Compare Musical and Opera - Essay Example

? Compare Musical and Opera In comparing Musical and Opera, one can base the argument relating to their source, historical background, development and their evolution. However, this paper shall discuss the key features that compare Musicals from the Operas. In the present time, people fail to provide a clear distinction between the two, and instead define any form of entertainment performance with music as musicals, and some famous music singers confuse their musicals with Opera (http://www.aria-database.com/). Musical theaters currently referred, as ‘Musicals’ is a style used in theater, whereby the songs, dances, and oral dialogue integrate to narrate a story. In the contemporary world, a musical takes various forms as long as it aims at narrating a story. For that reason, musical could be a stage performance, a film/television presentation and it combines the modern and the known music styles and discourse in narrating the entire story (http://www.aria-database.com/). Opera is classified under a certain form of theater, in which a musical group and singers incorporates sheet music and “libretto” also known as the text in contemporary language to narrate a story. On the other hand, performance of musicals takes place in theatres. Presentation of musicals could be staged or televised. On the contrary, performance of Operas occurs in Opera houses, and its presentation takes the form of a live presentation catapulted with an orchestra full of life. Musicals mainly accentuates on discourse, even though, in some instances, there are some musicals that are performed throughout without any dialogues (http://www.musicanet.org). In Musicals, the person presenting is at first referred as an actor, then, a singer and finally a dancer. In operas, the presenter focuses mainly in singing. The presenter falls under the category of a classical singer. At some instances, the singer might be required to act, and dancing is rarely done. Similar to musicals, an Operas has there exceptions, and in that, they are short, and use oral discourse throughout their production. However, it is not every part that contains the discourse, but rather specific part, which is exhibited as recitatives. However, Operas are sung throughout the song (http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html). Another key difference between Musicals and operas is in terms of language used. While performing musicals, the audience understands the performance language. For instance, Musicals developed in England and America is performed in English regardless of whether the developer comes from non- English-speaking nations. Together with that, the singing, dancing, and dialogue follow the rules of the popular music, popular dance styles, and the modern dialogues. Musicals have three major characteristic; the brain, the heart and courage (Kagen, 1968). The Brain – in order to perform musicals, the developer should have required intelligence and necessary writing style. On the other hand, the heart calls for the genuine feeling while developing the story, and lastly, courage calls for one to have the ability, creativity, and boldness in presenting something. This is very different from an Opera, in that, there is comprehensive training of the singers, classical singers in this context, and they are required to memorize and present the song without making any translations (http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html). In addition, there are numerous well-known opera styles in different languages, for instance, the Italian Opera, the German Opera, Russian opera, French opera, and lastly English–language opera. The performance of each Opera takes a different style (http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html). Based on their production, musicals and Operas portray many differences. First, Opera upholds music as the livelihood of production, whilst musical depends on text written and the story narrated. In the modern time, the Operas are established on classical music. It relates the way one would visualize the Mozart’s classical music in the Opera. On the other hand, Musicals are much in harmony with the accepted culture of music (http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html). For this reason, Musicals share intricate or non- linear tales that are different from the simple tales in Operas. Musicals also differ with Opera in the context that, they have scattered music segments. For instance, in popular musicals like those of “Joseph,” “Les Miserables” and “Chess,” one observes that, the story is very deep, but the musical elements are maintained (Kagen, 1968). In fact, currently Musicals are classified as popular Operas since they have some features that mark them as standard Operas. Furthermore, some musicals integrate dancing in some of their segments. On the contrary, Operas do not apply the dancing element into their performance. In terms of their historical background, production of Operas dates back in the early 16th century. Most of the themes used reflected on Greco –Roman and Ancient issues (Kagen, 1968). Production of Musical came later around the 19th century, and had numerous comedic themes and circus-like acts that had a lot of music. Lastly, but not the least, the application of the vocal styles in both Musical and Opera varies. In Operas, the singers apply the vibrato technique, which is featured by roundness and vigor of their voices. On the other hand, Musicals assumes a form of conversation while singing (Kagen, 1968). Conclusion Those that are amused by stage plays or other identical production forms of music, then they must fancy in Operas and Musicals. With the present trends in music, it is difficult for some people to identify to provide a succinct comparison between Operas and Musicals. Musicals narrate a story with a presentation that integrates discourse, music, and dance. In Opera, the focus is the music. In addition, in some instances, Opera is characterized by Libretto and there is no dance. Together with that, the person performing the Music is at first hand, known as an actor, then, a singer and last as a dancer. As discussed in the paper, in Musical, the performer must undergo a thorough training before presenting the performance, and the classical singer leads in the presentation and other follow. Lastly, Musicals are developed using the popular styles of music and dance, and the music is performance in the language that the audience understands. On the contrary, Opera is performed in traditional style and the presentation follows the origin content of the story narrated. References Aria Database, maintained by Glaubitz. Retrieved from: http://www.aria-database.com/ ChoralNet-The Internet Center of Choral Music, (2004). Retrieved from: http://www.choralnet.org/ From Don to Giovanni: Opera Database, UCLA Music Library. Retrieved from: http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/music/don/index.htm Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press (2004). Kagen, S. (1968).Music for the Voice, A Descriptive List of Concert, and Teaching Material, revised edition, Music Library and Tutt Library Musica Virtual Choral Library. Retrieved from: http://www.musicanet.org OperaGlass-An Opera Information Server on the World Wide Web, maintained at Stanford University. Retrieved from: http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html Read More