monodrama

[mon-uh-drah-muh, -dram-uh]

noun

1. a dramatic piece for only one performer.

monodrama

/ ˈmɒnəʊˌdrɑːmə /

noun

1. a play or other dramatic piece for a single performer

Other Word Forms

• monodramatic adjective
• monodramatist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of monodrama¹

First recorded in 1785–95; mono- + drama

Example Sentences

Sellars had long proposed the curious combining of Schoenberg’s “Erwartung,” a violently expressionist monodrama for soprano and large orchestra, with the last movement, “Abschied,” of Mahler’s song-symphony “Das Lied von der Erde.”

From Los Angeles Times

The newly commissioned work that followed was Kate Soper’s “Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus,” a sensationally witty and profound monodrama about the meaning of music for amplified soprano and large orchestra.

From Los Angeles Times

The composer who was reluctant to write for theater would go on to create the richly nuanced monodrama “Émilie,” premiered by the soprano Karita Mattila in 2010; the Noh-inspired “Only the Sound Remains,” staged in 2016; and “Innocence,” first unveiled at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2021, a work powerfully wise in its ideas and execution, a smoothly cohesive collage of styles that now seems like something of a career capstone, if not her masterpiece.

From New York Times

Or so “Being Mr. Wickham,” a tart monodrama written by Adrian Lukis and Catherine Curzon, would have us believe.

From New York Times

“Eight Songs for a Mad King” is a 30-minute music-theater monodrama, written by Davies in 1969 in collaboration with the actor Roy Hart.

From New York Times