オペラ

1881-84, Shogakukan Nihon Kokugo Daijiten records オペラ in Narushima Ryuhoku's 航西日乗, with the source form Italian opera. In Italian, opera means work, deed, or artistic work, from Latin opera and opus. Treccani also gives opera in musica as the fuller musical expression. The stage genre begins around 1600 in Florence, with Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini's Dafne about 1598 and Euridice in 1600 at Palazzo Pitti. In Meiji Japan, Western music terms enter through overseas diaries, mission schools, military bands, and the Tokyo Music School, founded in 1887. Japanese also uses 歌劇 as a translation, but オペラ remains the katakana term beside アリア, レチタティーボ, オーケストラ, and オペレッタ. The meaning narrows from Italian opera as any work to a staged musical drama with solo singing, chorus, orchestra, acting, scenery, and costume. Modern Japanese オペラ usually means Western art-music theater, not any piece of work. English opera has the same arts meaning, but Italian opera still works in daily phrases such as opera pubblica, public works, and opera d'arte, work of art. A short Japanese example is オペラを観に行く, meaning to go to see an opera.