what is considered to be the first musical in western musical theatre
Musical theatre The European Renaissance saw older forms evolve into two antecedents of musical theatre: commedia dell'arte, where raucous clowns improvised familiar stories, and later, opera buffa. In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music,[20] and short musical plays began to be included in an evenings' dramatic entertainments.[21] Court masques developed during the Tudor period that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design.[22][23] These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as The Siege of Rhodes (1656).[24] In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean Baptiste Lully) and dance in the late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera[25] by composers such as John Blow[26] and Henry Purcell.[24]