In this article I argue that it seems to be an inherent quality of the opera medium that it maintain an active and creative approach to all aspects of stage art and that these can and should be part of the composition since their relation to music is no less obvious than that of text to music. I examine the equivalence of speech and song, the equivalence of opera and theatre in general, the relative status of text and other aspects of the form, the relative status of formal development and melody, the equivalence of stage character and form, and the abstract nature of the concept of plot.