SOURCE: “On the Verge of Opera,” in Opera Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 3, Spring, 1989, pp. 76–85.

In the following essay, Martin discusses the similarities and differences between Sondheim's work and opera, focusing on character, musical structure, orchestration, amplification, and musical style.

Has Stephen Sondheim, the composer of such Broadway musicals as Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Pacific Overtures (1976), and Sweeney Todd (1979), been masquerading all these years and actually composing operas? The question is raised vigorously by the new and greatly expanded edition of Craig Zadan's excellent book Sondheim & Co.,¹ and it hovers above the many recent revivals of the works by opera companies that have staged them, without apology, as operas—emphasizing musical values.

The revivals are a phenomenon of the last five years. In the United States they began in 1984 when the Houston Grand Opera and the New York City Opera shared a production of Sweeney Todd, a Victorian melodrama...