Italian opera is both the art of
opera in
Italy and opera in the
Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers, including
Handel,
Gluck and
Mozart. Works by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as
Rossini,
Bellini,
Donizetti,
Verdi and
Puccini, are amongst the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in
opera houses across the world.