It has recently come to my attention that there has been much quarreling and confusion over the silly little question, "Is Rent an opera or a musical?" Well, I am here to tell you that Rent is an absolute, unequivocal, indisputable (drum roll pleeease ) OPERA! Now some of you readers out there might be upset, or even dismayed to find that a belief you've held your entire life is false, but have faith, I can easily explain why Rent is not just plain old musical theater and that explanation is as simple as opening up a dictionary!.
For all of you who do not have a dictionary, musical theater is defined as, "a play or movie that contains musical performances or a film whose action or dialogue is interspersed with singing and dancing."" It is obvious to anyone who has ever witnessed an operatic performance that opera is not just a play that "contains musical performance". Oh no, in opera, the music becomes an interracial part of the performance and is defined as "a drama either comic or tragic, wholly or mostly sung, consisting of recitative, arias, chouses, duets, trios, etc. with orchestral accompaniment, preludes and interludes." All these aspects are then brought together to form a wonderful, cohesive, and in the case of Rent, cutting edge theater experience.
From these definitions and a little interpretation, it is clear that Rent is more than just a musical. Rent is almost wholly set to music with reoccurring melody and rhythms, which help the audience to understand the unique aspects of each character. And although a miked character used to be a sure-fire way to tell an opera from a musical (the "musical" performers usually were the mikes), times are a-changing and in the case of Rent, the performers are miked only so that each and every audience member will catch every one of the performers words to ensure only the best of operatic experiences!.
