an opera that has a serious plot and is entirely in musical form, with no spoken dialogue
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
grand′ op′era,
- Music and Dancea serious, usually tragic, opera in which most of the text is set to music.
- 1795–1805
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'grand opera' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):