Unlike musicals, where the characters will randomly burst into song and dance during the story, Opera’s stories are all usually told through non-stop singing, meaning dialogue is 9/10 non-existent. According to dictionarycambridge.org, an opera is “a musical play in which all or most of the words are sung, or plays and music of this type.” (Opera) Opera is a type of Western theatre, with music as its main component.
Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century and spread throughout the rest of Europe almost immediately thereafter. The most notorious opera, known as traditional opera, was a form of art that even well-known composers such as Mozart collaborated on. It’s best known for sticking to a more classical genre; however, as we've steered towards a more modern era of opera, the music's tone has begun to stray towards other dramas, such as psychological dramas like The Hours (2022.