Opera and recitative were invented because

In the old days, when musicians got together to play, they used whatever instruments were around. If there were three lute players, a harp, and two flutes, then that's what they used. By the 1500s, the time known as the Renaissance, the word "consort" was used to mean a group of instrumentalists, and sometimes singers too, making music together or "in concert".

Ithink the men do it because the women work very hard, especially during childbirth. as for whether textiles are a "female-only" art, certainly not! there is no such thing as a job the other gender can't do (pardon my bluntness).