In the early seventeenth century came, in Italy the opera, one of the most appealing genres of performing arts. The first great opera, called Orpheus, for the year 1607 and belongs to the Venetian composer Claudio Monteverdi. The stylistic guidelines of this kind were soon brought to other countries in Europe. In opera, the characters relate through song, representing a dramatic tone argument. In the early seventeenth century, composers have introduced a new element: the aria, a musical written for one voice, which accentuated the lyrical style and favored the showcasing of the singer. Among the composers who cultivated this genre stood out, in addition to Monteverdi, the Italian Giuseppe Verdi (La traviata), Gioacchino Rossini (The Barber of Seville), Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème) and Gaetano Donizetti (Mary Stuart) on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( Fidelio), Richard Wagner (The Ring of the Nibelung) and Georg Friedrich Haendel (Agrippina), the Frenchman Georges Bizet (Carmen) and the Englishman Benjamin Britten (The Dream of a Summer Night).
Opera seria covered especially mythological subjects, and classical and medieval history. The most important roles were played by male and contracts by the sopranos.
The opera buffa, which is a representation of a dramatic tone and popular melodies, usually with scenes of humor and satire. La Serva Padrona, by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, is considered the typical model of this type of opera.