"Soliloquy" is a 1945 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, written for their 1945 musical Carousel, where it was introduced by John Raitt.
[1] The now jobless carousel barker Billy Bigelow, the antihero of the musical, sings this seven-and-a-half-minute song just after he has learned he is about to become a father.
[3] It is this idea that spurs him on to help his criminal pal Jigger Craigin in committing a robbery, an act which ultimately leads to personal disaster for Billy.
The song is extremely unusual in that it requires the singer to sing solo (and occasionally speak) for a full seven and a half minutes, in the manner of an operatic aria, without the benefit of an accompanying choral group "taking up the slack", as is usually the case in long musical numbers (e.g. "Ol' Man River").
The lengthy song "Glitter and Be Gay", from Leonard Bernstein's Candide, makes a similar requirement of the soprano performing it.