Opera developed from pageants (story-telling through song and dance) and musical entertainments popular in the courts of Europe (so for posh people, not every-day people) in the 16th Century.  The first true opera is thought to be Dafne (1598), composed in Italy.

The most famous early opera composer was Monteverdi, also Italian, in the early 1600s.  Soon after he started composing, a special opera building in Venice was built, and then opera got REALLY popular. 

In the 1700s, so a bit later than Monteverdi, opera divided into two categories:  serious and comedy.  Serious operas were called, unsurprisingly, Opera Seria, while comic operas were Opera Buffa.

Opera Seria genre had plots based on serious subjects taken from myth and history. The important solo parts were often sung by men with high voices.  Many German composers wrote successfully in this genre, especially Handel and Gluck.  A distinctive musical feature is the “da capo aria”; a solo song (“aria” means a song in an opera) which repeats the basic tune with special ornamentation. The connecting bits between the arias were also sung, not spoken; these are called “recitative”.

Opera Buffa operas had comic subjects, with ordinary people, plots involving disguises and impersonations, and leading roles sung by tenors and basses rather than high-voiced males.  Mozart's “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “The Marriage of Figaro” fit in this style.

In the 19th Century (the 1800s), different countries developed different opera traditions.  Italy developed a style known as “Bel Canto” which means “beautiful singing” and for this reason 19th Century Italian operas are perhaps the loveliest to listen to.

Opera is alive and well today, with several opera houses in full operation in each country in Europe.  England’s most famous opera house is the Covent Garden Opera House, where the opera is performed in all its originality.  However, the tickets are very expensive.  Another opera company called the English National Opera do opera that is sung in English and given a modern-day setting, and the tickets are much cheaper. 

Opera voice-ranges are often categorised by their characters.