Editing Opera (section)

===Origins===
{{main|Origins of opera|List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi}}
[[File:Claudio Monteverdi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Claudio Monteverdi]]]]
The Italian word ''opera'' means "work", both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin word ''[[wikt:opera#Latin|opera]]'', a singular noun meaning "work" and also the plural of the noun ''[[:wikt:opus#Latin|opus]]''. According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], the Italian word was first used in the sense "composition in which poetry, dance, and music are combined" in 1639; the first recorded English usage in this sense dates to 1648.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd ed., s.v. "[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/131729 opera] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703160240/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=B71705BA9B459C198925F9A0A1B60D6D?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F131729 |date=3 July 2023 }}".</ref>

''[[Dafne]]'' by [[Jacopo Peri]] was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate [[Florence|Florentine]] [[Humanism|humanists]] who gathered as the "[[Florentine Camerata|Camerata de' Bardi]]". Significantly, ''Dafne'' was an attempt to revive the classical [[Tragedy|Greek drama]], part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the [[Renaissance]]. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. ''Dafne'', however, is lost. A later work by Peri, ''[[Euridice (Peri)|Euridice]]'', dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived until the present day. However, the honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed goes to [[Claudio Monteverdi]]'s ''[[L'Orfeo]]'', composed for the court of [[Mantua]] in 1607.<ref>{{harvnb|Parker|1994|loc=ch. 1}}; articles on Peri and Monteverdi in ''The Viking Opera Guide''.</ref> The Mantua court of the [[House of Gonzaga|Gonzagas]], employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the [[concerto delle donne]] (till 1598), but also one of the first actual "opera singers", [[Madama Europa]].<ref>Karin Pendle, ''Women and Music'', 2001, p. 65: "From 1587–1600 a Jewish singer cited only as Madama Europa was in the pay of the Duke of Mantua,"</ref>