Writing for the stage

I'm an amateur composer, and recently I've set my sights to try to do something beyond mere fugues, sonatas etc. I want to write something for the stage. Sadly... I just don't really know how you combine the two, music and what goes on above the pit...

If you were going to write an opera or a musical, how would you combine all of the elements on paper in a way that the singers would sing the right notes at the right time, the actors do the right thing in the right spot in the music, how to tell what props went where, basically... everything?! How do you arrange for the stage?

I'm not asking how to write the music, or write the script, but um... how to combine the two, if that makes it any easier to help me.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Stage notes in separate scores from the script, which itself refers to the score? A director?

What's your goal here? It'll change the answer significantly.

That's the director's job. An opera is an amalgam of many arts, and that's why the composer only does his part. The librettist takes the text and turns it into a script. Then, the composer composes the music around the libretto. Then, the director interprets the script and sets up the stage for each act/scene according to the libretto and the small notes that exist before each act (e.g. it may say something like "The scene takes place in an open space, a few trees around, it's night with a full moon. The character Jonas is hiding behind a tree waiting for his lover. His lover enters from the right" and then the dialogues/singing follow/s).

Before writing for the stage, it would be good to look at some scores for works on the stage, including operas, musicals and musical theatre.

It helps to have some sense of stage work on its own. Part of the composer's job is to pace the dialogue that the librettist gives, and that's difficult without a clear sense of what goes into an acting production.

Wow, that really helped me. Thanks a lot guys!

Yeah, the biggest question to answer is how much of the work you want to do yourself. Most "classical" composers did little/no work on the libretto, or on the staging, or other details of their work. Some composers, such as Wagner, took control over essentially all aspects of the musical production. For sanity's sake, I'd recommend starting small and just trying to write music around a libretto.

Another note of interest: compare how classical vs. romantic vs. modern composers write around implied staging. If you plan to do this (and you're NOT doing the stage direction), you will either have to anticipate how a piece will be staged, or (what I'd recommend) work with the writer or a director on how it would be staged.

A great way to start out, or practice writing, would to re-score scenes/arias, etc, etc for librettos currently in public domain. The libretto structure may be very different from modern music, but at least you're getting your hands dirty.