Likewise, there are musicals that have 'regressed' back to including recitative among these Sung Through Musicals are Les Misérables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and others are nearly so like The Phantom of the Opera and RENT (which to a certain extent reserves spoken dialogue for its Wham Lines!).

This means there are in fact operas that have spoken dialogue, like The Magic Flute and Carmen. Because opera tended to be the theatrical equivalent of a Doorstopper, someone asked why it couldn't just be abridged by turning the recitative into dialogue this form was typically called 'operetta' (to oversimplify the matter), and the only thing you have to add to that to get a modern musical is a greater inclusion of dance.

While not a bad approximation, it's not always true. The public perception of the difference between opera and The Musical is that musical theatre has breaks for spoken dialogue, whereas opera is 'sung through', alternating between ' recitative ' (which is when the plot happens and is typically sung in a less-formal style) and 'arias' (big numbers where someone has a therapy session onstage ).

Major opera composers include Mozart, George Frederic Handel, Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini, Richard Wagner, Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss, though there are, of course, many more. Opera has been around since the end of the 16th century and is still going strong.

Opera singer renata