number opera

American  

noun

1. an opera in which the arias, ensembles, recitatives, and other sections are clearly separated from one another.

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Example Sentences

“Die Feen” is a number opera — far from the “endless melody” Wagner would describe in his 1860s essay “Music of the Future.”

From New York Times • Jun. 26, 2022

To write a quintet was, for Wagner, to use a formal device from the operatic past – from number opera – that he had abandoned decades before, in the late 1840s.

From The Guardian • Jun. 20, 2013