The opera is a dramatic and musical work in which the actors express themselves through song, accompanied by an orchestra that, unlike the oratorio, is performed in a theatrical space before an audience. There are several genres closely related to opera, such as the musical, the zarzuela and the operetta.
Opera is one of the most complete artistic manifestations that exist. It takes place like a play, in which the action takes place in the recitatives (moments in which the singers tell the story) and in the arias the characters express their feelings and thoughts.
The poetry, music, song and decoration in the opera are so intimately united with each other that one cannot be considered without considering the others. The opera is an imitation or theatrical representation of an action, with the aim of delighting not only the mind, but also the imagination and the ear. The action can be vulgar and common like Comedy, or illustrious and grand like Tragedy.
There are many elements and people that shape an opera: there has to be a composer (who creates the music), the librettist (sometimes it could be the same composer), the performers (lead singers, accompanying singers and the orchestra with its director), and those who work on the scenery and costumes.
Opera was born in Florentine salons (Italy) at the end of the 16th century. In reality, it arose from the need to turn into a spectacle the type of simplified, ordered and strictly defined art offered by the plastic arts.
The first great operatic composer was Claudio Monteverdi, who laid the foundations for what would be the future great operas (recitatives and arias). This cultural activity had prominent composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean Baptiste Lully, Wolfgang Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Vincenzo Bellini, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy and the great Giuseppe Verdi, who, perhaps, along with Richard Wagner, has been the most important operatic composer prestigious in history.
