grand opera


noun
  1. a serious, usually tragic, opera in which most of the text is set to music.

Origin of grand opera

1
First recorded in 1795–1805

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use grand opera in a sentence

  • Italians gave the world grand opera, and in Sinatra, Italian culture gave the world the foremost craftsman of popular song.

    Sinatra's Unstoppable Voice | Allen Barra | December 9, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Sure—the first was just fireworks—grand-opera stuff—opens up the voice, said OLeary.

    The Woman Gives | Owen Johnson
  • I am 142 very conscious of this difference, and I feel as though I had started to sing aloud before a group of grand-opera stars.

    My Wonderful Visit | Charlie Chaplin
  • Groener had evidently decided to make the best of the situation for he answered at once: "The grand opera house."

    Through the Wall | Cleveland Moffett
  • Of grand opera even the Daily Telegraph is moved to say that "the translations are in most cases literary nightmares."

    Spirit and Music | H. Ernest Hunt
  • In the evening they attended the grand opera, at the invitation of Mr. Arbuckle, and the next morning proceeded to Strasburg.

    Down the Rhine | Oliver Optic

British Dictionary definitions for grand opera

grand opera

noun
  1. an opera that has a serious plot and is entirely in musical form, with no spoken dialogue

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012