Opera in German such as opera seria. Some Baroque composers, such as Reinhard Keiser, did try to challenge Italian dominance, and the theatre principal Abel Seyler became an eager promoter of German opera in the 1770s, but it was only with the appearance of Mozart that a lasting tradition of serious German-language opera was established. Mozart took the simple, popular genre of "Singspiel" and turned it into something far more sophisticated. Beethoven followed his example with the idealistic "Fidelio"; and with "Der Freischütz" of 1821, Weber established a uniquely German form of opera under the influence of Romanticism. Weber's innovations were eclipsed by
Opera a Chinese language form of Western style opera that is distinct from traditional Chinese opera, has had operas dating back to "The White Haired Girl" in 1945. In Latin America, opera started as a result of European colonisation. The first opera ever written in the Americas was "La púrpura de la rosa", by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, although "Partenope", by the Mexican Manuel de Zumaya, was the first opera written from a composer born in Latin America (music now lost). The first Brazilian opera for a libretto in Portuguese was "A Noite de São João", by Elias Álvares Lobo.