Let's Talk Music - Chapter 2, From Broadway to the Opera House
From the beginning of times, mankind has enjoyed two things when it comes to entertainment: stories and music. People used to gather around the fire and sing or tell tales long before the first theatre opened its doors or the first musical instrument was invented. So it was only a matter of time before someone, allegedly Jacopo Peri, an Italian composer, combined the two and created the first opera. The opera evolved as a genre throughout four centuries, but as the music scene changed, a new form of entertainment emerged: a hybrid between opera and theatre - the musical. There is a lot of debate over the debut of the musical as a genre. Charles M. Barras' The Black Crook is still widely considered the first musical despite critics saying that it was just a play with songs and dance. Some say Charles M. Barras was the creator of the musical. Photograph: www.wikipedia.com In figure skating, operas and musicals are both under-used and over-used at the same time. There are s...