Stage music: From La bohème to Les Misérables
Editor’s note: From the early days of classical operas to the raucous Broadway outing of Green Day’s American Idiot, Narendra Kusnur traces the evolution of musical theatre. It’s a treat for music lovers of every kind!
Written by: Narendra Kusnur has been a music journalist for over 40 years—including a decade-long stint covering the beat at the Mid-Day newspaper. He currently writes for The Hindu, Free Press Journal, Hindustan Times, and Rolling Stone India—besides the in-house magazines of prestigious institutions—such as NCPA and Shanmukhananda Hall.
On March 5, Phantom fever hit Mumbai, with the opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre’s (NMACC) Grand Theatre. The musical has had a lengthy and successful run on West End and Broadway since the late 1980s, and has now arrived in India with a relatively new cast. Jonathan Roxmouth enacts Phantom and Grace Roberts plays Christine Daae, roles made famous earlier by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. The musical will be staged till March 30.
A month earlier, maestro Zubin Mehta conducted the Opera Gala with the Symphony Orchestra of India at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). It wasn’t a classic opera with actors and drama, but had live music from two known operas—French composer Georges Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ and Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘La Traviata.’
The two shows were different—the former involved musical theatre and the latter was pure, unadulterated opera music. Yet, there was a connection between the two. But, before we talk of that, let’s watch videos from earlier presentations. This is the title track from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ by Sarah Brightman and Antonio Banderas.
And here’s ‘Carmen’—the song ‘Habanera’ by Julia Migenes-Johnson).
In both videos, the main characters sing live as part of a storyline. The sets have a certain grandeur that matches the period, and an orchestra plays the music from an invisible pit. In the ‘Carmen’ clip, there are choreographed dance movements; if one sees Phantom at the theatre, one will see dance sequences there too.
Besides their different themes, the main difference is that ‘Carmen’ is in French and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is in English. Arguably, the music of Phantom has more mass appeal, with the title track, ‘The Music Of The Night’ and ‘Angel Of Music’. Let’s watch a performance of ‘The Music Of The Night’ by Ramin Karimloo.
What’s the connection between the two genres? Following the broad rules, musical theatre can be described as an extension of opera. The famous Verdi once said of opera, “The essence is the blending of all art forms — music, drama, poetry and visual design — into a unified and powerful experience.” Now, doesn’t that also hold true with musical theatre? Let’s watch the two clips to understand that better.
This is ‘Libiamo, Ne Lieti Calici’ from Verdi’s opera ‘La Traviata’.
And here’s ‘America’ from Leonard Bernstein’s theatre epic ‘West Side Story’ to see how these art forms blend.
Classical vs modern
If the basic rules are the same, why are they treated as separate genres? There are various reasons. To begin with, opera is a classical form that evolved in Italy in the late 16th century and soon spread to other regions in Europe. Historically, it drew on a theatre tradition dating back to ancient Greece. Musical theatre emerged during the latter half of the 19th century, though some major works were written after the 1930s. Besides opera, the form was also influenced by the revue, a light entertainment show.
Let’s now look at some of the early works in both forms. The first video is ‘Tu Se Morta’ from the 1607 creation ‘L’Orfeo’ by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, a pioneer in opera.
The second is the song ‘Tit Willow’ from ‘The Mikado,’ created by British duo Gilbert & Sullivan. Premiered in 1885, it was described as a comic opera but was one of those works that paved the way for musical theatre.
There are other differences. To begin with, opera is mainly sung, whereas musical theatre uses dialogue to connect the songs, and has dance interludes. In both cases, the text is called the libretto. There are exceptions, of course, with ‘Carmen’ being a classic example of a 19th-century opera with dialogues.
Likewise, Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street’ focused more on the music, and very little on the dialogue. The 1980 production ‘Les Miserables,’ with music by Claude Michel-Schonberg, is described as a ‘sung-through musical’.
Here is a clip of ‘The Worst Pies In London’ from ‘Sweeney Todd’.
This is Alfie Boe and Rob Bouchen singing ‘One Day More’ in ‘Les Miserables.’
Opera has specific styles of songs, consisting of arias, recitatives, or bigger chorus numbers. An aria is a solo song describing personal emotions, whereas recitatives are used as a storytelling device to connect the lines in the plot. Chorus numbers have many characters on stage. Here’s a typical aria—‘Der Holle Rache’ (The Queen Of The Night)—sung by soprano Diana Damrau in Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflote’ (The Magic Flute).
Now, compare it with a solo song in musical theatre. Here’s Elaine Page singing the famous ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Evita.’
For even more comparison, here’s another version of the same song, sung by Madonna in the film.
The difference between singing styles becomes more evident in these clips. Musical theatre can be sung in genres from pop, soul and rock, whereas opera is rooted in classical vocal technique. While traditional opera has been sung in a European language, most known Broadway and West End musicals have been in English. As such, opera may require more discerning ears.
The musical bridge: The operetta
Many musicologists consider the operetta to be the bridge between the two styles. An extension of comic opera, the operetta was shorter in length, and had a smaller cast, scale and orchestral size. In their earlier avatar, many operettas were risque too. They used more dialogue than the traditional opera.
The form evolved in France in the 1850s, and early composers included Jacques Offenbach and Herve. Austrian waltz king Johann Strauss II composed 16 operettas of which ‘Die Fiedermaus’ remains the most popular. Here’s ‘Mein Herr Marquis (Laughing Song)’, sung by soprano Regula Muehlemann in ‘Die Fiedermaus.’
One production that established the musical was Oscar Hammerstein II’s ‘Show Boat’ (1927), with lyrics by Jerome Kern. George Gershwin’s folk opera ‘Porgy & Bess’ (1935) followed suit. Classical conductor Leonard Bernstein was behind the 1956 operetta ‘Candide,’ before he composed music for the 1957 musical ‘West Side Story’ with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Here is the classic ‘Ol Man River’ from ‘Show Boat,’ featuring Michel Bell.
Time to rock?
Let’s conclude with ‘rock opera’. Though it incorporates the word ‘opera’, this genre differs from traditional opera. Examples of rock operas by bands are The Who’s ‘Tommy’, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall,’ Dream Theatre’s ‘Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory’ and Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’. Among stage musicals, the most popular examples include ‘Hair: The American Tribal Love,’ which premiered in 1967 with music by Gait MacDermot, and Webber’s ‘sung-through’—‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in 1971 with lyrics by Tim Rice.
On that note, let’s watch a clip from the Broadway version of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot,’ featuring the stage cast on ‘Whatsername’.
This is Yvonne Elliman’s iconic ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’
Though opera is considered ‘high art’ and musicals are more mass-friendly, the basic approach is the same. One needn’t be a snob to quietly enjoy opera in an auditorium, a pedestrian to clap in a musical theatre performance, or a headbanger in a black tee to enjoy a rock opera. They can appeal to different audiences.
As always, we have created a handy playlist of all the tracks on splainer’s YouTube channel. To make the listening more structured, we begin with opera and then go to operetta, musical theatre and rock operas. Enjoy the music.
PS: If you need a list of all the amazing music shared by Naren:
- ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet, from Habanera
- ‘Libiamo, Ne Lieto Calici’ by Giusseppe Verdi, from ‘La Traviata’
- ‘Tu Se Morta’ by Claudio Monteverdi, from ‘L’Orfeo’
- ‘Der Holle Rache’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from ‘Die Zauberflote’
- ‘Mein Herr Marquis’ by Johann Strauss II, from ‘Die Fiedermaus’
- ‘Tit Willow’ by Gilbert & Sullivan, from ‘The Mikado’
- ‘Ol’ Man River’ by Oscar Hammerstein III, from ‘Show Boat’
- Title track from ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber
- ‘Music Of The Night’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, from ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’
- ‘America’ by Leonard Bernstein, from ‘West Side Story’
- ‘The Worst Pies In London’ by Stephen Sondheim, from ‘Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber Of Fleet Street’
- ‘One Day More’ by Claude Michel-Schonberg, from ‘Les Miserables’
- ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, from ‘Evita’
- ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
- Green Day’s ‘Whatsername’
