The Royal Opera opens a window on Sondheim

What is the difference between an opera and a musical? Sorry, don't know. No doubt there are technical and musicological definitions that show a distinction between the two art forms. But I have never really been able to define what the difference is. Why is Bizet's Carmen, for example, not simply a musical, possibly the best musical ever written. What prevents Bernstein's West Side Story from being considered an opera? Once again, I'm not sure.

I always kept such uncertainties to myself. Opera houses and West End theatres clearly never had any doubts. Verdi, Mozart, Britten and Birtwistle are the stuff of the opera house, publicly funded and presented with due reverence. Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber are the stuff of the commercial theatre with singers rather than divas, a book rather than a libretto, a coach party rather than corporate entertaining.

But now those supposed certainties have been threatened. In what I think is a deceptively significant move, the Royal Opera House has included a Stephen Sondheim "musical", Sweeney Todd, in its programme for its new season. The Royal Opera's musical director, Antonio Pappano, says he wants to "open the windows", adding: "I am not interested in this old argument about what is opera and what is musical theatre. Often it's so intense and serious here, but it is OK for this opera house to have fun too."

I have to say that as definitions go, I'm none too keen on Mr Pappano's. Operas serious, musicals fun! There has to be more to it than that, surely. I suppose the alleged differences between the two art forms are that in opera the music conveys the emotion of proceedings in a more obvious way... in a musical the orchestration is predominantly accompaniment. The music normally associated with opera is usually more complex and sophisticated, and more demanding on the singers' voices. But one can also cite musicals that fit those definitions (Sondheim indeed) and, of course, there are also some pretty lousy operas.

So Mr Pappano may have done us all a favour in welcoming musicals into the Royal Opera repertoire, even if for the wrong reason. But has he, I wonder, thought about the implications for his own institution? If we agree that there is no easily definable difference between opera and musical, where does that leave the multi-million pound subsidy we give to opera each year? Should some of that money not also be going to develop new British musicals?

Mr Pappano may have opened a can of worms here, which could yet rebound on the Royal Opera House itself. But I'm pleased he has done so. I and, I suspect, many others who never really quite grasped why musicals were a lower life form than opera, now have official backing.

And if the Royal Opera House can incorporate musicals in its programming, then I see no reason why West End playhouses cannot present operas. When the ROH puts on Sweeney Todd, Sir Cameron Mackintosh could stage The Magic Flute. Audiences intimidated by going to conventional opera in conventional opera houses might feel that much warmer towards seeing it presented as musical theatre.

It's too glib to say that opera is serious and musicals are fun. What is certain, though, is that it's all music, and the categorisations sometimes do more harm than good.

¿ In all I have written about theatre ticket prices over the last year, no subject has brought me so many e-mails from readers as that of booking fees. Many of you, like myself, particularly resent having to pay a fee per ticket rather than per transaction. How strange that theatre owners never address this point. How unfortunate that the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, in his own collaboration with West End theatres to reduce ticket prices, never challenged them about booking fees. But it gets worse. A letter in The Stage this week shows that the problem is not confined to London, nor even to booking fees. An audience member at the York Grand Opera House recounts how she had to pay £1.50 booking fee on top of each £13.50 ticket; and on top of that a £1.95 "handling charge", even though she was collecting the tickets herself. What on earth, she wonders, can this "handling charge" be, considering there is no postage involved? I guess it can only be the box office manager handling the tickets as he passes them to his assistant who handles them as he passes them to the unfortunate customer. It's a pretty easy £1.95 in anyone's money.

¿ It was good to see the English National Opera become a talking point this week for its work on stage rather than its financial and managerial problems. The UK premiere of The Handmaid's Tale took the spotlight off the ENO chairman Martin Smith and the changes he might make. But as I walked in for the evening's entertainment I couldn't help but notice that the ENO had for the first time a VIP desk for VIPs to collect their tickets. VIPs at the people's opera house? Things are changing even faster than I thought.

d.lister@independent.co.uk