Noun
opera seria
Serious or tragic opera; grand opera.
Ashbrok, 1982, p. 29 Immediately busy in the spring months of 1823 with a cantata, an opera seria for the San Carlo, and an opera buffa for the Nuovo, Donizetti also had to work on the revised Zoraide for Rome. Source: Internet
Christoph Willibald Gluck thought that both opera buffa and opera seria had strayed too far from what opera should really be, and seemed unnatural. Source: Internet
Gluck in a 1775 portrait by Joseph Duplessis The nature and allocation of the arias to the different roles in opera seria was highly formalized. Source: Internet
Heriot chs. 1–3 passim The strictly hierarchical organisation of opera seria favoured their high voices as symbols of heroic virtue, though they were frequently mocked for their strange appearance and bad acting. Source: Internet
Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera." Source: Internet
Deviation from the usual model of opera seria, Serse contains many comic elements rare in Handel's other works. Source: Internet