Lyrical Drama

Abstract

The phrase ‘lyrical drama’ has several significantly different meanings. In the history of dramatic art, ‘lyrical drama’ is the form of ancient Greek plays including the tragedies of Aeschylus; these performances included action, dialogue, and music, including choral songs. In the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and James I, and in private houses during their reigns and afterward, masques and other dramatic performances containing lyrics included George Peele's The Arraignment of Paris and the popular dramas of William Shakespeare including Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost; Ben Jonson wrote masques for performance at the court of Queen Anne (wife of James I); John Milton's Comus (1637) was subtitled A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle; and these are all dramas with lyrics and musical accompaniment. In the modern history of music, however, ‘lyrical drama’ designates opera, which often includes both recitative and lyrical singing, often in alternation, and often mingling spoken drama with singing, as in Henry Purcell's later operas and in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Seraglio and The Magic Flute .