The [[CommonKnowledge public perception]] of the difference between opera and TheMusical is that musical theatre has breaks for spoken dialogue, whereas opera is "sung through", alternating between "arias" (big numbers) and "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitative recitative]]" (music written in the style and rhythm of dialogue). While not a bad approximation, it's also not true. A number of musicals are sung straight through, such as ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' and ''JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'', or nearly so, like ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' (the latter in fact uses dialogue explicitly for {{Wham Line}}s!). Likewise, several opera, like ''TheMagicFlute'' and ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'', involve spoken dialogue. The actual line between musicals and opera is blurry and kind of technical, but the short of it is that opera doesn't use electronic sound equipment and musicals typically need better actors than singers. StephenSondheim was heard to claim, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it."

to:

The [[CommonKnowledge public perception]] of the difference between opera and TheMusical is that musical theatre has breaks for spoken dialogue, whereas opera is "sung through", alternating between "arias" (big numbers) and "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitative recitative]]" (music written in the style and rhythm of dialogue). While not a bad approximation, it's also not true. A number of musicals are sung straight through, such as ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' and ''JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'', or nearly so, like ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' (the latter in fact uses dialogue explicitly for {{Wham Line}}s!). Likewise, several opera, like ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'' and ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'', involve spoken dialogue. The actual line between musicals and opera is blurry and kind of technical, but the short of it is that opera doesn't use electronic sound equipment and musicals typically need better actors than singers. StephenSondheim was heard to claim, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it."

29th Mar '13 12:41:11 PM clarabell

Send clarabell a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

added example to incredibly long note

Added line(s) 65 (click to see context) :

29th Mar '13 12:31:45 PM clarabell

Send clarabell a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

fixed pothole

Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:

to:

29th Mar '13 12:27:03 PM clarabell

Send clarabell a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

alphabetization ...