Are Musicals Descended From Opera?
Opera has been with us since the late 1500s, but (and there are those who will scream when they read this) . . . contemporary musical theatre and film are not direct descendants of grand opera. However, opera can be called a descendant of classical theatre. When Renaissance writers and composers tried to resurrect the forms of Greek drama, they added music. This eventually led to the birth of grand opera. From its birth in the 1800s, the musical has often spoofed opera, but it traces its main lineage to other sources. Vaudeville, burlesque, and many other forms are the true ancestors of the modern musical — not opera. Of course, the melodies of grand opera were part of the popular musical culture of the 1800s and early 1900s, and therefore had some residual effect on the musical theater melodies of that time. However, the so-called “comic operas” that dominated Broadway in the late 1880s and 90s, including Robin Hood and the works of Gilbert & Sullivan, are not operas — at least not
