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2.1.6 Opera and stage musicals

The music, lyrics and dialogue to opera and stage musicals are usually set out in one or more of the following forms:

• A Conductors’ Score containing the full orchestral and vocal parts, together with libretto cues if there are spoken passages.
• Orchestral Parts containing the music for the individual instruments of the orchestra or band.
• A Vocal Score containing all vocal parts with piano accompaniment. The accompaniment is usually an orchestral reduction, and if so the name of the original orchestral instrument is often indicated. Vocal scores sometimes includes stage directions and libretto cues.
• A Vocal Book containing just the vocal parts (no accompaniment), sometimes combined with the libretto.
• A Libretto containing the extended passages of spoken dialogue usually found in musicals, together with the words to the sung parts. Stage directions are usually included. LilyPond can be used to typeset libretti but as they contain no music alternative methods may be preferable.

The sections in the LilyPond documentation which cover the topics needed to create scores in the styles commonly found in opera and musicals are indicated in the References below. This is followed by sections covering those techniques which are peculiar to typesetting opera and musical scores.