Chapter 17 -- Musical Theatre

I.    Prehistory and Ancient Greek Drama

        A.    Musical theatre older than recorded history

        B.    Early storytellers may have sung or chanted to drum accompaniment

        C.    Archaeologists in China have found flutes more than 10,000 years old

        D.    Paintings and sculpture show how ancient Greek dramas were sung and chanted

                1.    Chorus danced to accompaniment of a musician who used percussion and wind instruments to maintain
                        the rhythm and underscore the mood with melody

II.    Opera

        A.    Invented in Renaissance

                1.    Theatre artists of 15th century Florence rediscovered ancient Greek plays, they weren't sure how to produce them.
                        Singing and dancing obviously had been part of the performance but without written notation, nobody knew what
                        the ancient music sounded like or what the dance looked like.  So the Italian artists invented a new form of theatre
                        which the entire performance was set to music.  These operas (works) were sung from beginning to end and the
                        music was considered far more important than the words. That's why so many opera lovers today go to hear the
                        music since they can't understand many of the words.

                2.    Very grand

                3.    Similar to large modern musicals

                        a.    Effects and Spectacle

                4.    Music Complex

                5.    Based on ancient Greek and German myths

                6.    Distant time and place

                7.    Main characters often die

III.    Operetta

        A.    Developed as a balance to the sad stories and complex music of opera

        B.    Lighthearted

        C.    Means "little opera"

        D.    Sometimes described as comic opera because of plots

        E.    Appeal to more mainstream audience of all ages

        F.    Words easier to understand partly because it's standard practice to translate into local language

        G.    Most have brief segments of spoken language

        H.    Became popular in 19th century with compositions by Offenbach (Marine Corps Hymn), Strauss and Gilbert and 
               Sullivan

        I.    American composers too such as John Philip Sousa

        J.    Today's musical evolved more from operetta than opera

IV.    Ballad Opera

        A.    Separate form developed in England at same time as Opera and Operetta

        B.    English wrote comic plays, inserted some songs into them and called them Ballad Opera

        C.    Same thing happened in America\

        D.    Led to development of modern musical

        E.    Best known written by John Gay in 1728 "Beggar's Opera." Came to America big success

V.    Musical Comedy

        A.    1866 production of Black Crook first example of American musical comedy

        B.    Corny melodrama that producers feared would flop

        C.    Took big risk and hired French ballet troup to appear in show..

        D.    Producers inserted song and dance into play and turned dull melodrama into exciting spectacle rand for 475 perfomances

VI    The Musical