Drama is characterized by dialogue as the main means of expression. Dialogue must be a standard literary language, easy to understand, easily accepted by the audience and suitable for reflecting life. Opera is a dramatic form that combines vocal music and instrumental music, so it is also called musical. Some operas only have vocals, no monologues and dialogues, while others have both. The lyrics and music of opera are very important, and the language of lyrics should be the language of poetry. Dance drama is a dramatic art that integrates dance, music and drama. Its characteristics are: the development of the plot and the shaping of characters are mainly expressed by the actors' dance movements (and musical language).
According to the length of the play, it can be divided into one-act play and full-length play:
A one-act play is a short play with its own scene. Due to the strict time and scene restrictions, the plot structure is required to be compact, and the contradictions and conflicts unfold relatively quickly, while the basic parts of the plot-the beginning, development, climax and ending-should be shown. Full-length drama is a big drama. Large capacity and complicated story. Because it shows the interval of time and the transfer of space by changing the scene, it can transfer the events that are inconvenient to perform on the stage to the background, handle the events in different time and space, and reflect the broader social life.
Judging from the content, nature and aesthetic categories, there are tragedies, comedies and dramas.
Tragedy originated in ancient Greece. It is a song that goats thank God when sowing in spring, so tragedy means "the song of the goat" in Greek. In the earliest tragedies, the protagonist can't escape under the control of fate, and often ends in failure and extinction. With the development of the times, the concept of tragedy has undergone fundamental changes. For example, Shakespeare's tragic characters show that the contradiction between ideal desire and social reality is irreconcilable. In ancient Greece, comedy was originally a carnival song and dance to thank God when harvesting grapes in autumn, so comedy means "carnival song" in Greek. When holding carnival songs and dances, leaders often say some ridiculous things to make everyone laugh. Therefore, the characteristics of comedy are mostly to ridicule and satirize the ugly phenomena in life and the shortcomings and weaknesses of some characters in a funny way. Lu Xun said that comedy is "tearing that worthless thing to people." Generally speaking, the ending of comedy is always happy, happy. Drama is a type between tragedy and comedy. In drama literature, there are a lot of dramas. In most cases, social life is not a simple tragedy or comedy, but mixed with sadness and joy. It often reflects the conscious struggle between the two forces, mixed with sadness and joy, which means that the just side finally wins and the ending is happy. People call it drama, or tragicomedy.
According to the characteristics of the times, there are historical dramas and modern dramas:
Historical drama refers to a drama adapted from historical events and historical figures. The creation of historical drama is based on real historical figures and events and is processed by the author's art. It is necessary to analyze and study a large number of historical materials, select typical events on the basis of historical truth, and appropriately enrich and supplement them with imagination and fiction to form dramatic conflicts and reproduce social life in a certain historical period. Modern drama mainly refers to drama, opera and ballet introduced from the west since the 20th century. Drama is the main body, and foreign drama generally refers to drama.