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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a musical?
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musical (noun): a stage, television or film production
utilizing popular-style songs - dialogue optional - to either tell a story (book musicals) or showcase the talents of the writers and/or performers (revues). |
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Elements of musical theatre
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Book/Libretto
linear/chronological narrative, backward narrative, combination of the two Lyrics simple, repeating, approachable by all sophisticated, designed for a specific audience Music/Songs/Score “classical” legit in style popular or rock idioms Dance/Choreography Design |
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Voice Types/Ranges
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Soprano
Mezzo soprano Alto Tenor Baritone Bass |
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Strophic/stanzaic song form
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-AAA form
-each verse/stanza has same music and form but different words -not very common in musical theatre -ex. Church hymn, xmas carols -no chorus (verse, verse, verse) |
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Verse-Chorus/Refrain
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-chorus>verse>chorus>verse
-verse: music stays same, lyrics change -sometimes a coda is used at the end -more common |
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Song form/Tin Pan Alley form
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-AABA
-A: section of song with melody -A: section with same melody, diff words -B: comletely different -A: same melody as 1st 2 -very common -ex. My Funny Valentinve |
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Through Composed
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-no discernable pattern
-very uncommon -composter progresses through a harmonic structure without pattern -ex. opera |
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Book Musicals vs. Revues
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-book musicals tell a narrative while revues are a collection of acts sometimes with a theme, sometimes not
-books go by many names: comic operas, operettas, musical comedy, etc -revues have their roots in variety vaudeville, music halls and minstrel shows |
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Comic opera vs. Grand opera
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-comic opera came from Europe, influenced our musical theater in NY
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Opera tragique
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serious, about gods, tragic, heavy
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operettas
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performed in between acts of serious operas
-eventually people went to see opera just for these -lighter, more fun, inconsequential plot, comedic |
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Jacques Offenbach
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-1819-1880
-wrote first operetta -his operettas have a grotesque way of representing life -presented frivilously -singers, especially women of his time were basically prostitutes: got rich men to take care of them -First big success: a two act operetta Orpheus in the Underworld or Orphee aux enfer (1858) in the Théâtre des Variétés -Other hits for Offenbach: La belle Hélène (1864), La Vie Parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) |
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Orpheus in the Underworld
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•Takes the traditional myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and
turns it upside down. •Listen to the final bit of the Act II finale •Jupiter causes a lightening bolt to fall near Orpheus, making him look around, losing Euridice forever •Everyone is happy to go to Hades to party -Orpheus: his music can charm everyone -marriage: his wife bit by snake and dies -he charms gods in Hades -they allow him to brin her back, but he can't look at her til they leave underword -he does, she dies -Offenbach's version: Orpheus is full of himself, his wife is sick of him, he has a crush on sheppardess, he's happy when wife dies -there's a character called public opinion: he makes Jupiter make Orph retrieve his wife: Jupiter and gods go to hell -Jupiter wants Eurydice, casts lightening bolt -Eurydicce wants to stay in Hades anyways, Orph is happy |
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Most Middle and lower class started coming once operettas became
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-less innappropriate
-less pornographic -because audience wouldn't stand for it and standards for singers have changed |
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Vienna and Offenbach
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-Vienna=huge site of opera
-Offenbach started gaining success, gained ego, charging too much -opera houses couldn't afford him so they commissioned their own, similar to his |
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Johann Strauss
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(1825–1899): first major composer of
Viennese operetta •His third operetta Die Fledermaus (1874) most popular in his time •Still the most performed operetta in the world -he incorporated lots of dance styles (polka, waltz, etc) |
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Naughty Marietta
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-1908
-composed by Victor Herbert -Viennese style -"Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" |
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Comic opera
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-what England called operettas because of their risque roots
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English Comic Opera
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•Dominated by the team of Gilbert and Sullivan: William
Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) •Produced by Richard D’Oyley Carte at the Savoy Theatre •Team produced 14 comic operas •Huge success then, and still produced now •Major hits include: H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1885) |
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Gilbert and Sullivan
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-Gilbert: lyrics
-Sullivan: music •Gilbert wrote the words •created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds for these operas: •pirates turn out to be noblemen who have gone wrong, fairies rub elbows with British lords, Venetian gondoliers can become kings, and flirting is an offense punishable by death •Sullivan composed the music, •memorable melodies that convey both humour and pathos -poke fun at what is going on in politics (esp British monarchy) |
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Stock characters
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•heroic tenor lover
•the beautiful but slightly dippy and slightly vain soprano •an elderly woman who holds a secret or a sharp tongue • the bass-baritone villain •the comic baritone - often the heroine’s father or guardian |
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Operettas vs. musicals
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-Operettas - light opera with acting; musicals - plays with
singing •Best seen through the performers cast in the two forms: •operettas cast are classically-trained singers •musicals cast actors who sing, but usually not in an operatic style. |
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MUSICAL THEATRE IN THE 20S AND 30S
The meeting of three elements: |
-The newly-Americanized European operetta and English comic opera
-Vaudeville, variety show, musical comedy -African-American musical styles: ragtime, jazz, early blues |
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Also in 20s and 30s: cohesion, beginning of musical theatre
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-common theme, or same composer and lyricist for whole production
-plots and through narratives |
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Scott Joplin
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-influential rag-time composer
-The Entertainer |
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Show Boat
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-milestone in musical theatre
-operetta comes to maturity and musical comedy and influence of black music -1927-1928 -Music by Jerome Kern -Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II -Based on a novel by Edna Ferber -First produced by Florenz Ziegfeld |
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The book show boat was based off of
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-Edna Ferber
-a serious book presenting important issues -was worried making a musical out of it would ruin it -uses colloquial lyrics and diologue -race and class |
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WHAT MUSICAL THEATRE SCHOLARS SAY ABOUT SHOW BOAT
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-First successful “musical play” - the first outstanding precursor to
Oklahoma! -Importance placed on a superior libretto, based on a literary source -Integration of popular music styles (i.e. jazz and other African-American musical idioms) -Lyrics and dialogue in colloquial language -Philosophy disparaged fundamentally European race and caste sensibilities |
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Is it an operetta of musical theatre?
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-argue that distinction of “musical play” was developed well after Show
-Boat’s composition, and is therefore meaningless most voices needed for the show are legit (i.e. classically-trained), which is why so many opera companies choose to produce it now -rather than musical theatre, Show Boat is the first real all-American operetta |
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RACIAL IMPLICATIONS: in Show boat
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“Instead of a line of chorus girls showing their legs in the opening number singing
that they were happy, happy, happy, the curtain rose on black dock-hands lifting bales of cotton, and singing about the hardness of their lives. Here was a musical that showed poverty, suffering, bitterness, racial prejudice, a sexual relationship between black and white, a love story which ended unhappily — and of course show business. In “Ol' Man River” the black race was given an anthem to honor its misery that had the authority of an authentic spiritual.” |
