What Is Opera?

What is opera and how is it composed? Exploring this world of musical performance involves learning about the different levels of singing, the power of themes and history. Opera truly is a genre that has stood the test of time.

Dafne, composed by Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi around 1597, is considered the first opera. Euridice, also composed by Peri in 1600, is known as the second opera, followed by Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1607.

Simply put, opera is a story set to music. An opera can be a large production that involves many performance roles, an orchestra and a lavish stage, but it can also consist of a solo singer seen on a simple stage.

Operas are dramatic stories where the singer conveys the story through one of two types of singing. If the opera is composed in the recitative style, the words are sung in a style that is straightforward and without melody; arias are sung using all intonations of the voice.

There are varieties of themes among operas including traditional grand operas, light comedies, tongue-in-cheek satires and staged rock operas.

In opera, libretto signifies words. Operas can be written in any language, but many of the classic compositions are written in Italian, German and French. Singers, both male and female, sing the songs in the original language of the opera.

Each opera singer has a voice designation determined their voice range. Male opera singers have designations as tenors, which signify the highest range, bass or bass-baritone that is the lowest range of a male voice or baritone that falls somewhere between a tenor and a bass range.

Female opera singers have designations as a soprano, which is the highest range, contralto, which is the lowest range and mezzo-soprano that has a range between soprano and contralto.