1880–85; < German, equivalent to sing ( en ) to sing + Spiel play
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Written at the end of Mozart’s life as a popular entertainment, its a singspiel, or sung play.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
“Fidelio” being a singspiel, the dialogue is spoken rather than sung recitative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
With “The Magic Flute,” Mozart elevated the singspiel — a German-language form blending spoken dialogue, music and comic elements — to extraordinary heights.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2016
“Die Zauberflöte,” with its use of the German language and spoken dialogue, is a singspiel from Mozart’s last year, 1791.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2012
Native dramatic tastes, once fostered by minnesingers and strolling players, were kept alive by the "singspiel," or song-play, composed of spoken dialogue and popular song, which furnished the actual beginnings of German national music drama.
From For Every Music Lover A Series of Practical Essays on Music by Moore, Aubertine Woodward
Conceived as a Singspiel, in which spoken dialogue alternates with musical numbers, Fidelio took eight years to reach the form in which it’s usually heard today.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 1, 2020
In the Teatro di San Carlo, Mozart’s opera Singspiel in three acts, “The Abduction From the Seraglio,” will depict a timeless love story.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2017
It's a Singspiel, a comic opera with spoken dialogue, but the humor was about 200 years out of date.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2012
He's owned a string of former champions of the Dubai World Cup including Street Cry, Singspiel and Dubai Millennium.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2010
The German Singspiel writers made the mistake of letting their music be, for the most part, purely incidental, and conducting all the dramatic part of their plots by dialogue.
From The Opera A Sketch of the Development of Opera. With full Descriptions of all Works in the Modern Repertory. by Fuller-Maitland, J. A.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
