The first performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” was held on March 11, 1851 in Venice, Italy. This tragic tale of an overprotective and vengeful father is popular on opera stages around the world, and the role of the Duke of Mantua, who has the famous aria “La donna è mobile” (“Woman is fickle”) has been sung by operatic tenors including Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Enrico Caruso, and Mario Lanza.

Most operas are sung in their original languages – usually Italian, French, or German – and the lyrics are not usually included in the program. However, many opera companies use supertitles to project the translated words in English to a display above the stage. The Metropolitan Opera in New York City has gone one step further, and each seat in the theatre has its own display screen showing the words as they are sung.

The opera, like other specialized fields, has its own vocabulary. Here are a few words you might find useful:

• overture
• libretto
• supernumerary

An overture is the short piece of music played at the beginning of the performance, usually before any of the singers are even on the stage. Some overtures are so popular they’re eventually played more on their own than as part of the opera. The “William Tell Overture” is more familiar to many people as the theme to the American television series “The Lone Ranger” instead of its original place as the start to the Rossini opera.

The libretto is the text of the opera, the words the singers are singing. When you buy a recording of an opera, the libretto is often included, so that you can follow along when you’re listening to it. When operas were first performed in the 1800s, it was common for librettos to be part of the programs given to the audience, but these days most opera houses use supertitles instead.

Not everyone on stage in an opera is necessarily a singer. For large crowd scenes, such as the one in front of the cafe in Puccini’s “La Bohème”, where holiday shoppers, merchants, and children mill around in the streets of Paris, directors will bring in supernumeraries to fill up the stage to get the proper scene. A supernumerary in opera is equivalent to a movie “extra” and usually does not even have a speaking role.

Most major metropolitan areas in Europe, Asia, and the Americas have opera houses, or theatres where opera companies come to perform. The Sydney Opera House is famous for its architecture as well as the quality of the performances held there, and the Paris Opéra has been staging shows since 1875. Look for a venue in your area, and expand your vocabulary as well as your cultural experience by attending an opera performance. Larger libraries will have copies of librettos to the more common operas, and you can check them out to get familiar with the story line before you go.

“No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.” – W.H. Auden