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Opera was born under the aegis of two competing ideals: the ideal of Greek music and the ideal of Greek tragedy. This initial ambiguity leads to frequent normative conflicts on the theoretical, artistic, and aesthetic levels. Staging a work of fictional and theatrical art is not the same thing as staging an analogical storytelling based on a work of music. Evaluative criteria about a good vocal interpretation are also in conflict: Do we have to prioritize musical criteria, or are some musical flaws acceptable in the name of theatrical interpretation? The aesthetic experience of an opera is often in a fragile position within the hierarchy of the sensorial registers, particularly between the visual and sonic registers. On a more theoretical level, there is the problem of the status of singing in opera: Is it just a part of the musical medium, or does it have a fictional function?