given to a space opera nominee.^[1]

Parodies[link]

Fredric Brown's What Mad Universe has as its protagonist a sober-headed science fiction magazine editor who suddenly finds himself transported to an alternative history timeline where all the Space opera clichés (a larger-than-life space hero fighting evil aliens who are totally bent on humanity's destruction, etc.) are concrete, daily life realities.

Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero parodies the conventions of classic space opera^[14], as does his Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers. The 1987 film Spaceballs, directed and co-written by Mel Brooks, is a Star Wars parody with many space opera characteristics. The American animated television series Futurama, created by Matt Groening, plays with the space opera genre from time to time,^{[citation needed]} for example in the over-the-top military officer Zapp Brannigan.

Examples[link]

Space opera is a popular genre across many media, including novels, short stories, film, television and video games.

See also[link]

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

External links[link]

• David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, "How Shit Became Shinola: Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera"
• Locus, August 2003: Special section on "The New Space Opera." Articles by Russell Letson & Gary K. Wolfe, Ken MacLeod, Paul J. McAuley, Gwyneth Jones, M. John Harrison, and Stephen Baxter.
• Interview with Alastair Reynolds.
• Interview with Charles Stross.
• The entry on Space Opera from the Grollier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, 1995.
• Gary Westfahl's chapter on Space Opera in The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, ed. Farah Mendlesohn & Edward James, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Interview with M. John Harrison, Locus, December 2003. Harrison discusses his view of the nature of space opera in depth.

Didier Marouani
Background information
Born	1953 Monaco,
Genres	Electronic music
Occupations	Musician, composer
Years active	1970s–present
Associated acts	Space, Paris-France-Transit
Website	http://www.space.tm.fr

Didier Marouani (born in 1953^[1] in Monaco) is a French composer and musician. He is one of the pioneers in the Electronic music genre.

Didier started his career as a pop singer and made his first album with Etienne Roda-Gil as lyricist, he's done concerts tour with Johnny Hallyday, Claude François and Joe Dassin. In 1977, he created the band SPACE in 1977 and composed all the songs of the albums under the pseudonym ECAMA, they released as first single the hit "Magic Fly", Didier Marouani & SPACE went number one all over the world. Later he participated in such well-known band as "Paris-France-Transit". He sold over 10 millions records all over the world and over 12 Millions in USSR. In 1983 Didier & SPACE went in USSR to give 21 concerts for 600.000 people. in 1992, Didier was able to obtain the necessary authorization for a concert in Red Square, some 360.000 spectators attended this free concert.

Throughout the 1980s, Didier Marouani & SPACE gained quite a large popularity in France and many European socialist republics (such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Soviet Union).

1987: Didier composed a new album "SPACE-OPERA", the first Opera composed for synthesizers and choirs. He was able to obtain the participation of both the Red Army Choirs and the Harvard University Choirs (USA) for his album. The album was relayed to the Soviet space station "MIR", thus making the album the first to be heard in space. The CD has been launched into space together with a CD player by the Russian cosmonauts. "SPACE-OPERA" went on to achieve great success in Europe.

Didier & SPACE are giving huge concerts in different countries.

2001: World Premier on stage of the new SPACE Album «SYMPHONIC SPACE DREAM» in Kiev at the Ukraine Palace with the participation of the National Symphonic Orchestra of Ukraine (110 musicians).

2002 in Moscow at the Kremlin Theater (6.000 people) with the participation of the Presidential Symphonic Orchestra.

2002 in St. Petersburg, over 12.000 people acclaim the French band and his leader.

2003: MAGIC FLY has been remix in England by a young band call « S Club Junior » and has been n°1 England during 8 weeks in Singles and Albums sales charts.

2009: A huge concert in Moscow at the Olympisky Stadium.

In October 2009, Nang Records in England released a “BEST OF SPACE” completely remastered with 14 tracks, also a CD with 14 remixes has been release in November; the first Promo reports are excellent and the European release should be done during the beginning of 2010.

The release of the new SPACE album “FROM EARTH TO MARS” will happen around February 2010.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Space site
• Didier Marouani & Space discography
• Didier Marouani & Space Biography
• Didier Marouani interview
• Didier Marouani at the Internet Movie Database