Difference between an opera, an operetta, and a musical?

Factual Questions
1

I think I know how opera differs from the other two. All of an opera is set to music. Even if a few lines are spoken instead of sung, they are spoken and the action is determined at specific predetermined points in the musical score, so it’s one musical piece. Operettas and musicals seem to be just plays with songs interspersed in them, and music will not necessarily fill the gaps between songs. Is that right?

And what is the difference between an operetta and a musical? I hear “The Pirates of Penzance” and “H.M.S. Pinafore” called operettas, while “Man of La Mancha” and “Carousel” are called musicals. What’s the difference?

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Gah, I keep previewing and no one has answered yet. Here goes my pitiful response. Now someone of the Teeming Millions is going to tell me I’m completely wrong, but I can’t let a question go by without some sort of answer.

Opera - Keep in mind there are actually a couple different types of opera (and of course again I am at work and my books are at home): non-Wagner and Wagner (for want of a better word).

Most non-Wagner operas are (and I can’t find the right word) ‘showcases’ - the recititive was mainly to set up the action, create dialogue or conversation between characters, and advance the plot. The melody was not as important as the words, the

“Hello, pretty young woman.”
“Who are you? I think I am in love with you”
“I too am in love with you.”
“You cannot love him! I am your father and I forbid it!”

The aria, (or duet, trio, et al) in effect, was the commentary on the previous dialogue (made up example):

Girl: “Pity me. I cannot live without his love.”
Boy: “I love her! I shall fight her father for her!”
Dad: “He is my long-lost son, but if my wife finds out about my affair, she’ll divorce me and I shall be poor again! Oh what a disaster!”

Sung repeatedly, ad nauseum, until the next need to advance the plot.

These are often easily clipped out of the opera for individual solos at recitals and put onto “Opera’s Greatest Hits” CDs, and the audience can easily recognize when to applaud - hint, when the soloist stops singing.

Wagner is different. His works are effectively one looonnnnng course of action, with little commentary (I’m thinking the 'Ring Cycle" in particular). [Yes, you can clip out individual arias, but it’s a lot more difficult.] Again, I could give examples, but I don’t have my opera books at an environmental workplace!

Operetta is similar to opera, but lighter in tone (less on the killing, intrigue, incest, extramartial affairs), subject and style - you can still have the elaborate costumes and sets, but the theme is ‘lighter’ - Victor Herbert’s “Babes in Toyland”, Franz Lehar’s “The Merry Widow”, G&S anything. If I’m not mistaken, happy endings abound, and the villian is either arrested or renounces his evil ways, and everyone is happy. (Any examples to prove me wrong?)

Musicals - are more of a play interspersed with songs and dances. There is such a wide variety that there are text books on just the American Broadway musical - comparing “No, No, Nanette” to “Oklahoma” to “Rent” is more of a graduate thesis than I care to go into right now.** The themes underlying the musical are ones that most people can relate to -
**Warning, the cold medicine is kicking in and I’m going to find examples to contradict myself later.

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Good freakin’ gravy, I hit “submit” instead of “send”!
I’m working on the rest of that sentence. Gimme a couple of moments to get the rest of my brain in gear and back on track!

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Okay, I was going to go into how themes in the musicals are ones that the everyday person can relate to, as opposed to opera (how many people have a boss trying to sleep with your intended fiancee, or are in love with a tuberculitic courtesan, or were switched at birth by an old gypsy woman who accidentally threw her child instead of you into the bonfire burning her mother, suspected as a witch?, c’mon, raise your hands now), however, most of my examples were completely contradicted by the works of Andrew Lloyd Weber (what is the underlying theme of “Cats” and “Starlight Express”?).

One other style I should mention is the German Singspiel - the best example (and the only one I can think of, off-hand) is Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. This is a lot of dialogue (taking the place of the recitatives) interspersed with arias. The plot is not as heavy as most operas (intrigue, death, etc.) but does deal with a lot of fanciful ideals [magic flute and bells, mysticism, a dragon (IIRC), gods and magic]; for that and the difficulty of the music (hey, it’s Mozart!), it is generally placed in the opera category rather than operetta or musicals.
Please return to my paragraph beginning “Most non-Wagner operas” and the dangling “the” at the end of the line. That should really read:

the melody of the recitative was not as important as the words at this point of the work - the words forwarded the plot, described or explained an action, or announced the entry or departure of a character, or some other action needed at that point. Both the melodic line and the accompaniment was sparse (in some cases, one chord sustained over several measures), and the notes enough to spit out the necessary information.

[Example]

The aria, (or duet, trio, et al) in effect, was the commentary on the previous dialogue. The aria is a showcase for the vocal artistry for the soloist, with either written-in embellishments and cadenzas, or the freedom (and expectation) for the soloist to improvise.

[This expectation of improvisation was a particular characteristic of Baroque era music, home of the wonderful ABA aria, where the first A and B were pre-written melodies, and the vocalist was expected to let loose on the return of the A section with trills, mordents, cadenzas and you name it). Needless to say, composers would try to rein in the abuse of this priviledge by writing in the embellishments. Needless to say, vocalists to this day, continue to ‘improve’ on the composer’s work.]

In general, the aria is a song of vocal artistry. Not to say that a hit number from “Cats” or “Camelot” or “Candide” (okay, Cunegunda’s coloratura “Glitter and Be Gay” should never be attempted by the untrained!), is less music, but right now we are comparing Cadillacs to Jeep Cherokees: both will get you there, but the styling is completely different.

Have I answered your question? And I know there are other operatic Dopers out there!

5

This was debated in the Letters section of the New York Times many years ago, with no clear resolution that I can recall. Some people suggested that musicals were committee efforts, wghile operettas were solo, but there are plenty of counter-examples in both cases. You certainly can’t accuse operattas of higher moral ground or deeper subject matter. I personally think the distinction is too nebuluous – those who want to harden it have their prejudices on their side – “a musical CAN’T be an operetta! I Like operattas and I hate musicals!”)

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Would have loved to read that NYT debate.
So basically that argument was more a matter of ‘perceived class distinction’ - high-brow (my choice/Cadillac) vs. low-brow (your choice/Jeep Cherokee**) entertainment?

I really haven’t heard of too many operettas written lately - that last pieces termed an ‘operetta’ I can think of would be akin to Lehar’s and Herbert’s works, IIRC, somewhere around the turn of the 20th Century to about the 20s. After than, most popular ‘singing and dancing’ entertainment was termed ‘musical’ or ‘musical comedy’. Any ideas or examples? (Again, I am at a disadvantage, as I am at work with out my books, and the books are without a computer right now.)
**No offense to the Jeep Cherokee owners out there, it’s just that Jeep Cherokee was much more fun to type than Yugo.

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From the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

From the OED:

That last one is particularly helpful. :rolleyes:

I asked this question once of a friend who is a musicologist. Her response was that the difference to her was the venue for which it was written. (She was writing her dissertation on 19th century French opera at the time.) I think the distinction is largely subjective.

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{wring tentatively raises her hand, looking around seeing nothing but gaping stares from the audience, quickly pretends that she’s really just smoothing down her headress, while whistling the song from Andy Griffith}