From Broadway to the Met!

Many Broadway musicals have evolved into staples of the standard repertoire of opera companies around the country. Their scores have the richness usually attributed to opera composers, and they easily fit into the category of “singspiel,” an opera which includes both singing and speaking such as Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The selections you will hear this evening have all found their way to the operatic stage.

The musical as we know it today is a uniquely American invention, surely the greatest contribution of the American theatre in the last one hundred years. But, in fact, it emerged out of a nineteenth-century European tradition of operetta, which in turn came from opera.

Today the distinctions between the various genres are increasingly blurred. Opera houses  incorporate musicals as part of their repertoires. Sondheim himself, asked to comment on the difference between musicals and operas has simply stated, “I’ve always defined operas as anything done in an opera house in front of an opera audience. It’s the audience’s expectations that define the performance.”

Whatever your expectations this evening – is it opera or musical theatre? – you are sure to be swept away by the variety, beauty and expressiveness of the music.

Renay Conlin