music drama

American

noun

an opera having more or less continuous musical and dramatic activity without arias, recitatives, or ensembles.

music drama British

noun

an opera in which the musical and dramatic elements are of equal importance and strongly interfused
the genre of such operas

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of music drama

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He also said that pupils would be exposed to less sport, music, drama and personal development opportunities.

From BBC • Jan. 25, 2026

“The Reef,” Davis’s latest music drama to arrive onstage and his follow-up to “The Central Park Five,” seems more fitting in that literary cohort.

From New York Times • Apr. 16, 2024

Philadelphia’s 21 special admissions high schools have various specialties — music, drama, science, liberal arts, etc.

From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2023

It will compete for the night's top prize - best film - alongside dark comedy "The Banshees of Inisherin", the biopic "Elvis", dimension-hopping "Everything Everywhere All At Once" and music drama "Tár".

From Reuters • Feb. 19, 2023

In his mind, all art had been subsumed into his ‘new’ form of music drama.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023