Italy wants opera to become a world heritage site

Italy has submitted an application to the UN agency Unesco to make Italian opera a World Heritage Site.

This is a UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.

The country has previously applied for both the opera art and the espresso coffee drink to be nominated to proceed in the application process.

Then the motivation was that espresso is "an authentic ritual and a social expression that sets us apart from the rest of the world", according to The Guardian.

Now the Italian Unesco committee decided to just go ahead with the opera application.

The art of opera as we know it today developed around 1600 in Florence and then spread further across the peninsula and abroad.

Verdi, Puccini and Rossini are some well-known Italian operatic composers.

"An excellent initiative"

At the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, one of the oldest opera houses in the world, people welcomed the news.

- The opera was born in Italy.

It is undeniable if you look at, for example, Monteverdi and what role Venice has played.

Italian song is undoubtedly the beginning of the opera, says Stéphane Lissner, head of the opera house to AFP.

The visitor to the opera, Alberto Schillaci, is also positive.

- I think it is an excellent initiative and I hope that it makes opera art even more accessible to a wider audience, including the young generation, he says.

The preparation of the Neapolitan pizza became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List 2017.