Music Drama
Wagner's through-composed theatre, built from leitmotifs instead of numbered arias
Related
Music drama usually means Wagner's mature stage works, from Tristan und Isolde through the Ring to Parsifal, in which music, poetry, acting and staging were to form a single artwork.
Numbered arias and recitatives give way to continuous music; short leitmotifs stand for people, objects and ideas, changing and interweaving as the plot moves, and the orchestra becomes the main narrator. Singers declaim inside the texture rather than stopping to display.
It is not a general label for any drama with music, nor is it musical theatre; its opposite is the numbered Italian opera and French grand opera. To listen, follow the motifs instead of waiting for a tune.
Sources
- 瓦格纳乐剧的整体艺术、主导动机与连续结构，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Music drama"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.