"Popera" performances, such as those by the Three Tenors, have reached larger audiences and brought in greater profits than typical for operatic music.
[1] According to music historians, operatic pop songs became most prevalent with the rise of Tin Pan Alley musicians during the early 1900s.
[2] Popularized by American Vaudeville, musical comedies, jazz and operettas, examples include Irving Berlin's That Opera Rag, Billy Murray's My Cousin Caruso and Louis Armstrong's riffs on Rigoletto and Pagliacci.
[2] The subgenre subsequently dwindled after the 1920s but revived during the rock music era with albums such as The Who's Tommy and Queen's A Night at The Opera.
[3] Bocelli, in particular, soon became a leading representative of the subgenre[3][4] while his famous duet partner, British soprano Sarah Brightman, also gravitated considerably towards this combination of opera and pop music.