The difference between opera and musical theatre — Page 4

Sorry - flower duet, not flower song. Its been a long week!

Although now that you reminded me of "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" I think I will go listen to Jacque Trussel sing that, haven't heard it in awhile :o)

---

I have read alot of how the focus of the works are different and how the music will sound different to some and not to others. what i hav not really heard alot about if at all (i have drolled through this thread for awhile) is what was socially acceptable in the mentioned time periods. back in the day certain musical scales were considered satanic or blasphemous because the church did not approve of it. thusly the scales would not be played for obvious reasons and we ended up with things like gregorian chant. this is also why "classical" music in "operas" will sound different than "pop" music in "musicals". in the day if music sounded too different is was lost, burned, or simply forgotten (a little exaggerated). that is also why Paganini was thought to have been in league with the devil simply because he could play faster than everyone else and had great technique. also during the traditional times "opera" singers were expected to have very dynamic voices. nowadays social expectations have changed. often now singing in such a dynamic way is often considered showing off or excessive. why? because the expectations of audiences have changed. why are the two musics so "different" to hear? because society no longer expects to hear the same things over and over again. we have expanded our musical acceptance to include more sounds and styles. also how can "opera" be based more on music, and "musicals" be based more on lyrics or words? I gaurantee if you take lyrics/lines away from "operas" or music away from "musicals" neither will sound correct. you will have no idea whats going on in the "opera" and just be left with a general basis of feelings that YOUR experiences create and the "musical" will be boring and empty and for the most part without feeling. and also an "opera" cannot said to be based more on music because the people that watched "operas" way back when already knew the story often times and last i checked an "opera" was considered a theatrical performance not a musical one. it is my STRONG opinion that "operas" and "musicals" are the same. one merely has different social conventions than the other. so in essence the only difference between the two is the spelling and where they go on the shelf.

Updated On: 6/6/08 at 03:46 AM