Music theatre represents a provocative challenge both for drama studies and musicology. Methodologically, analytically, and also historiographically, the blend of singing, language, voice, acting, body, and movement on the stage poses problems, particularly as the majority of historical theatre forms (Posse, operetta, revue, modern alienation theatre, etc.) are situated somewhere between the two poles of 'pure' opera and drama. Tackling these problems on an interdisciplinary plane is doubly urgent as they open out on the pressing issues involved in extending the purview of traditional drama research to encompass such aspects as a cultural history of voice and body, perceptual relations, and the way these are affected by different media.
