Italian opera can be divided into two periods, the Baroque and the Renaissance.
Italian opera started in the renaissance and early baroque eras with
Italian opera house throughout Italy. As the history of Italian opera
has it, wealthy people in Italy would fund these extravagant Italian operas
combining drama, music, dance and preformed them in the most extravagant
Italian opera houses around. From these combinations of the arts,
Italian opera began its entrance into music and history of Italian opera
in the towns of Padua, Mantua, and Ferrarra. These cities had been a great
focal point of medieval Italian opera.