If there is a musical genre that raises passions, that is undoubtedly opera. Few people who have attended a live performance can escape the intense emotion that is experienced. And yet, in large part it remains a great unknown. This book aims to make aspects that facilitate a deeper understanding and allow an approach to some of the keys to the composition accessible to all types of readers.

The work follows a chronological thread: it pursues the evolution of a specifically musical dramaturgy that the opera was able to conceive, elaborate and rethink from its beginnings and over the course of four centuries. It does not focus solely on the plot or the script, nor on a series of brilliant arias, but on the meeting point at which the theater and music converge in order to generate a theater sung by the characters and commented from the Orchestra, a drama (or a comedy) musical. Each chapter offers a presentation of the general features of the genre or school in its historical and cultural context, as well as a commentary on the most relevant composers and trends.

Likewise, the reader will find throughout the text a selection of operas that are studied in greater detail, trying to maintain a balance between their historical meaning, the quality and richness of the musical language, and their relatively pronounced presence in the repertoire of Opera houses in recent decades.