{{short description|Subgenre of pop music}} {{use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox music genre | name = Operatic pop | native_name = | other_names = Popera, pop-opera | image = | stylistic_origins = {{hlist|Opera|pop}} | cultural_origins = Early 20th century, United States | derivatives = | subgenres = | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = | local_scenes = | other_topics = {{hlist|Orchestral pop|Operatic metal}} }}
'''Operatic pop''', '''pop-opera''' or '''popera''' is a subgenre of pop music that is performed in an operatic singing style or a song, theme or motif from classical music stylized as pop. The subgenre is often performed by classical crossover singers and acts, although that field is much broader in the types of music it encompasses. Popera performances, such as those by the Three Tenors, have reached larger audiences and brought in greater profits than typical for operatic music.<ref name="Handbook">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LOFvBAAAQBAJ&q=%22popera%22+pavarotti&pg=PA674 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Opera |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195335538 |editor-last=Greenwald |editor-first=Helen M. |pages=674–675 |access-date=2020-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117003430/https://books.google.com/books?id=LOFvBAAAQBAJ&q=%22popera%22+pavarotti&pg=PA674 |archive-date=2020-11-17 |url-status=live}}</ref>
==History== [[File:Il Divo (6874985579).jpg|thumb|Il Divo performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2012]] According to music historians, operatic pop songs became most prevalent with the rise of Tin Pan Alley musicians during the early 1900s.<ref name="Hamberlin">{{Cite book |last=Hamberlin |first=Larry |title=Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era |date=January 21, 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195338928 |edition=1st |page=3 |chapter=Introduction |access-date=October 4, 2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjdqQK1Dus8C&q=%22operatic+pop%22&pg=PA9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122225758/https://books.google.com/books?id=GjdqQK1Dus8C&q=%22operatic+pop%22&pg=PA9 |archive-date=November 22, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> One influence was the large influx of Italian immigrants to the United States who popularized singers such as Enrico Caruso and inspired the creation of "novelty songs" using Italian dialect. The songs often used operatic repertory "to make a satirical or topical point".<ref name="Hamberlin" /> Popularized by American Vaudeville, musical comedies, jazz and operettas, examples include Irving Berlin's ''That Opera Rag'', Billy Murray's ''My Cousin Caruso'' and Louis Armstrong's riffs on ''Rigoletto'' and ''Pagliacci''.<ref name="Hamberlin" /> The subgenre subsequently dwindled after the 1920s but revived during the rock music era with albums such as The Who's ''Tommy'' and Queen's ''A Night at The Opera''.<ref name="Hamberlin" />
In 1986, operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti had a hit with the Lucio Dalla song "Caruso", which helped to spark a flourishing of operatic pop.<ref name="Caruso">{{Cite book |last=Autunnali |first=Melisanda Massei |title=Caruso: Lucio Dalla e Sorrento, il rock e i tenori |date=2011 |publisher=Donzelli |isbn=978-8860365637 |location=Rome |pages=4–5, 137 |language=it}}</ref> Other singers, including Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, and Katherine Jenkins, also recorded the number.<ref name="Caruso" /> Bocelli, in particular, soon became a leading representative of the subgenre<ref name="Caruso" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/27/1093518069667.html |title=The king of popera |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095138/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/27/1093518069667.html |archive-date=2016-03-04 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=August 28, 2004}}</ref> while his famous duet partner, British soprano Sarah Brightman, also gravitated considerably towards this combination of opera and pop music.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sarah Brightman Tickets |url=https://www.stubhub.co.uk/sarah-brightman-tickets/performer/205/ |website=StubHub |access-date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920040305/https://www.stubhub.co.uk/sarah-brightman-tickets/performer/205/ |url-status=live }}{{better source needed|date=August 2024}}{{failed verification|date=August 2024}}</ref> In the 2000s, singers and singing groups devoted primarily to operatic pop built on this renewed success. Groups like Il Divo and Amici Forever have achieved popularity with the mix of "contemporary pop with operatic style" characteristic of operatic pop.<ref name="kiss">{{Cite book |last=Danesi |first=Marcel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rzKwAgAAQBAJ&q=%22operatic+pop%22&pg=PA111 |title=The history of the kiss!: the birth of popular culture |date=2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1137376855 |location=Basingstoke |page=111 |access-date=2020-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117003434/https://books.google.com/books?id=rzKwAgAAQBAJ&q=%22operatic+pop%22&pg=PA111 |archive-date=2020-11-17 |url-status=live}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Opera|Pop music}} * List of operatic pop artists * Rock opera (and Category) * Crossover music
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830193735/http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/what_ispopera.html |url=http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/what_ispopera.html |archive-date=2017-08-30 |title=What is Popera? |author-link=Oliver Kamm |first=Oliver |last=Kamm |work=Times Online |date=November 20, 2004 |access-date=April 23, 2020 |via=oliverkamm.typepad.com}}
{{Opera topics}} {{Pop music}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Opera genres Category:Pop music genres Category:20th-century music genres