What's the difference between a musical and an opera?

Musicals and operas are the most influential musical forms in the world today, and both use music to express stories. Opera belongs to the category of classical music, which generally refers to a drama with singing as the main part, accompanied by orchestra, stage scenery, makeup and dance movements, and sometimes monologues and dialogues. Opera is a comprehensive art, including music, drama, poetry, dance, stage design, makeup, lighting and other artistic elements. Modern opera began at the beginning of17th century, and after a long period of development, it produced many types, such as orthodox opera, grand opera, comic opera, operetta, mini opera and musical. Musicals are not just performances with music. It is not opera, comedy opera or light music, nor is it vaudeville, absurd music or cabaret performance. Opera and musical originated from religious music. Specifically, musicals were originally the differentiation of opera and operetta, but eventually formed a completely different style from opera. First, let's talk about their similarities. Many people often confuse musicals with operas because their forms are really similar. There are many similarities between opera and musical, such as using music and songs to express the plot, and the comprehensiveness of multiple artistic elements such as dance, stage, makeup and lighting. These are beyond doubt. Let's talk about the difference between the two. Strictly speaking, musical can't be regarded as elegant music in the traditional sense, nor can it be regarded as a part of classical music like opera. Musicals came into being earlier, but Broadway, as an independent and influential music form, began to take shape at the beginning of last century, and its climax began after the mid-1970s, when European composers represented by Weber and Schoenberg, especially British and French musical composers, became active. The different status of musicals and operas can be known from people's attitudes. In those countries where operas and musicals are widely performed, tickets are booked several weeks in advance, and you need to wear a formal evening dress to enter the theater. Pay attention to etiquette when watching, and don't clap casually. But watching musicals is more casual, and a musical is staged all the year round. Just buy tickets at the gate of the cinema half an hour in advance, just as it is convenient for us to watch movies at ordinary times. However, Broadway and West End of London musicals are still very high in the eyes of local people, and it is an honor to go to these places to see musicals. The teacher mentioned in class that some students thought that musicals could not enter the elegant hall, which was purely a misunderstanding. The so-called Yangchun Baixue and Xialiba people are all determined by people, and the classics are always popular. Opera was also popular music hundreds of years ago, but after singing for many years, the rest naturally became classics. In today's pop music drama, there must be some classics that are still popular hundreds of years later. The biggest difference between musicals and operas lies in singing. If you can't hear the sound, it may be difficult to tell the difference between a musical and an opera by watching the stage and performance instead of observing the mouth shape of the actors. Most operas use bel canto, and a large number of arias and recitations are used. The aria will push the whole play to a climax with every dramatic turn. The most familiar arias are Carmen and La Traviata. Musicals belong to the category of pop music, and most of them use pop singing, and some of them use bel canto singing (such as Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera). But on formal occasions, operas never use pop singing, because the way of vocalization is completely different. Although the fusion of pop music and classical music is more fashionable now. Many songs in musicals are not solo; The songs in musicals are shorter, simpler and easier to sing. People can sing these songs while walking or taking a bath. Generally speaking, although the songs in musicals are easier to be independent of the whole drama and more suitable for singing alone in bars and other entertainment places, these songs are not necessarily suitable for the development of the plot, and the actors need to set off the atmosphere through dancing or other performances to drive the plot to a climax. Many popular songs on the list are musical interludes. For example, many of Weber's works are widely circulated as pop songs, such as Memories in Cats and Whistling Downwind in Whatever (this song was sung by a very popular men's group and became popular all over the world as a pop song, but almost no one knew it was a musical episode). Singers will also sing excerpts from musicals, such as "Pavarotti and His Friends" concert series. Pavarotti often sings pop songs or musicals, while pop stars rarely sing excerpts from plays (excluding people who live in the countryside like sarah brightman). After all, opera singing requires much higher voice and singing skills than pop songs. Secondly, the musical style. The music of opera is mostly based on the classical music creation skills of traditional orchestras. Modern works occasionally try to go beyond this boundary, but most of them retain the thinking mode of classical techniques. The structure and style of opera basically follow the route laid since romanticism. Musicals, on the other hand, are more free in the choice of musical styles, often involving pop music factors such as jazz and rock, and often use a large number of electro-acoustic band instruments in orchestration. For example, in Cat, Weber tried many different styles, such as country, tap dance, opera, pop and even hymns. On the orchestration, there is a Scottish bagpipe inserted twice, which is particularly brilliant. In Notre Dame de Paris, you can constantly hear the sound of guitars, adding a romantic atmosphere to the dramatic increase. There is also the performance style required by the role. Opera takes music as the basis of various artistic elements, so the most important thing for an opera singer is to perfectly express the aria of the role. If the actor still has the spare capacity after meeting this requirement, he can also add excellent drama performance and even dance to his role. However, in opera, most dances are in the form of ballroom dancing and ballet, but ballet is usually performed by professional actors. Opera actors can be potbellied and actresses can be plump, which will not affect their performances and will be acceptable to the audience. However, musicals emphasize the integration of various artistic elements. Therefore, when performing a musical role, an actor must take into account various performance elements: singing, dancing and performing ... So he can't sacrifice other aspects excessively for one aspect. For musical actors, the performance of the plot is as important as the handling of singing skills. One of the reasons why sarah brightman quit the music stage may also be related to the fact that she sacrificed her body for her voice. Imagine that the audience will not accept a bloated Christine and Raul falling in love on the stage. As for the dance mentioned in the last article, it is a small part of opera. When we watch the movie Mozart and the opera La Traviata, we can all see the shadow of dance in the opera, but the proportion is not large and it is not particularly important (this can be seen from the King's Decree in the movie that ballet is not allowed in the opera). Due to the limitations of their own conditions, the most important thing for the main actors is to perform by gestures and communication with other actors. And usually bel canto is unlikely to make actors perform large-scale dance moves while singing. In musicals, dance is one of the three elements, and few musicals lack dance elements (Les Miserables is an example, but its plot and theme limit dance). A more extreme example is the cat. The whole play consists almost entirely of songs and dances. All the actors have to sing and dance on the stage. Only when grazelbella appeared did there be no dancing (because he was too old to dance). Dance fully shows the characteristics of various cats. I can't imagine what it would be like without dancing in Cats. Of course, this drama is special, but dance is indeed an indispensable main form of expression in most musicals. In addition, there are some minor differences, such as material selection, composition process, performance place and method. In a musical, its tune can be sentimental, but in an opera, it must be passionate; In terms of lyrics, musicals tend to express painful experiences, such as "love-whether you whip me or hurt me;" Cheat me or abandon me, I will always be yours! "Opera is always a poetic language, expressing joy and joy. Different from musicals, in opera, the protagonist always keeps elegant and noble demeanor to live, love and die. Every time they set foot on a journey, they would pray, "Lord, I am on my way!" " "It seems that this is not only a geographical journey, but also a spiritual journey. But in a musical, the scene where the hero and his lover say goodbye can be a messy market or even a garbage dump. They must be tired and haggard. With the diversification of artistic creation, these differences are not always correct. There are more and more works on the edge of various music groups, and the classification is gradually blurred. For example, the musical Aida has a reference to the opera Aida. Brahms even has a new musical, which is aimed at the first ladies of the White House and adopts the genre of oratorio. Opera, which originated in the Baroque period (17th century to18th century), was always eager to become a great art even in the low tide under the influence of modernism in the 20th century. It wants to show human nature, extract the essence of emotion and despise the little wisdom in daily life. The villain in the play is portrayed as an out-and-out evil person, while the heroes are brave and fearless. The hero and heroine in musicals are more humanized. They will also make mistakes, lose their jobs, be poor, and be homeless, but they will always get true love, wealth and happiness after going through rough times. Musicals originated in Europe from17th century to18th century, and were called "operetta" or "folk opera" at that time. It was not until the late19th century that people began to quote the name "musical". By the middle of the twentieth century, it had become a unique form of theatrical performance. Generally speaking, musical is an art which is supported by attractive plots, based on actors' dramatic performances, uses music and dance to give full play to its potential, and integrates these factors into an organic whole. If drama itself is a comprehensive art, if drama is a comprehensive art, then compared with drama, musical is a form of drama that gives full play to "comprehensive" artistic means. Britain and America are countries in the heyday of musicals. Judging from the role of music development history, West End of London and Broadway in new york are the birthplaces of musicals. However, musicals in Britain and the United States also have different historical backgrounds: in the United States, they are more influenced by jazz, dance, comedy and comedy with singing; In Britain, musicals are more closely related to operetta and drama, especially the dramatic backgrounds of Shakespeare, Moliere and Ipsen, while dance is more closely related to ballet. Musicals do not pursue Excellence and Excellence, nor do they have ambitions. Therefore, they are considered as mediocre creations. They would rather run than fight; I would rather make some small mistakes than live only for my ideals. Musical praises democracy. It praises ordinary people who pursue romance and happiness in ordinary life, but it is full of contempt and ridicule for those pretentious rich people, especially the nobility. The audience has realized their differences. When a person goes to see an opera and a musical (in London and new york, the prices of the two kinds of tickets are almost the same), he will appreciate these two kinds of plays with different mentality. If an opera sounds too musical, it will be criticized as too frivolous; On the other hand, musicals that are too operatic will also be criticized as too divorced from reality. These prejudices are not accidental, they took a long time to form. Their origins can be traced back to the first musical: The Beggar's Opera. The expression of black musicals has shifted from Europe to the United States, because jazz, soul music, vagrancy and sad blues are popular in the era of black rags. Later swing music also had a strong black music background. Famous black musicals include Performance Boat, Bogey and Beth, House of the Sky, Woman in St. Louis, House of Flowers (1954), Jamaica and so on. Broadway musicals are like the relationship between Hollywood and American movies. When people mention Broadway, they naturally think of American TV series. Broadway is the name of a street in Manhattan, new york. In the middle of this street, it has always been the center of American commercial drama entertainment, so "Broadway" has become synonymous with American drama activities. Broadway once had a very glorious history, which is closely related to the history of American commercial musicals. Broadway musicals, formerly known as black entertainment performances, burlesque and musical dramas, are influenced by jazz and swing music, and their dances have the original Broadway style. In 1904, Beattre Jones defined the concept of musical. The truly representative play is "The Performing Boat" in 1927, which combines songs, dances, story lines and theatrical performances. It can be said that Musical successfully combined American jazz music with the dance that swayed with jazz. "Oklahoma", "west side story" and "To the Top" are all important music tracks popular on Broadway. Besides, the enduring Broadway musicals include Phantom of the Opera House, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, etc. West End of London Musical West End of London Musical is more influenced by opera and operetta. The development of British musicals rarely makes outstanding improvements in dance. The combination of art forms here is to combine the traditions of opera, operetta and musical comedy with jazz, tap dancing and ballet to some extent. In the 1970s, two masters of music creation appeared in Britain: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and then British musicals took an artistic turn. In terms of style, Weber's musicals emphasize music and dance is relatively less; In production, cameron mackintosh, a famous British musical producer, attaches great importance to the combination of various techniques on the stage-scenery, costumes, lighting and so on. By other means. Soon, Broadway felt the great pressure and challenge from West End of London. West End of London's famous musicals include Les Miserables, Miss Saigon (199 1 moved to Broadway in new york), Cat, Phantom of the Opera House (later moved to Broadway in new york) and so on. Besides, it seems that all musicals can be successful when they move from London to Broadway, such as Chess, Boyfriend, Oliver, Lovely War, Charlie Girl and so on.