Opera??? Is it a style or language?

Favorite Answer

Opera is a style of singing and of performance that combines music and drama. In an opera, the story of the drama is told in song all the way through - there are no spoken lines. In the eighteenth century, when opera became popular, there were no microphones or PA systems, and the theaters were getting bigger and orchestras larger than what you had in Shakespeare's time, so singers developed extraordinary techniques of breathing and articulation so that they could be heard. That's why opera sounds so different from, say, ordinary folk singing. It takes enormous training and practice to be able to do.

Operas are normally performed in the same language in which they were composed, since it's hard to translate song lyrics accurately and still have them fit the music. Most of the early classic operas were Italian, but they were soon followed by French and German operas. You only really get operas in English in the twentieth century or so. By then opera had become more elite than popular entertainment so few of the English operas are really "classics" that people know the way that they know La Boheme or Figaro.

In the nineteenth century, you start getting "operetta," which are "little operas." The singing style is the same but operettas have distinct songs with spoken dialogue in between. Gilbert and Sullivan operettas like The Pirates of Penzance are operettas in English. Eventually operetta gives rise to modern musical theater, which tends to be dominated by jazz and other popular music styles rather than opera....Show more

Operas are most often written in Italian, but there are operas from many languages (including some in English.)

So yes, they are indeed singing in a foreign language....Show more

The Magic Flute is ordinarily performed within the language of the nation it´s being produced in, so...you will have to be ready to discover recordings in English. In truth, some thing by way of Mozart - later in existence - perhaps produced in English. And some thing by way of Gilbert and Sullivan. I feel Amal and the Night Visitors is English. There will have to be others...have you ever attempted browsing "Operas in English"? Actually, so much of what's produced on Broadway as "musicals" will also be termed "Opera". In truth, the style stems from Opera, and has swung again such that: sure, Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, correctly, some thing that was once written by way of Rice/Webber, or simply Webber, and practically the whole lot by way of Sondheim qualifies as American/English Opera....Show more

Musical art form. Like "Mama Mia", "The Sound of Music." Story telling with music.
Peace....Show more

language...Show more