Whats the difference between a musical, an operetta, and an opera?
An opera, operetta and musical are all forms of theatrical performance that combine dramatic exhibition with musical acts. The difference lies in the subject matter and the saturation of actual music in the production.
Opera
Literally meaning "work" in Italian, an opera is a combination of single and ensemble singing, dramatic dialog, dancing, and acting on a stage set to an underlying musical score. Roles in the opera are classified by their voice type, distinguished with such categories as vocal strength and timbre. More often than not, male roles have deeper tones like bass and baritone, while the higher-pitched soprano and mezzo-soprano notes are reserved for the female cast members. Originating in Italy during the latter half of the 16th century, operas were conceived in the revival tradition of the Renaissance as a more publicly-accessible way to enjoy Greek dramas. Dafne, first performed at the palace of Jacopo Corsi in Florence in 1597, is what many considered to be the world’s first opera. It told the story of Daphne, a young maiden who is transformed into a laurel to escape the romantic advances of the deity Apollo. This trend of adding music and lyric to dramatic exposition spread across Europe and nations like France and England were developing their own additions to the genre by the late 16th to early 17th century. However, some of the most famous operas to date remain Italian, including Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, and Bizet’s Carmen.
Operetta
Operetta was developed in France during the late 19th century, when the larger operas, which were ironically known as opéra comique, had become increasingly somber. Seen as a lighter, less-serious form of opera, operetta often have satirical plots that portray the follies of men in a humorous manner. Like operas, operettas offer a combination of dramatic dialog with a musical score. However, while the music is the primary driving force for the opera and indeed the mechanism with which it operates, the music in an operetta is less-emphasized. In some operetta, there are scenes where the music takes a complete back seat and the actors perform dramatic dialog with a complete absence of singing or any complementary music. Famous operetta’s include Johann Strauss Junior’s Die Fledermaus and Arthur Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.
Musicals
Musicals are what many consider to simply be theatrical plays with singing, though they recently have had a resurgence of popularity in films. More often than not, the musical score and lyrics can be seen as an accompaniment to the spoken dialog. Indeed, many musicals have segments of pure dialog among the actors while periods of singing and dancing are peppered throughout the production. The seeds of musical theater were sown back in the 5th century BCE in the Greek theater tradition, where music and dancing were sometimes incorporated into the articulated iterations among the characters. However, many consider the first piece that coincides with the modern definition of musical theater to have been the American production The Black Crook, which premiered in New York in 1866. Despite many countries having continually produced musicals, America is frequently regarded as being the forerunner and pre-eminent authority of musical theater. Indeed, most of the more renowned musicals have originated in the United States, including Wicked, Avenue Q, and Chicago.
It is subjective, in that there are no hard and fast rules. There are also far more categories than just opera, operetta, and musical theater. But, we needn’t go into them right now. Generally speaking, an opera, which means “work” in Italian, is something meant to be performed by classically trained vocalists. An operetta is not a shorter work, but a lesser work. The music is generally thought to be less profound, and the vocal work less taxing, though classically trained vocalists are usually still used. Musical theater can be thought of as a name used for operettas that originated in the 20th or 21st centuries. As operetta/musical theatre is a more popular medium than opera, the vocal styles employed have evolved to reflect popular music. Most operas are sung all the way through. However, many operas include spoken portions: La Traviata, Carmen, and La Boheme, to name a few. Carmen is a special case, in that there are two versions, one with recitive, and one with spoken text. Despit
