成人快手

What is music for the stage?

There are lots of different types of music for stage. It can include:

  • opera
  • musicals
  • ballets

have made music for stage, all over the world and for hundreds of years.

It can be traced back as far as Ancient Greece, where music and dance were used in stage comedies and tragedies.

Cartoon image of a theatre stage with an opera singer, a girl in costume singing a musical, a male ballet dancer and Elton John playing piano.
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What is opera?

A cartoon of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Opera is a play that is set to music where everything is sung.

It was first created around AD1600 during the period.

The songs are normally accompanied by a large group of musicians playing in an .

The performers sing and act out the story on the stage. The orchestra are usually in front of the stage but lower down in the orchestra pit.

A cartoon of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
A cartoon of an opera singer in a blue dress with her eyes closed and arm raised as she sings.

In opera, there are usually recitative, arias and choruses.

  • During the recitative, the singer would tell the story quite quickly, in the rhythm of speech, over some simple musical accompaniment.
  • Arias are songs for a singer and are much more musically interesting.
  • The chorus is a group of singers who sing altogether.

There are different types of opera.

  • Opera Buffa which is usually comedy opera.
  • Opera Seria which is usually serious and historical or heroic.
  • Opera Verismo which is about real life.
  • Operetta which is a shorter, light-hearted version of opera.
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Watch: Habanera and Toreador by Georges Bizet

Take a listen to these two short pieces of music from an opera called Carmen, composed by Georges Bizet.

Carmen is a story about love, betrayal and revenge.

The 成人快手 Philharmonic Orchestra perform 'Toreador Song' from 'Carmen Suite No. 2', conducted by Alpesh Chauhan. From 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

The 成人快手 Philharmonic Orchestra perform 'Habanera' from 'Carmen Suite No. 2', conducted by Alpesh Chauhan. From 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

You can find out more about Georges Bizet with 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

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What is ballet?

A male ballet dancer gliding through the air during a movement.

A ballet is a dance that is performed to music.

The music accompanies the movements of the dance.

Ballet developed from dances performed in the late 1500s.

Many early ballets combined dancing with opera. However, by the 1700s were working with composers, to create ballets which told a story through just dance and music.

Ballets also use costumes and scenery for the stage.

A male ballet dancer gliding through the air during a movement.
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Watch: The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

A cartoon image of a soldier from the nutcracker ballet.

One of the most famous ballets is called The Nutcracker, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

It鈥檚 a fairytale story about a young girl called Clara, who is given a wooden nutcracker as a present. When the nutcracker comes to life as a handsome prince, the two have to escape the mouse king to reach the land of sweets.

Watch the full performance of Tchaikovsky's 'Waltz of the Flowers' from 'The Nutcracker' by the 成人快手 Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Payare. From 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

Discover more about the Nutcracker and Tchiakovsky with 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

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What are musicals?

A cartoon of a girl in costume singing onstage as part of a musical.

A musical is quite like an opera in that it has music, song and dance. The difference, is that musicals usually have speaking parts too.

During the , some European composers were experimenting with a style of music called comic opera.

This led to early versions of musical theatre, for example HMS Pinafore and The Mikado by English composers Gilbert and Sullivan.

These shows were made for family audiences and showed how music, song and spoken parts, could work together to tell a theatrical story.

A cartoon of a girl in costume singing onstage as part of a musical.
Cartoon of Elton John playing the piano and waving
Image caption,
Singer and songwriter Elton John

The brought a golden age for musical theatre, with composers bringing together all aspects of modern musical theatre: music, dance, song and spoken dialogue.

This included composers such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The late 20th Century saw the rise of rock and jukebox musicals, which use more modern types of music like pop, rock and hip-hop.

Modern composers of musicals include Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz and Elton John.

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Watch: Mambo by Leonard Bernstein

Composer Leonard Bernstein conducting
Image caption,
Leonard Bernstein

Watch this thrilling performance of Mambo taken from West Side Story, a musical composed by Leonard Bernstein.

Composer Leonard Bernstein conducting
Image caption,
Leonard Bernstein

The 成人快手 Philharmonic Orchestra perform Bernstein's 'Mambo' from 'Symphonic Dances' from 'West Side Story', conducted by Alpesh Chauhan. From 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

Explore more about Bernstein and Gershwin with 成人快手 Ten Pieces.

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Activities

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