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The paper aims to offer a synthetic perspective upon the dramatic genre in the Romanian folklore. We present several preliminary elements within a short historical account of the dramatic manifestations; afterwards we create an inventory of the forms of theatrical arts, following the first historical records, a description of the rituals and props in order to depict the folk syncretism and all its beauty. The working instruments are those offered by historiography and the methodology in the field as well as the ethnographic description. Although less consistent than the folk poetry or epic, folk theatre contributes to the complexity and flavour of Romanian folklore. The unseen mechanisms of syncretism have functioned and are still functioning, generating new forms of folk art. The laic and the religious, the traditional and the modern, the epic and the drama, the masks, the dances as well as the costumes and the props – all these contribute to the survival of this particular folk genre. Moreover, being the least discreet of all Romanian folk genres, the folk theatre represents also an element of attraction and cultural export nowadays.

The oratorio as a musical genre was born in Italy in the late XVI century and the next one hundred years are thought to have been its heyday; from the point of view of literature it is traditionally considered to be a narrative genre because of the presence of a narrative part called Testo, Poeta, Storia or Istoria. Because of that, when examining the oratorio of XVII century it is possible to mark the difference between the time of narration and the time of the story narrated. In the first decades of XVIII century the part of Testo disappears and the oratorio libretto becomes more and more similar to opera seria. That is why oratorio approaches dramatic genres loosing in part its nar rative character. In fact, all these changes are due to the influence of the opera on the oratorio which was primarily sung only in churches and oratories (at the beginning during spiritual exercises after as musical concerts). In the present article, on the basis of some librettos of XVII and XVIII centuries the changes of the category of time are treated. The aim of the analysis is to show the passage of oratorio from the narrative genre to the dramatic one.

The oratorio as a musical genre was born in Italy in the late XVI century and the next one hundred years are thought to have been its heyday; from the point of view of literature it is traditionally considered to be a narrative genre because of the presence of a narrative part called Testo, Poeta, Storia or Istoria. Because of that, when examining the oratorio of XVII century it is possible to mark the difference between the time of narration and the time of the story narrated. In the first decades of XVIII century the part of Testo disappears and the oratorio libretto becomes more and more similar to opera seria. That is why oratorio approaches dramatic genres loosing in part its narrative character. In fact, all these changes are due to the influence of the opera on the oratorio which was primarily sung only in churches and oratories (at the beginning during spiritual exercises and after as musical concerts). In the present article, on the basis of some librettos of XVII and XVIII centuries the changes of the category of time are treated. The aim of the analysis is to show the passage of oratorio from the narrative genre to the dramatic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]