noun. A German musical comedy of the 1700s featuring songs and ensembles interspersed with dialogue.

noun. A semidramatic work or performance in which a series of incidents are related or represented in song.

noun. A dramatic work, partly in dialogue and partly in song, of a kind popular in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century. It was often comic, had modern characters, and patterned its music on folk song with strictly subordinated accompaniment.

noun. An early German form of opera consisting of spoken dialogue interspersed with song.

noun. An opera in this style.

"Native dramatic tastes, once fostered by minnesingers and strolling players, were kept alive by the "singspiel," or song-play, composed of spoken dialogue and popular song, which furnished the actual beginnings of German national music drama."