In the sixteenth century, a group of Renaissance Italians sat down together to revive the lost art of Greek and Roman drama, as part of the great rebirth of learning that had already revolutionized the arts of painting, poetry, architecture. To name this "new" art, they used the word for any general work of art, opus, the plural in Latin being "opera." Opera today is experiencing another revival. Works by American composers such as Philip Glass and John Adams now stand alongside the great Italian, Russian, German, French operas. The repertoire is not closed, and the industry-singers, orchestras, stage designers, opera houses, publishers, and opera-goers-flourishes around the world. This little book is offered as a compendium of Italian terms describing the techniques and refinements that propelled this art into an enduring position among the arts. Italian terms are explained in English. Also, Italian poetry in English: Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060) Vita Nuova (Dante on Beatrice) Ovid, The Changes (web only: www.bandannabooks.com/ovid). And Shakespeare plays with Italian settings: Two Gentlemen of Verona (www.createspace.com/3724080) The Merchant of Venice (www.createspace.com/3727221) The Taming of the Shrew (www.createspace.com/3718477) Romeo and Juliet (www.createspace.com/3892597)