Do you enjoy Westerns on TV? They’re certainly popular with millions of people. Yet can you imagine anyone enjoying exactly the same Western year after year for dozens of years?

But there is a form of entertainment that people enjoy in just that way! They know the plot, they even have most of the lines memorized, yet they love to see it performed year after year! That form of entertainment is the opera.

Perhaps opera is so popular because it is interesting to both the ear and the eye. An opera is a play in which the parts are sung instead of spoken.

In addition to the principal parts taken by soloists, there is usually a chorus. The orchestra plays at the beginning of the opera and before each act. It accompanies the singers and the action of the story.

The music at the beginning of an opera is called an overture, or prelude. There are two kinds of solos in an opera. The aria is like a long song. The recitative is almost like a recitation to music. The complete words of an opera are called the libretto. The complete music is known as the score. In many operas, a ballet is added to the story.

It is usually agreed that the beginning of opera dates from 1600. At that time, an Italian musical composer, Jacopo Peri, composed the opera Eurydice, and it was performed at the marriage of Henry IV of France. So you can see that opera has been a popular form of entertainment for more than three hundred years.