Essentially musical theater on steroids, opera has delighted audiences with beautiful and ambitious multimedia masterpieces for more than three centuries. Originating in Italy and spreading throughout Europe, opera reached its first major peak with Mozart's classic 18th-century comedies. Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini exemplified the bel canto era's focus on vocal pyrotechnics. Verdi and Wagner responded with a shift back to a more rigorously dramatic style matched to biblical, historical, and mythical material. Opera's single constant, though, has been the almost acrobatic rigor and transcendent artistry of its greatest singers.