In the second half of the 18th century, there were two different types of operas - Singspiel and Peking Opera - in Germany and China respectively. Although these two kinds of plays are formed in different cultural backgrounds, they are both comprehens...
In the second half of the 18th century, there were two different types of operas - Singspiel and Peking Opera - in Germany and China respectively. Although these two kinds of plays are formed in different cultural backgrounds, they are both comprehensive plays with music as the main means of artistic expression. operas in the German Singspiel were based on Italian operas and influenced by the British Ballad operas and the French Opera buffa. lied was used as the composition elements of the arias and relied on large dialogues instead of the narrative. It gradually formed a form of music drama with local characteristics. Based on a variety of folk operas, Chinese Peking Opera has developed into China's "national opera" through the long-term practice of numerous artists on the stage. It has formed a set of standardized procedures in literature, performance, music, singing, instrumental music, facial makeup and other aspects of the performing art system organically combined with "singing, reading, acting and playing". This paper selects two representative works of Singspiel and Peking Opera - Mozart's The Magic Flute and Tian Han's The Legend of the White Snake, and uses the method of comparative musicology to analyze musicality elements of the two works from four aspects of script, music, dialogue and performance, and then discusses the similarities and differences between German Singspiel and Chinese Peking Opera in terms of artistic expression. To deepen the cultural understanding of these two different types of musical drama.