The Emergence Of Musical Theatre PART ONE MS. LIRETTE.

The Emergence Of Musical TheatrePART ONE

MS. LIRETTE

Vocab

chassé : (sha-SAY) “to chase”

A triple step gliding movement (step, close, step)

pas de bourrée  : (pah duh boo-RAY) A sideways movement or transition step where a person steps behind, to the side, and then steps to the front.

What is A Musical?

A performing art Form that combines Singing Spoken Dialogue Acting Dancing

There is an Emphasis on the Music, hence “Musicals”

When did we start calling them musicals?

What was the first musical?

What makes a musical unique from other performing art forms?

Roots: Ancient

5th Century BCE Grecian Theatre

amphitheaters

comedies and tragedies

Greek Chorus

Aeschylus and Sophocles

Roots: Ancient

3rd Century BCE Roman Theatre

Plautus’s comediesSabilla = tap shoes!

Flinn, Denny M. (c. 1997). Musical! : a grand tour : the rise, glory and fall of an American institution. New York: Schirmer Books.

Roots: Western Europe

Medieval Christianity

Liturgical chant Mystery plays Pageant Wagons

Roots: Western EuropeRenaissance

Commedia dell’Arte

Roots: Western Europe18th and 19th Century

Opera Buffa

intermezzo

“Enlightenment”

from La Serva Padrona (Pergolesi) Premier September 5, 1733

Eastern roots and branchesChinese Opera BoatsTaiwanese OperaIndian DanceSanskrit Drama

Replica of a Cantonese Red boatFrom late 19th early 20th century

Roots: 19th-20th century Europe

Ballad OperasComic OperasOperetta

W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896

The MikadoH.M.S. Pinafore

Pirates of Penzance

“I’ve Got a Little List”

from The Mikado

Patter song

As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,I've got a little list — I've got a little list

Of society offenders who might well be underground,And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!There's the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs — All people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs — All children who are up in dates, and floor you with 'em flat — All persons who in shaking hands, shake hands with you like that — And all third persons who on spoiling tête-á-têtes insist — They'd none of 'em be missed — they'd none of 'em be missed! 

America! What was being performed?

Burletta

Minstrel shows

Music halls/saloons

Burlesque

Pre-cursors to Vaudeville

musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step from

Emergence of a new art form?

September 12, 1866

Musical comedy

What makes a musical a musical?

Emphasis

Stephen Sondheim said, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another.”