What is the difference between musical play and opera?
An opera is primarily sung, whereas in a musical, the songs are interspersed with passages of dialogue. In both instances, it is drama and words that drive the action. There can often be bigger dancing numbers in musicals. In opera, the singing is split between arias, recitatives and bigger chorus numbers.
How important is music in an opera?
The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. Linking it into the opera doesn’t happen and so, while it may very well be a beautiful piece of music, it breaks the line of the music which breaks the flow of emotion for the audience.
What is the difference between musical play and opera singers?
In a musical, the singing is interspersed with passages of dialogue, while in an opera, the singing never stops (very broadly speaking). Meanwhile although some operas include spoken passages or speech-like sections called ‘recitatives’, they are mostly sung without any spoken dialogue.
How is opera different from other vocal forms of music such as pop singing?
Compared to other genres of music, opera singers use more resonance when they sing in order to fill an entire hall with their sound. They don’t use microphones so their bodies become their amplifiers through an acquired vocal technique.
Is Les Miserables an opera?
By this definition, Les Mis is definitely not an opera.
Why is music important in drama?
Music can reveal the inner emotional life of a character, foreshadow a vicious attack or budding love, or comment on the action onstage. According to the first theatrical scholar, Aristotle, the six elements that make up any drama are plot, character, thought, diction, music, and spectacle.
What are the similarities and differences of an opera and musical play?
They are both made up of several songs, or musical pieces, connected by lines of dialogue; this is usually spoken in a musical, whereas in an opera it is performed as a recitative in which the dialogue transpires in a melodic or musical pattern.
What makes opera singing special?
The elements of emotions, costumes, scenery, acting and sometimes dancing, is one of the things that distinguishes an opera from other forms of regular music. However, there are also many others as well. For one, opera singers must keep and maintain different volumes in their voices.
Why isn’t Hamilton considered an opera?
The way I see it, the only reasons for Hamilton to be classified as a musical are two: It makes commercial sense – opera has a niche audience. Musicals still have wider acceptance into popular culture. Hamilton uses microphones and its actors do not use a ‘classical’ vocal technique.
What is the longest running musical?
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera The longest-running show in Broadway history officially opened on January 26, 1988 and is still playing at the Majestic The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical won 7 1988 Tony Awards® including Best Musical.