義大利在歌劇的發展上具有其他國家難以匹敵的優勢，它除了在歌劇史上佔有獨占鰲頭的地位，產生了無以計數的歌劇作品，還在不同的城市中建立了許多極富代表性的歌劇院。當義大利歌劇從佛羅倫斯開始發展之後，逐漸將重心移轉至威尼斯、羅馬、拿坡里，與米蘭等地，而其過程更因為各地不同的歷史背景而發展出不盡相同的歌劇風格。本論文主要從義大利歌劇在不同時期所展現出的風格，探討從十七世紀初至二十世紀的義大利歌劇，其展演空間如何從最初皇宮貴族的宴會廳到專門的歌劇院，更進一步發展至現代規模歌劇院之過程。在劃時代的第一座商業歌劇院，聖卡西亞諾歌劇院(Teatro San Cassiano)於1637年開幕之後為了區隔貴族與平民，而增加供貴族使用的獨立包廂，以增加商業歌劇院之收益。因此觀眾席的設計逐漸成?歌劇院重要的考量項目之一，之後更朝向可容納大量觀眾的大型歌劇院方向來發展。然而，探討現存的義大利大型歌劇院如聖卡羅歌劇院(Teatro di San Carlo)、鳳凰歌劇院(Teatro La Fenice)，與史卡拉歌劇院(Teatro Alla Scala)等現代規模的歌劇院，並非僅是為了闡述歌劇院的發展史，而是要針對不同風格與規模的歌劇與其所從屬的歌劇院之間所存在的關聯，提出更多音樂上的佐證，以充實歌劇史之全面性。

Italy has its dominant position in the opera history, besides the numberless operatic works by Italian composers, there are also many great opera houses built all over in this country. Opera arose in Florence and then went followed by other cities, for instance Venice, Rome, Naples and Milan. Because Italian opera had its progression in different period, this paper is going to discuss the style and the changing of the Italian opera. Italian opera had been treated as the court entertainments from the 17th century to the 18th century. After the first opera house, Teatro San Cassiano was opened to the public in 1637, the box area were set for separating aristocratic and lower classes. For increasing the revenue of the public opera houses, there were more and more separated box. Therefore, the design of the seating becomes important, and has the tendency to built large opera houses. However, focus on the great opera house such as Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro La Fenice and Teatro Alla Scala, not only for illustrating the opera history, but providing more music examples to demonstrate the interaction of operatic performance and its performing venues.