Music and the Theater

Music and acting have been done together for a very long time.

Today, we are most familiar with this through movies or music videos.

Today we will look at 3 big kinds of "musical theater".

Opera

• No spoken words
• Very often in a foreign language
• Based on myths, or stories from the 1500-1700
• Big, full voice with vibrato

A primary difference between opera and musical theater is the sound of the singers voice.

The word for this is tone, or timbre -
the way an instrument or person sounds

Musical Theater

• Very often in English
• All kinds of stories, from fairy tales, books, based on "modern" events.
• Can be very funny
• Loud, bright sound with no vibrato
• Spoken dialogue

Film Musicals

• Many languages
• Can be remakes of musical theater
• Many different musical styles
• Sometimes without human actors
• Voice can be quiet, or loud, but usually very specific to that character

Orange, black, or white review

Opera has spoken words

• Orange - Yes
• Black - No
• White - Sometimes

Musical theater is funny

• Orange - always
• Black - never
• White - sometimes

Film musicals have to have human actors

• Orange - no
• Black - yes
• White - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Which style has vibrato

• Orange - opera
• Black - film musicals
• White - musical theater

Which style can be quiet?

• Orange - Musical theater
• Black - opera
• White - film musicals