The first third of the 19th century saw the high point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini all creating signature works of that style. The most renowned figure of late 18th-century opera is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro ( Le nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as Die Entführung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio), and The Magic Flute ( Die Zauberflöte), landmarks in the German tradition. 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. In the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe (except France), attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's mostly lost Dafne, produced in Florence in 1598) especially from works by Claudio Monteverdi, notably L'Orfeo, and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Heinrich Schütz in Germany, Jean-Baptiste Lully in France, and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century.

The 19th century saw the rise of the continuous music drama.

In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of singing: recitative, a speech-inflected style, and self-contained arias. 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 Singspiel and Opéra comique. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. 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. Such a 'work' (the literal translation of the Italian word 'opera') 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. Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Olaf's Castle, Savonlinna, Finland, in 2007 La Scala of Milan Palais Garnier of the Paris Opéra Macbeth at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in St. Not to be confused with Soap opera, Horse opera, or Space opera.

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