What makes broadway different from an opera?

Question

note the small letter of broadway.

Answer 1

Broadway plays are a mixture of regular dialogue with songs sprinkled in.  Opera is totally musical usually.

Answer 2

What ever anybody says, there are exceptions. Here are a few...

Opera is all singing... Except anything french (especially Carmen- one of the biggest operas which is filled with singing) and of course Les Miserables- which is just singing but a musical.

They require different vocal techniques... except for Sweeny Todd, which is considered a Musical but has always been performed (except by Johnny Depp) as an opera.... or West Side Story, which is considered an opera, but always performed like a musical... or anything by Guilbert and Sullivan- which is like an opera except for by people who like operas, which is sung any way you'd like it.

The subject manner is different, except for those musicals that are based on operas, like Rent which is based on La Boheme, or Miss Sigon which is based on Madam Butterfly.

Even the musical styles of both genres differ too much and imitate each other too much to really have a solid rule to what makes what what.

So the best explanation I have found is that it depends on who is watching it. Opera people know what is considered operas, and thats the things they love, musical people are the same. Musical people will flock to see a Steven Sondheim show but avoid like the plague anything by Puccini, and likewise, there are plenty of opera people excited about the next Leonard Bernstein opera (which is never an opera beyond its name) but would never dare see Les Mis. They are like two different cultures built on no reason at all. (Of course there are major differences at their core, Mozart and Weber sound pretty different, but for every rule there are tons of great exceptions.)

Just to respond to a couple of other response...

Operas are sometimes performed in the language they were written in, expect if they're funny, and then they are almost always performed in the language of the people, unless your german or russian- and then they're always performed in the language of the people, germans and russians hate to read.

Operas aren't normally amplified by mics like musicals unless your opera was written by an overzealous composer, like anyone from 1960s on... which they are often micked for those operas.

Musicals are popular music, except for bad musicals or operas with popular music like Porgy and Bess by Gershwin or anything by Verdi- which was popular music when he wrote it.

Musicals have taken the place of operas.... not true if your one of the unlucky hundreds of composers who are still writing operas today, like John Adams, Philip Glass, and Ned Rorem (Rorem may be dead... or probably should be.)

Answer 3

BROADWAY IS NOT THAT BORING

Answer 4

In no particular order...

Musical theater and opera both require COMPLETELY different vocal techniques.

Opera singers don't belt.  Instead, they blend chest and head voice.

Singers of musical theater are usually amplified (at least at the professional level or where money allows).

Broadway might have small, condensed bands or orchestras, but opera has a full orchestra (or as full as a pit will allow).

You'll find that production values differ GREATLY as well.

Broadway (as we know it) is usually performed in our native tongue, whereas opera singers are expected to sing in any language required by the score.

Opera (not so much romantic or modern) has recitative (rhythmic, lightly melodic-speaking dialogue).

I could go on and on.

EDIT: With regard to others' posts...

Sweeney Todd never is and never was performed as an opera.  It has been and always will be a musical.

West Side Story never is and never was an opera.

However, Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" would be considered OperETTA.

As far as professional companies' performance practices, operas are almost always performed in the language they were written in.

20th Century opera (of importance and of good quality) is practically NEVER miked, even in the past few decades.

Answer 5

opera is completely singing

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