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opera house

opera house

16 3.0
A building where people watch operas and musical shows
  • noun
  • /ˈɑːpərə haʊs/
translation icon : teatro de la ópera
  • The famous performance of "La Traviata" will take place at the opera house this weekend.
  • a new opera house

And he says, do you know the way to the Opera House?

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Examples

  • Perhaps as the general manager or artistic administrator of a noted opera house.

    Blog text (9)
  • I toured inside the opera house and learned the history of the building.

    Blog text (29)
  • I have seen it myself in all the famous opera houses of the world.

  • It's playing at the Manhattan opera house.

  • Did you know the opera house is featuring Don Giovanni?

  • Later that evening, at a rally held at the opera house, a capacity crowd listened to numerous speeches, including one by Sam Jones.

    Academic text (2009)
  • The Met is, beyond contention, one of the world's important opera houses.

    Blog text (4)
  • And there's a concert, a piano concert, next week at the old opera house.

  • I really love the use of wood in Scandinavian architecture, and in the opera house, its use is spectacular.

    Blog text (20)
  • I like the idea of having an opera house where I can go and see Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini.

    Blog text (23)

Synonyms

theater
vsopera house
  • US
553 1.0

A building where people go to see plays or movies

is narrower, built mainly for sung musical dramas
opera
vsopera house
120 3.1

A theater where people watch live shows in which actors sing

is broader, also designed to stage other kinds of musical drama

How Big

opera house
16 3.0
studio
310 3.0

Surface Forms

opera house singular
opera houses plural

Morphology

opera + house

The meaning 'a building for performing operas' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'opera' (the musical/dramatic performance) with 'house' (a building), following a common noun‑noun compound pattern in English. This compositional logic is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would reliably infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Opera house names a building that is literally a house for opera. The simple image of a 'house' where people go to watch and hear musical drama explains why it means 'a theatre for operas and other musical performances'.