1880–85; < German, equivalent to sing ( en ) to sing + Spiel play
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Encores! discovers this early Jason Robert Brown singspiel.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2018
“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
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It's a Singspiel, a comic opera with spoken dialogue, but the humor was about 200 years out of date.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
On a recent visit to Mark Johnston's yard to watch his 2000 Guineas hope Awzaan, my eye was taken by a particularly good-looking unraced son of Singspiel working in a different group.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2010
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
Singspiel, sing′spēl, n. a semi-dramatic representation in which a series of incidents are set forth in alternate dialogue and song, now a kind of opera in which the music is subordinated to the words.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
