Opacity

[Sentient Fluid]

Is there a way I can have a translucent background in a parent element
without affecting the foreground (images and text) affected while using
the various opacity properties? Or do I have to use the .png method?

Here is the CSS that is affected:

dl.gallitem {
border: 1px solid #ffea00;
width: 102px;
height:225px;
background:#000;
overflow:hidden;
text-align: center;
padding: 10px;
float: left;
margin-right: 1em;
color:#000;
font-size:0.8em;
filter: alpha(opacity=50);
-moz-opacity:0.50;
opacity:0.50;
}

..gallitem dt {
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration:underline;
}

..gallitem dt img {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
}

..gallitem dd {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-align:justify;
}

What I am *attempting* to do is make a translucent background for the
whole list, but still have the image in the DT and the text in the DD
fully opaque.