Musicals and Operas and Plays With Songs

Interesting article from Guy Damman in the Guardian about a new "play with songs", Midsummer, by David Greig, who does the "play" bit, and Gordon McIntyre, who does the "songs". In considering the piece, he ponders on the difference between a musical and an opera and, indeed, a "play with songs". He's undoubtedly correct in thinking that marketing and audience perceptions play a big part in the different descriptions. I'm sure that Greig and McIntyre want to bring in the straight-play audience and worry that a "musical" might attract the wrong kind of crowd. So a "play with songs" is a pragmatic solution. That's fair enough.


But Damman goes on:

"Yet, lurking behind this is a more evaluative position which relates to the hoary old chestnut of highbrow arts v populist commercial culture...what distinguishes an aria from a tune in a musical or play is not its dramaturgical role, or its ability to capture the emotions or state of mind of a particular character. Rather, it is simply that the songs or arias in opera tend to be better crafted, better sung, and better tied to their ultimate dramatic and artistic purpose."

This is pure snobbery. Let's take these points in order. Better crafted? He's already indicated that musical tunes are able to "capture the emotions or state of mind of a particular character" just as well as an operatic aria. That seems to me a pretty good definition of the craft of musical drama. Better sung? It's true that opera singers tend to have more power, control and a wider vocal range. But being a better singer depends on what you're singing. Jose Carreras is one of the great operatic tenors but, when he tried recording "Something's Coming" from West Side Story, he struggled to pick up the jazzy rhythms that come instinctively to most musical performers. Better tied to their dramatic purpose? Listen to "Old Man River" from Showboat and tell me how that could be made to fit the drama any better.

"Yes, it is unfashionable to use the term 'better' in a culture where art is routinely confused with entertainment."

No, it's not unfashionable, just imprecise; better in what way?

I admit that I've never fully understood the confusion surrounding what is a musical and what is an opera. It's always seemed fairly clear to me. It is essentially the difference between an aria and a song: an aria is a piece of music, a song is a marriage of music and words. Of course, arias have words and their meaning is important, but the emotional core remains with the music. In a song, it is not only the meaning of the words that is important but the way that they sound. There is more consideration of fitting the natural inflection of the words to the musical phrasing. In short, arias have words but songs have lyrics.

This has several effects:

1. Operas tend to be more musically sophisticated: the melodies have a greater range, the harmonies more developed, the rhythms more varied and so on. (I suspect that this is what Damman really means by "better"). But in a musical, the music only counts for half of the song. The music is necessarily restricted as it has to make room for its other half, the lyrics.

2. Opera arias often use melissma, that is, stretching a vowel sound over many notes ("I l-u-u-u-u-ve you-oo-oo-oo"). The general rule with musical songs is one syllable per note because the music and lyrics meet on an equal footing. In opera, the music is predominant.

3. The composer is the driving force behind an opera. In a musical the composer is only one half of a songwriter. This is why we tend to refer to Mozart's Magic Flute, but Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma.

4. If the traditional definition of opera is "drama through music" then musicals could be defined as "drama through song".

Now these definitions are not set in stone but I would say that there is a fairly clear distinction between The Marriage of Figaro, Aida, The Ring Cycle and La Boheme on the one hand and Showboat, Oklahoma, Cabaret and Les Miserables on the other. Both groups are successful examples of musical dramas and which you prefer is a matter of taste. But when it comes to craft, there's plenty to be found in both opera and musicals.

Simples.