The Evolution of Opera Performance from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the Nineteenth Century

"The presentation of the book The Evolution of Opera Performance, from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the 19th Century, offers a synthesis of our work as a musical theatre director. Our aim is to stimulate the public’s interest in the opera genre and opera staging, by revealing aspects in the history of opera performance(s), as they have been shaped, century after century, by following the gradual effort and the tireless passion of its creators. Our aims are also to illustrate the original charm and the infinite resources of this genre, which continues to delight the public at large and the knowledgeable even today. Keywords: opera performance, opera staging, liturgical drama, vernacular drama, secular drama, dramatic madrigal, intermedi, the Florentine Camerata, Claudio Monteverdi, comédies-ballets, tragédie en musique, semi-opera, opera seria, the comic opera, opera buffa, ópera comique, ballad opera, Singspiel, tonadilla, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "

“The Wanderings of San Mao” by Sanbao: the genre specificity of the Chinese original children's musical

The purpose of the article is to determine the genre specificity of the Chinese original children's musical Sanbao “The Wanderings of San Mao” (2011), created on the basis of Zhang Liping's (1940) comics of the same name. Methodology - historical, comparative, genre. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the establishment of genre specificity of the Chinese children's musical. Genre specificity of the Chinese children's musical is distinguished both by its audience purpose and by the reinterpreted implementation of the features of comics of the same name, the reliance on which determined the storyline, the image of the main character, the dramaturgical features of the stage work. The general genre features of comics and musicals are systematized, the influence of graphic and literary prototypes on the musical “The Wanderings of San Mao”, observed in the system of genetic, historical, genre, and content prerequisites are revealed. The content commonality of comics and musicals is embodied, in particular, in their genre names, which reflect their inherent comedic origins. The historical unity of comics and musicals is due to their gaining popularity since the middle of the 19th century. From a genre point of view, comics (based on the union of graphics and literary text) and the musical (based on the interaction of comic opera and operetta, vaudeville and burlesque, show and variety, ballet and dramatic interlude) have a mixed nature. The Sanbao musical seems to absorb the constituent elements of comic opera, adding them to the context of other genre components of the theatrical whole. Since comics are a kind of literary genre, it becomes possible to interpret them as the libretto of a children's musical. The scene of the musical as a self-sufficient variety number is likened to a drawing from a comic strip, correlated with coherent plot development, the story of the hero's life set out in the short stories. Inheriting the nature of comics as a sequence of drawings, the Chinese children's musical appears as a kind of suite cycle of musical and dramatic scenes-novellas from the life of the protagonist. The discontinuity of the musical's scene-narratives is overcome, as in comic books, by the story of the main character's adventures and dreams unfolding through the story. The author contrasting pictures of the short story musical are united by a thorough plotline, the role of the principle of “three unities” (events take place during one day in the slums of old Shanghai, where a simple child's dream becomes unattainable). Conclusions. The genre peculiarity of the Chinese children's musical “The Wanderings of San Mao” is conditioned, firstly, by the specificity of the audience; secondly, by the embodiment of Zhang Liping's comic book features as a graphic-literary prototype of Sanbao's musical and stage work.

Beginnings

This chapter provides an overview of British musical theatre. The first known British musical was dramatist John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728), which centers on an anti-hero, Macheath, who was surrounded by enemies and allies grouped in twos. The music is not original because Gay pasted his lyrics onto pre-existing folk and popular tunes known as “ballads,” therefore making Gay's work a ballad opera. It was the flash success of The Beggar's Opera that led the manager of Lincoln’s Inn, John Rich, to build Covent Garden. The chapter looks at a more famous ballad opera, Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd (1725). The chapter then looks at genres such as the comic opera, the burletta, the extravaganza, the pantomime, and the burlesque.

Gilbert and Sullivan

This chapter discusses Richard D'Oyly Carte's “Gilbert and Sullivan” (G & S) program, which was named after W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Carte's G & S program combined the appeal of superb craftsmanship with that of fresh material, replacing the previous derivative nature of extravaganza and burlesque. First of all, Carte commissioned Trial By Jury, G & S's only one-act production. It was a miniature comic opera. This led to the famous series of shows, now all with spoken dialogue, that changed the course of the Anglophone musical. However, by his involvement with Gilbert and Sullivan Carte had tasked himself weightily, as he now faced years of delicate diplomacy, keeping the act together when Gilbert got too prickly or Sullivan felt unappreciated. Next, Carte recruited G & S performers into the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The aim was to tour internationally in the G & S canon and this tradition lasted for over one hundred years. The business became a family business. After Carte retired the business was managed by his son Rupert, and then by Rupert's daughter Bridget, before disbanding in 1982, albeit with sporadic initiatives thereafter. The chapter finally looks into more detail at the G & S canon, including titles such as The Pirates Of Penzance (1879) and Patience (1881).

‘OPERETTAS’ FROM THE OTTOMAN PERIOD TO THE PRESENT

We need to give information about the definition and historical process of “operetta” before starting this study titled “Operettas from the Ottoman period to the present”. Operetta was a term used for short and unpretentious operas in the eighteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century, "operetta" was called "small opera" and "musical theater" as a stage work, born out of the comic opera genre, developed in Paris and Vienna, one of the cultural and artistic centers of Europe. The operettas, which explained fun and emotional subjects in a simple language and appealed to a wide audience, also had the satiric feature of the lower class. In the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Period, when the influence of westernization began to be seen, interest in western style music increased along with the developments in Turkish music. Western style music was initially adopted by the people around the palace and later by the public and began to be performed. During this period, operettas were staged by Italian groups, and operettas were written by Turkish composers using Turkish and Western music together in the last quarter of the 19th century. In operettas written, the musical and instrumental features of Turkish music were used together with the harmony of Western music, and works were tried to be written using two different structures together. In this study, the development of operetta from the Ottoman period to the present day, which emerged in line with the Westernization movement, was discussed. The operettas that were written in this period but were not supported by the conditions of that period, could not be completed and therefore were not performed and forgotten, and operettas that have survived to the present day and have the characteristics of Turkish Music have been identified according to the sources. "Arif's Hilesi", known as the first Turkish operetta written in the Ottoman period and composed by Dikran Çuhaciyan, and the "İstanbulname" operetta composed by Turgay Erdener, one of the last generation composers, were also examined. Keywords: Ottoman, Republic, Period, Turkish, Operetta

Victorian Faddishness: The Dolly Varden from Dickens to Patience

This article addresses the origins and nature of the fad through a case study of the ‘Dolly Varden’ dress. The gown originated in the 1770s as a ‘polonaise’ among continental aristocracy, and experienced a minor revival in the 1840s when Dolly Varden, a character in Charles Dickens’s novel Barnaby Rudge (1841) was depicted wearing it. But it did not become a fad until the 1870s, after a Dickens-owned painting of the character was sold and the gown re-entered the public eye. Having shed its historical or literary connections, the gown was revived again in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera Patience (1881), a well-known send-up of Aesthetic foibles. Often overlooked is the fact that dairy maid Patience – who figures in the opera as a counterpoint to the lovesick maidens wearing high Aesthetic garb – wears a Dolly Varden gown, as faddish as any Aesthetic gown, only slightly outdated. The Aesthetic afterlife of the dress demonstrates the mutability of Victorian fads and the gleeful ignorance of antecedents that typifies fad culture. Facilitated by the material and commercial innovations of the period and fuelled by an insistent presentism, fads are – this article argues – a truly Victorian phenomenon.

Introduction

The critical reception of the 2018 recording of The Light of the World oratorio marked a milestone in the rehabilitation and rediscovery of Arthur Sullivan’s sacred music. Whereas in his lifetime, he was recognized as a serious composer with a strong commitment to church music, the twentieth century saw an almost total focus on his comic opera collaborations with W.S. Gilbert to the exclusion of virtually all his serious and sacred work. Allied to this, recent biographers and commentators have suggested that he had no real religious faith or commitment. In fact, there is clear evidence from his correspondence and diaries that, although naturally reticent and private about such matters, Sullivan did have a sure and simple faith and was deeply committed to sacred music, as his contemporaries recognized.

Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan is almost certainly the best loved and most widely performed British composer in history. Although best known for his comic opera collaborations with W.S. Gilbert, it was his substantial corpus of sacred music which meant most to him and for which he wanted to be remembered. Both his upbringing and training in church music and his own religious beliefs substantially affected both his compositions for the theatre and his more serious work, which included oratorios, cantatas, sacred ballads, liturgical pieces, and hymn tunes. Focusing on the spiritual aspects of Sullivan’s life, which included several years as a church organist, involvement in Freemasonry, and an undying attachment to Anglican church music, Ian Bradley uses hitherto undiscovered or un-noticed letters, diary entries, and other sources to reveal the important influences on his faith and his work. No saint and certainly no ascetic, Sullivan was a lover of life and enjoyed its pleasures to the full. At the same time he had a rare spiritual sensitivity, a simple and sincere Christian faith, an unusually generous disposition, and a unique ability to uplift, soften, and assure through both his character and his music that can best be described as a quality of divine emollient.

Features of Russian fairy-tale drama of the first half of the 19th century: articulation of the issue

The paper deals with the issue of forming of fairy tales artistic model in Russian drama. Currently, one considers dramatic fairy tale mainly in a general context of development of the author's literary fairy tale, although it has its own specifics. The study reviews some questions on the style and genesis of the Russian literary fairy tale for children in relation to the development of author's literary fairy tale as such. The author analyzes the influence of poetics of romanticism on the specifics of dramatic fairy tale, as well as the features of dramatic works by V. F. Odoevsky, who significantly influenced children's literature. His play “The Tsar-Maiden,” intended for children, is considered in comparison with a play by E.-T.-A. Hoffmann “Princess Blandina,” with similarities found in the system of characters, motif of matchmaking and some plot features associated with this motif. The fairy-tale play for adults “Segeliel or Don Quixote of the 19th century” analyzes the motifs of personified confrontation of good and evil and the interpenetration of magic and the ordinary, which was characteristic of romanticism in general and embodied both in other works of Odoyevsky and in later, mainly children's fairy-tale drama. The author suggests the possibility of influence of Odoevsky's plays on the development of children's drama. In both plays, we see the conventionality of artistic reality, resonating with humorous or ironic author's intonation. The paper also addresses I. A. Krylov's magical comic opera “Ilya Bogatyr,” revealing many characteristic features of Odoevsky's plays. At the same time, a distinction is made between Krylov's work and romantic direction, since the tradition of classicism is more clearly manifested in it. One may consider a reduction in pathos owing to humorous playing of heroic and mystical motifs as a feature of the comic opera. The analysis of these works allows us to formulate some characteristics of artistic model of the fairy-tale play, including conventionality of a fictional world, unexpected turns, personification of good and evil, unsteadiness of boundaries between the miracle and the ordinary, as well as humor and irony.