Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of opera.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Mr. Benjamin asserts that, "When he rather defensively stated in 1913 that '. . . the score complete is grand opera,' he was simply emphasizing that the format was that of true opera—i.e., all-sung—and not the typical hodgepodge entertainments that many of his contemporaries were calling 'operas' with or without irony."

    'Treemonisha' as It Was Intended To Be Barrymore Laurence Scherer 2011

  • An agile vocalist with an impressive stage presence, she helped revive the bel canto repertoire -- romantic Italian operas from the 18th and 19th century that had largely fallen out of fashion.

    Celebrated opera singer Joan Sutherland dies at 83 Emma Brown 2010

  • Indeed, we can view "Treemonisha" as the ancestor to many works written today that are called operas by their composers, but which contain a great deal of rock, pop and other nonoperatic music.

    'Treemonisha' as It Was Intended To Be Barrymore Laurence Scherer 2011

  • I used to tell students that a writer has to love all his characters, good or bad, and as in operas, the villain deserves a great aria or two.

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jim Krusoe, Part 1 2008

  • It seems to me that the number of "bad" new operas is in fact actually much lower than it ought to be.

    Skin and Bone 2008

  • The movements of his dancers sometimes suggests the stylized steps of performers in Chinese operas, or the flowing strokes of a calligraphy brush.

    Body Language 2009

  • Talfourd instructed, "[t] he ... poetry of operas is rarely of any value whatever; nor is coherency of plot much more important, if there be situations ... capable of suggesting the sentiment of the music"

    Scott Repatriated?: La Dame blanche Crosses the Channel 2005

  • Take the end of scene 1: the ingenue a mezzo rather than a soprano; in Slavic operas it was common for the "flighty" character to have a heavier voice than the "serious" character tells off the heroine's drunken, mother-fixated husband, then soliloquizes about her own sympathy for the heroine, but can't shake the feeling that it's not any of her business.

    Archive 2006-03-01 Jaime J. Weinman 2006

  • Somewhere along the line Mr. Hellyer has found the time and energy to study voice at the Toronto Conservatory; to attend the Banff School of Fine Arts and to participate in operas produced there.

    Inflation vs. Unemployment 1958

  • In a related aspect, my wife the singer and opera professor has noted that the cost of sheet music has skyrocketed because singers and students are buying far less because they can copy it easily … and consequently, the music for more and more songs and operas is out of print, because those songs and operas are less popular and sales won’t pay for even the printing costs.

    Free… Oh Really? « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website 2009

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