Category: opera...

a play set to music - an ideal amalgam of the arts (verbal, visual, musical)
opera can be revelatory and exhilarating in its effect
a performance under the stars by the Santa Fe Opera, opening night of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, intermissions for champagne suppers at Glyndebourne, England's opera
opera in musica "work in music" is a theatrical form consisting of a dramatic text (libretto "little book") combined with music
...a bizarre thing consisting of poetry in music, in which the poet and the composer equally standing in each other's way, go to endless trouble to produce a wretched result. (C. de Saint-Evremond)
in the preparation of an opera performance, many individual artists and artisans - sometimes spread out across a century or more - are involved
The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings. (anonymous proverb)
I love Italian opera-it's so reckless. Damn Wagner, and his bellowings at Fate and death. Damn Debussy, and his averted face. I like the Italians who run all on impulse, and don't care about their immortal souls, and don't worry about the ultimate. (D.H. Lawrence)
I wish the opera was every night. It is, of all entertainment, the sweetest and most delightful. Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul. (F. Burney)
I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts. (F. Zeffirelli)
The first opera is generally considered to be Daphne, composed in 1597 by Jacopo Peri.