Opera is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers, but is distinct from musical theater. Such a “work” is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.
Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as musical theater, Singspiel and Opra comique. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of singing: recitative, a speech-inflected style, and self-contained arias.
Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Heinrich Schtz in Germany, Jean-Baptiste Lully in France, and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. In the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe , attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel.Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his “reform” operas in the 1760s.
During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia.
Beginning in 2006, a number of major opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world.
