by SamwiseGamgee69

Question by redbeard2k3: What’s the difference between a Musical, an Operetta, and an Opera?
I’ve heard Miss Saigon booked as a musical, but there was only a very few spoken lines. Falsetto is called “sung-through musical” described. I know a musical director who, when he first saw Sweeney Todd, described it as a modern opera. I’m working on a “Month in the Country” – which is by all accounts an opera … but how it is distinguished from “falsetto”? If works of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are, why / how they are classified in this way? Would not it be presumed etymology of that operetta is only a small (less?) Opera? We go back to the classical definitions of comedy (the hero living / succeeds) and tragedy (the hero fails / dies), all operas tragedies and comedies of all musicals? Are there any guidelines? Rules of thumb? Is it subjective to some degree?

Best answer:

Answer by science_rebel
An opera is like drama with no talking, just music and singing. An operetta is like a play with music and singing, but there is alot of talking.
A musical is the same as an operetta.

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