Opera and Musicals
The term through-composed is also applied to opera and musical theater to indicate the extent of music. In this case the term has nothing to do with a form devoid of repetition, which would be virtually impossible for a full scale opera. Instead, it indicates that the musicians continuously keep playing, as opposed to having a collection of songs interrupted by recitative pieces and dialogue. Examples of the modern trend towards through-composed works in musical theater include the works of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In musical theater, works with no spoken dialogue, such as Les Misérables are usually referred to by the term "through-sung."
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Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)