to think Les Miserables is a musical not an opera?

[MardyBraWouldDoEddieRedmayne]

Come and settle a dispute with my DH please.

Definitely a musical. A rather fab one at that

Certainly not an Opera

It is a musical

Your DH is BU

DH says it's an opera "because it's sung through" and there is no dialogue.

Nutter.

It's a musical not an opera.

The link, below, discusses the difference better than I could:

www.guardian.co.uk/music/2002/feb/09/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures

You're both right. One definition of opera is - A theatrical presentation in which a dramatic performance is set to music. The only difference between Les Miserables and Carmen is about 150 years.

It's a bit short of good songs to even rate as a musical. Come back Andrew Lloyd Webber (and I never thought I'd say that).

According to that link Pandemoniaa, Evita and Phantom are operas.

I beg to differ daffodil but your post made me laugh.

Anyway, I'm not sure the definition depends on the "good songs". There are a few toe tappers in opera too.

Didn't notice that, Mardy. Admittedly, Phantom has got Opera in the title but Evita was just shit from start to finish. Regardless of what it was!

Short of good songs it's full of them. Makes me go all goosebumpy. Went to see the film again last night. 'Tis fab.

Well, Phantom is "of" the opera, but isn't necessarily one.

Indeed, not. I was being a tad facetious there.

I think Phantom is shite

Musical

I forgot the to recognise the facetiousness Pandemoniaa.

Should I LTB?

It's a musical, even though it's sung through. In a musical, the narrative is driven primarily via the text (acted scenes OR sung words): ie the words they sing are the most important factor in understanding the story. In opera, the opposite is true: the words are less relevant, and the music itself is the primary narrative function - you mostly understand the story/themes via the music and not the words.

You win :)

It's a sung-through musical, as is most (if not all) of Lloyd Webber's rubbish.

There are some musicals that have dialogue but which are very operatic in the nature and challenge of their music - Sweeney Todd and Candide for two - that are now done in opera houses as much as theatres.

Les Mis is sung through but most of the music is relatively simple and not very challenging.

Definitely a musical. But I don't know enough about opera to give you a good reason why. I thought operas were Italian but that's probably wrong.

Should I LTB?

Yes, but you'll need to decide whether this is accompanied by a full aria or just an intermittently sung score.

That'll do nicely.

'most of the music is relatively simple and not very challenging"

Not all operas are complex and challenging though.

(Don't know why I'm saying this because it goes against my OP and makes me potentially unreasonable)