Drama Glossary
Key theatre terms and definitions including related shows.
How high or low a note or tone is.
The “first lady” or leading lady in an opera.
A theatrical movement developed alongside naturalism, which aimed to be more truthful to real life through texts and performances.
An operatic conversation or musical dialogue. In many operas, the recitative is where the story happens.
The vibrations of sound through the body.
Rhythm is the pace and emphasis used when speaking - the pacing of a scene or pattern and arrangement of sound.
A style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late nineteenth century. W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were the original and most successful practitioners.
The process of determining the rhythm of a line, usually a line in verse.
Translated as 'sitting rehearsal'. Usually the moment where the singers and orchestra meet for the first time. The music for the opera is rehearsed in full, with no staging; the singers ‘sit’.
A note that has a sixteenth of the time value of a whole note, or half the value of an eighth note. It is represented by a filled in circle with two stems. When there are multiple sixteenth notes in a row, the stems connect.
A music education method that teaches aural skills, pitch, and sight-reading using syllables and hand signals.
A speech given by a character that reveals inner thoughts only shared with the audience.