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| re: Lloyd Webber's dramaturgy | |
| Posted by: GavinLogan1 09:42 pm EDT 04/19/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lloyd Webber's dramaturgy - Michael_Portantiere 09:26 pm EDT 04/19/20 | |
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| I argue that musicals and operas are the same thing: they are stories told using music. Just as there different singing styles in musical theatre, there are also several different styles in the world of opera. One rarely hears a Wagnerian soloist also appearing in a Mozart comic opera.... So it can't simply be the style of singing... I know I'll be flamed for this, or at least I think I will be, but I agree wholeheartedly with music critic Michael Walsh, who wrote in his book "Who's Afraid of Opera?" that there is no difference between the two genres. Even the word "opera" simply comes from the word opus, which means work: "They come from the Latin words OPUS & OPERA (plural). While the original meaning is closest to the Latin word No. 19 and the plural is in use mostly as a singular word meaning No. 1 (plural is operas), this root has become a word for any work which is planned, acted on, and carried through." As much work goes into a well-written musical as into an opera.... so... I don't know. I just can't see the distinction. |
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| re: Lloyd Webber's dramaturgy | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:34 pm EDT 04/19/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lloyd Webber's dramaturgy - GavinLogan1 09:42 pm EDT 04/19/20 | |
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| ****So it can't simply be the style of singing... I know I'll be flamed for this, or at least I think I will be, but I agree wholeheartedly with music critic Michael Walsh, who wrote in his book "Who's Afraid of Opera?" that there is no difference between the two genres. Even the word "opera" simply comes from the word opus, which means "work."**** I basically agree with all of that, and yes, it's good to be reminded that "opera" just means "work." But when people do attempt to draw distinctions, I imagine they're usually thinking of the differences between very traditional, quintessential, famous operas like those of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner as compared to musicals with lighter, "pop" style music. But on that note, it's certainly interesting that so many musical theater works written in the rock idiom are called "rock operas," and nobody seems to object to that -- nor should they. I guess Sondheim's statement about how musical theater works are operas when they're performed in opera houses (if I have that quote correct, or at least its meaning even if I don't have it verbatim) is probably key here. Although there are, as you say, "operas" with many widely varying types of music, and the same is true of "musicals," there are going to be some basic differences in works that are written to be performed by unamplified singers performing with unamplified, large orchestras in large opera houses, as compared to works that are written to performed in much smaller Broadway theaters with smaller orchestras -- and even more so over the past 50 or 60 years, a period during which the level of amplification of both singers and orchestras in musicals has risen tremendously. All of which brings me back to my remark that what probably would be best is not for any of us to feel these works need to be strictly labeled to begin with -- though I do understand the impulse. |
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