Singspiel

Singspiel is the German-language operatic form in which spoken dialogue alternates with songs, arias, and ensembles, as distinct from the continuous sung recitative of Italian opera. Developed in the eighteenth century from ballad opera and popular comedy, it ranged from folk-like village pieces by *Johann Adam Hiller* to works that transcended the form's modest origins: *Mozart*'s "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" and "Die Zauberflöte", *Beethoven*'s "Fidelio", and *Weber*'s "Der Freischütz". Its mixture of comedy, sentiment, and the supernatural shaped German Romantic opera and, later, the operetta and the musical.