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10 pts for da best answer

2007-02-18 06:27:34 · 2 answers · asked by sk8er o 1 in Arts & Humanities Performing Arts

2 answers

1. Both have music in them as the means of telling the story.

2. Opera is all (or 99.99%) music and sang verse. Where as a musical has a balanced mixture of sung and spoken verse.

2007-02-18 07:34:14 · answer #1 · answered by cala 3 · 0 0

I agree almost 100% with cala. Both are musically telling a story through singing.

Basically operas have almost all singing and musicals have quite a bit of spoken dialog.

However there are many works that are considered Operas but that actually have many spoken lines as well. These are sometimes called light opera or operetta but still fall under the same category of Opera.

There are also musicals such as Les Mis that are almost exclusively sung but aren't considered Opera.

There are musicals that Opera companies perform such as Sweeny Todd and Porgy and Bess (although many would consider the latter actually an opera).

There are Operas that musical theatre companies perform such as Pirates of Penzance (although this would fall under the Light Opera category).

I would have to say that the single biggest feature that distinguishes an opera from a musical is the vocal style with which it is performed. Operas are sung with a what is considered a "classical" style and musicals have their own "musical theatre" style which lately has moved towards a pop sound.

As you can see it is a very Gray area when you consider all the factors but to make a long story short (too late, I know) and give you a simple answer. cala was right.

2007-02-18 11:01:22 · answer #2 · answered by Tyler O 2 · 0 0

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