This thesis explores crossover between pop music and opera, considering the phenomenon from both musical and cultural perspectives. Pop-opera crossover, often dubbed "popera" in the media, is given a broad definition that encompasses both opera that exists outside the traditional confines of the opera house as well as a hybrid musical genre that blends elements of operatic and pop styles-both types of crossover strive to reach broad audiences and are usually evaluated in terms of commercial success. Critical debate over opera's proper place in the cultural hierarchy forms the basis of this discussion of crossover; contentiousness over the placement of opera in the realm of "high art" both fuels popera and continues to impact its reception today.
While several cultural theorists have offered explanations as to how opera came to be considered "highbrow," particularly in American society, it appears that the art form has always had a foot in the pop culture realm. Considering a wide variety of artists and groups from all positions on the pop-opera spectrum-including Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, the Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and José Carreras), Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Freddy Mercury, Montserrat Caballé, John Denver, and Celiné Dion-this thesis traces the history of opera as popular entertainment from the introduction of foreign opera into the United States during the nineteenth century. Looking at both contemporary and historical examples of crossover, emphasis placed on how both musical and non-musical factors such as vocal technique, song arrangements, repertoire selection, performance practice, celebrity archetypes, media outlets, and technology are mixed and manipulated in order to create an operatic product that will appeal to a mass audience.