Music and Time Annotation << Back Viennese Singspiel in the Late 18th–Early 19th Century: Origin and Diversity N.V. Pilipenko The article deals with the origin and types of the Viennese Singspiel, as well as the specific features representative to this genre at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The variety of musical sources determined the internal heterogeneity of the Viennese Singspiel and a combination in it of the Italian and French traditions. Division into the so-called "high" and "low" forms (the terms belong to A. Schlesinger) connected with the specifics of its existence. The high form is nearer to the opera, the low is closely related to the folk comedy. Both these forms did not remain unchanged: they evolved during the last two decades of the 18th century and the first quarter of 19th. By the end of the 1800s in this genre there were two main models, one of which served as the basis for the formation of the Viennese operetta, the other is the part of the prehistory of the German Romantic opera. Keywords: Viennese Singspiel, genre history, late 18th – early 19th century. Contacts: E-mail: n_pilipenko@mail.ru Pp. 03-08.