Category talk:One-act operas

Previous Opera Project discussions
Discussions of this category at the Opera Project page are archived at and  Voceditenore (talk) 09:27, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

a draft description
One Act Operas:

'One-act operas' are here taken to include short works usually paired with others to make a double or triple bill (notwithstanding the inclusion of full-length operas in a single act such as Rheingold). Thus Judith Weir's ten-minute "Grand opera in three acts and an epilogue" King Harald's Saga is considered to fall into this category. Some one-act pieces are concieved as part of a cycle (Il trittico) and others have traditional mates (Cav and Pag), (this last is actually in two acts) but producers often resort to lists like this one to find commpanion pieces.

The genre can be traced back to the baroque traditions of the intermezzo and masque, which were parts of longer entertainments, and reappears at the end of the romantic period with Zemlinsky, Strauss, Bartók and Schönberg. Neoclassists such as Stravinsky, Milhaud and Hindemith also took to writting short works that could be paired with ballets, and the rise of the chamber opera for reduced resources also gave rise to short works such as The Telephone, A Hand of Bridge or The Lighthouse. Commissions from radio and television, such as The Flood and Amahl and the Night Visitors may have provided a fresh impetus. Sparafucil 07:34, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd recommend making this into an article. (Most genre categories are supported by articles - or should be). Few people will read this here. -- Kleinzach 01:43, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not yet sure whether you endorse the first paragraph or not!  The second is just a revision of the original blurb, which at first glance seemed to imply quite illogically that Il trittico was a reaction to the expense of a three-set Boheme. ;-) Sparafucil 03:56, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Reference to Opera Project discussions
This category contains operas that are described by their makers as being in one act, as well as others only nominaly in more than one act. Pagliacci, half of the most famous double bill in the repertoire, is considered a two-act opera (as indeed it was premiered) and is not listed, pending the current discussion on how to define this category. Bomarzo (Ginastera) is another 2 act case.


 * I've moved this from the category page. Neutral explanatory statements are fine on public pages, but not references to discussions. -- Kleinzach 01:50, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Recent Edit
I have added an explanation about running times not necessarily equating to number of acts. I have also changed the criterion for inclusion back to operas which are specified in their libretto as having only one act. It is confusing and inaccurate to stretch category boundaries with inherently fuzzy concepts like - 'short', 'no interval', 'often paired in double bills', etc. Categories are, by their nature, categorical. Discussion about the history and development of short and/or one-act operas, and their performance pairings more properly belongs in an article or annotated list. See the most recent discussion on this category at the Opera Project as well as current discussion about the deletion of several newly-created categories for operas by number of acts. Voceditenore (talk) 09:15, 12 January 2008 (UTC)