Singspiel - Early German musical drama, which employed spoken dialogue along with musical numbers; Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute are both examples of this genre, so are Weber's Der Freischutz and Beethoven's Fidelio. The singspiel is very similar to English ballad opera or French opéra comique.

Soprano - The highest range of the female voice; the soprano voice ranges from lyric (a light, graceful quality) to dramatic (obviously fuller and heavier in tone).

Sotto Voce - A musical direction that asks the performer to sing, or play "under the voice," or in a subdued manner. Singing sotto voce can be compared to declaiming in a stage whisper and can be very effective in a large theatre.

Soubrette - A lightweight soprano voice or type of soprano role, frequently found in comic operas or operettas; the soubrette usually possesses a flirtatious demeanor and street wise manner, as in the case of Adele in Die Fledermaus, or is a particularly fetching country innocent, like Adina inThe Elixir of Love.

Spinto - A kind of voice that is "pushed" towards another, from the Italian "spingere" (to push); thus a "lirico spinto" soprano is a Iyric voice that has some qualities of the heavier dramatic range. Frequently, sopranos who have essentially light voices will take on the role of, say, Mimi in La Bohème (to portray her youthfulness and frailty) and push their voices to ride over the orchestra, thus developing a "spinto" sound. Licia Albanese, the great Italian soprano, would be a prime example of this type of soprano.

Sprechstimme - Literally "speak voice"; a kind of vocal instruction found often in the operas of Schoenberg and Berg, where the singer half speaks and half sings a note. The declamation sounds like speaking, but there is a duration of pitch which makes it seem almost like singing.

Staccato - A type of singing or playing that is characterized by short, clipped, rapid articulation; the opposite of staccato is legato.

Stage Right/Stage Left - The division of the stage from the performer's point of view; thus, when a singer goes stage right, he moves to his right but to the audience's left.

Supernumerary - A performer who appears in a non-singing role; a "super" might have a solo walk on to deliver a message, or might be included as part of a large processional, for example. In the old days, supers were often referred to as "spear carriers."

Tempo - The speed of a musical passage or composition; the tempo may range from very slow ("largo" in Italian, "langsam" in German) to extremely fast ("presto" in Italian, "schnell" in German).

Tenor - The highest natural male voice.

Tessitura - The average range of a vocal part in an opera; for example, the tessitura of Lucia di Lammermoor is quite high, that of Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana (although it is still a soprano role) is low enough that the role could be sung by a mezzo-soprano.

Trill - Two adjacent notes rapidly and repeatedly alternated.

Twelve Tone - A system of composition that was put forth in the early part of this century byArnold Schoenberg, whereby (in very simple terms), each note of the chromatic scale should be used as part of a melody before any other note gets repeated. Many composers have used this system, which is also called "serialism," but the best-known operas in this style are Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, Schoenberg's Erwartung and Roger Sessions's Montezuma.

Upstage/Downstage - The position on stage farthest or nearest the audience; because of the raked stage which was so prevalent in early opera houses, the farther "back" a singer went on the stage, the "higher" he seemed to become in stature--thus the distinction of being "up"-stage. When a singer is directed to move downstage left, he goes toward the audience and towards his left side; to the audience, he seems to be coming forward and moving to the audience's right.

Verismo - Literally, "truth"; a style of theatre made popular in the latter part of the 19th century in which ordinary events and characters participate in melodramatic situations. Bizet's Carmen was considered an early and powerful example of verismo, and so are most of the operas of Puccini and Mascagni.

Vibrato - The slightly wavering quality that a singer has in his voice while sustaining a tone; if the vibrato becomes terribly pronounced, it is pejoratively called a wobble. Some singers will drain their voice of any vibrato for a particularly haunting effect.

Zarzuela - A Spanish popular musical presentation that blends dialogue and music in skits and dramas ranging from one to three acts that deal satirically with aspects of daily life. The derivation of the name is intriguing: early zarzuelas were performed in the Palacio de la Zarzuela in Madrid, so named because it was surrounded by a field of brambles ("zarza" being Spanish for bramble).