Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera) which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score.
Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. The word opera means “work” in Italian (it is the plural of Latin opus meaning “work” or “labour”) suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle.
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language.
Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers, including Handel, Gluck and Mozart. Works by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, are amongst the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world.
Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the “Camerata de’ Bardi”.
Have you ever watched Opera? Come in Italy and experience it!
If you choose the Capitol, I advice you the accommodation: the Opera street bed and breakfast.
The b&b has thematic rooms (like Tosca room or Traviata room) and overlooks the Opera Theatre of Rome: perfect!
