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I think that an opera is a piece of theater (like with plots and acts performed in costumes, etc.), not just dramatic music.
Actually 'opera' is the plural of 'opus', which means 'work'. Many operatic arias and choruses are performed outside
the context of the parent work and without costumes, and in that respect aren't much different from the purely musical mass.
Here's one of my favorites from Rossini:
Qui Tollis from Rossini's Missa di Gloria
Performed by Tenor Diego Florez, the Chorus Viennensis,
Vienna Boys' Choir, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra,
directed by Karel Mark Chichon.
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