Is Opera email still a valid email????????

You mean the email client or the old myopera email service? The last was closed about a year ago.

And the email client is no longer being developed but still can be used.

Loaded the program and the 1st thing I got was
this message: "server responded pops server failed
to process your request"

Which email provider? Have you checked the settings for the pop3 server? And what about username and password?