How to Use recitative in a Sentence

recitative

noun

• The opera made use of recitative.
• Thanks to the conductor Ryan Brown and the four singers, the recitatives between the set pieces stayed suspenseful; the act took us through quite a spectrum.
  — Alastair MacAulay, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2018
• Jokes about tenors or recitatives, for instance, playfully turn the spotlight on the conventions of the genre.
  — Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2016
• The recitatives that had been thought to be the opera’s longueurs here were shown to be, in fact, as subtly inflected as Gregorian chant.
  — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 14 June 2017
• The conducting was brisk and buoyant, the recitatives clear and expressive.
  — Heidi Waleson, WSJ, 21 Aug. 2017
• His soliloquy consists of a grim prelude, a spacious recitative and a grand aria in the standard two-part (slow-fast) form.
  — Will Crutchfield, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2020
• Soprano Golda Schultz was frankly perfect in her recitatives and arias.
  — Special To The Plain Dealer, cleveland.com, 19 Jan. 2018
• The piece begins with a long recitative and aria in which Ms. Southwell’s Sarah admits to murdering her husband and two children but tries to explain her motives.
  — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2017
• Hugo Hymas was responsible for both the Evangelist’s zealous recitatives and the first choir’s tenor part, and rose admirably to his Herculean task.
  — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2019
• Addressing the crowd in Norma’s first lines of dramatic recitative, Monastyrska got off to a rough start, her tone turning harsh at the top of her range and not ideally centered on pitch.
  — Eric Skelly, Houston Chronicle, 1 May 2018
• The dramatis personae at the empty tomb are represented in recitatives and a long soprano aria.
  — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 1 May 2023
• Musical declamation of the kind usual in the narrative and dialogue parts of opera and oratorio, sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech with many words on the same note: singing in recitative.
  — Zadie Smith, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2022
• The sound of the cello cuts in like a pang of guilt, then tumbles down in wistful figures, becoming the voice of his conscience and delivering a recitative of grizzled remorse and tenderness.
  — Richard Sandomir, New York Times, 3 Aug. 2021
• Here, with help from the pop/rock orchestration of music director Ben Kapilow, brief speech slides gracefully into recitative, then bursts into song as the passion of the speaker rises.
  — Hugh Hunter, Philly.com, 4 Feb. 2018
• The harpsichord, usually heard only in recitatives, joined some of the arias and ensembles in witty, improvisatory fashion.
  — David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, 1 May 2017
• Abreu brings off the suicidal artist’s 30-minute succession of arias and accompanied recitatives most skillfully, while Mortellaro makes a most alluring love-object.
  — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 15 Apr. 2018
• Out of five arias and four recitatives, Forsythe and a vivacious orchestra under Jeannette Sorrell crafted so many individual scenes, each with its own character and mood.
  — Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com, 12 Feb. 2018
• The result is a strictly musical (that is, without dialogue or recitative) compendium of the luminaries of the age: Couperin, Lully, Marais, and Charpentier.
  — Zachary Lewis, cleveland, 24 Mar. 2022
• Holding it all together was conductor Harry Bicket, who also played harpsichord for the recitatives.
  — Heidi Waleson, WSJ, 7 Feb. 2020
• These collective manipulations lend a creepy element to the recitatives, which were otherwise performed as Handel wrote them.
  — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 14 July 2017
• It’s all performed in a childlike sing-songy yet occasional atonal operatic recitative.
  — Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 18 May 2021
• Monteverdi, though, was careful to avoid long stretches of uninterrupted recitative.
  — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2017
• This is accomplished in 34 short musical numbers, including arias, ariosos, choruses, recitatives and chorales.
  — Alan Artner, chicagotribune.com, 16 May 2017
• Glover conducted with urgency as well as accompanied recitatives on harpsichord.
  — Alan Artner, chicagotribune.com, 16 May 2017
• Her entrance to the short second recitative was particularly noteworthy, powerful without being overbearing.
  — Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 22 Feb. 2021

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024