What Opera is the most famous?

Answer 1

The Merry Widow

The Merry Widow is an operetta by Franz Lehár, it is NOT an opera, per se.

Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. is probably the most famous operetta. Famous American operettas or musicals are South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, and so on.

Operas usually have a very heavy, serious theme and there is little, if any, spoken dialogue. They are often based on historic dramas and plays. The most famous operas are La Bohème, Madama Butterly (Giacomo Puccini), La Traviata (Guiseppe Verdi), Carmen (George Bizet). This is not a comprehensive collection, of course, but all are extremely popular simply because the music is so easily understood and is so easy on the ears. For the more serious music lover there are the operas by Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Gioachino Rossini, just to name a few.

There are also Comic Operas, see the works of Gilbert and Sullivan).

The text used in a musical work is called the libretto. The word opera is the plural of opus. Composers give their works or compositions names and numbers.