Musical or opera with little or no spoken dialogue
Asung-throughstage musical,musical film,opera, or other work ofperformance art is one in which songs entirely or almost entirely replace any spokendialogue. Conversations, speeches, and musings are communicated musically, for example through a combination ofrecitative,aria, andarioso. Early versions of this include the Italian genre ofopera buffa, a light-hearted form of opera that gained prominence in the 1750s.[1][2]
A through-sung opera or other form of narrative work with continuous music may also be described asthrough-composed.
Originally starting off as aconcept album, the musical has a reputation for being re-written during every new production that is staged around the world. Some productions are completely sung-through, some have scattered lines, and some (notably the original Broadway production) are staged as book musicals.[20]
^Richard Taruskin, (2009 ). Music in the Nineteenth Century: The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press
^Lotte Eilskov Jensen, Joseph Theodoor Leerssen, Marita Mathijsen (eds). 2010. Free Access to the Past: Romanticism, Cultural Heritage and the Nation. Brill. p. 236.
^Hummler, Richard (13 October 1982)."Cats".Variety.Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved2 April 2019.
