Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence
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BALLAD OPERA IN ENGLAND: ITS SONGS, CONTRIBUTORS, AND INFLUENCE Julie Bumpus A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC August 7, 2010 Committee: Vincent Corrigan, Advisor Mary Natvig ii ABSTRACT Vincent Corrigan, Advisor The ballad opera was a popular genre of stage entertainment in England that flourished roughly from 1728 (beginning with John Gay's The Beggar's Opera) to 1760. Gay's original intention for the genre was to satirize not only the upper crust of British society, but also to mock the “excesses” of Italian opera, which had slowly been infiltrating the concert life of Britain. The Beggar's Opera and its successors were to be the answer to foreign opera on British soil: a truly nationalistic genre that essentially was a play (building on a long-standing tradition of English drama) with popular music interspersed throughout. My thesis explores the ways in which ballad operas were constructed, what meanings the songs may have held for playwrights and audiences, and what influence the genre had in England and abroad. The thesis begins with a general survey of the origins of ballad opera, covering theater music during the Commonwealth, Restoration theatre, the influence of Italian Opera in England, and The Beggar’s Opera. Next is a section on the playwrights and composers of ballad opera. The playwrights discussed are John Gay, Henry Fielding, and Colley Cibber. Purcell and Handel are used as examples of composers of source material and Mr. Seedo and Pepusch as composers and arrangers of ballad opera music. A general overview of ballad opera music is discussed, followed by a case study of Gay‟s Achilles. I have singled out Achilles because little has been written on it, and because Gay seems to have been particularly sensitive to the use of music in his plays. The thesis concludes with material on the decline of ballad opera and its influence. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor, Dr. Vincent Corrigan for his time, guidance, and encouragement throughout the writing process. His creativity and great knowledge have helped me become a better writer and a more thoughtful person. I would also like to thank Dr. Mary Natvig for her thorough reading and editing of my draft. Her support and positivity contributed much to the completion of my thesis and degree requirements. For her excellent resources on ballad operas, I would like to thank Vanessa Rogers, who was kind and passionate about our shared research interests. Her work was an inspiration, and she was generous in suggesting source material. Thank you to thank Alex Bragg, for being my “rock.” I would not be here were it not for his loyalty and love. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I: ORIGINS OF BALLAD OPERA.……………………………………………. 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Theater during the Commonwealth………………………………………………….. 2 Restoration Theater and Theater Music from 1660-1728…………………………… 3 Italian Opera in England 1705-1728…………………………………………………. 5 The Beggar's Opera and its Successors…………..…………………………………. 9 CHAPTER II: PLAYWRIGHTS AND COMPOSERS……………………………………... 15 Playwrights…………………………………………………………………………... 15 John Gay …………………………………………………………………….. 16 Henry Fielding ………………………………………………………………. 18 Colley Cibber ………………………………………………………………... 20 Composers: Opera……………………………………………………………………. 21 Henry Purcell………………………………………………………………... 22 George Frideric Handel……………………………………………………... 24 Composers: Theater………………………………………………………………….. 25 Mr. Seedo…………………………………….……………………………… 25 Johann Christoph Pepusch………………………………...…………………. 27 CHAPTER III: BALLAD OPERA MUSIC…………………………………………………. 30 Ballad Opera Airs………… ………………………………………………………… 30 Case Study: Gay‟s Achilles (1733)…………………………………………………... 33 v CHAPTER IV: DECLINE AND INFLUENCE…………………………………………….. 46 Ballad Opera, Post-1737……………………………………………………………... 46 English Opera…………………………………………………………………………47 Singspiel……………………………………………………………………………… 49 Post Seventeenth-Century Influence…………………………………………………. 50 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………… 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………… 54 Primary Sources……………………………………………………………………… 54 Secondary Sources…………………………………………………………………… 55 APPENDIX A: TABLE OF BALLAD OPERAS…………………………………………… 58 APPENDIX B: TABLE OF BALLAD OPERA AIRS……...………………………………. 65 APPENDIX C: SONGS IN GAY‟S ACHILLES…………………………………………….. 177 Transcriptions………………………………………………………………………... 178 Critical Notes………………………………………………………………………… 205 Abbreviations………………………………………………………………… 205 Songs………………………………………………………………………… 205 vi LIST OF EXAMPLES/TABLES/FIGURES Examples Page 1 Purcell‟s “Britons, Strike Home,” and Fielding‟s contrafact lyrics……………… 22-3 2 Air XII from Charles Coffey‟s The Boarding School………………………….. 27 3 Air VII from Henry Fielding‟s The Lottery……………………………………… 29 4 “O‟er Bogie,” from Orpheus Caledonius………………………………………. 37 5 “Gillian of Croyden,” from Pills to Purge Melancholy………………………… 42 Figures 1 William Hogarth‟s The Enraged Musician………………………………………. 8 Tables 1 Uses of “The Fairy Queene”…………………………………………………….. 41 1 CHAPTER I: ORIGINS OF BALLAD OPERA Introduction Ballad opera, a genre of English theater that flourished from 1728 to 1750 was, in its time, thought to be a wholly new genre, created by John Gay with The Beggar’s Opera. For my purposes, ballad opera refers to an English play,1 usually written in prose, with several songs interspersed throughout, set to popular or recognizable songs.2 Though Gay‟s work was unlike other stage entertainments of the time and spawned several imitators (over seventy in the span of nine years), ballad opera was a tradition that grew from existing circumstances of English theater. From the Cromwell years to 1728, music played an increasingly more important role in English theatrical works; music was ubiquitous on the stage. It was not surprising then that the public latched onto ballad operas with such intensity for several years. In its heyday, ballad operas were performed at the major theaters in London in any given week. Opera also gained popularity in England during the eighteenth century, especially Italian opera. Some English people welcomed opera seria with open arms, but others derided it. The presence of Italian opera in England was another impetus for The Beggar’s Opera. In contrast to the florid melodies of Italian opera, Gay gave audiences music that they could understand and music that many already knew. The songs of ballad operas were those that townsfolk sang up and down the streets of London, whereas the Italian arias and recitatives of opera seria were well known to an elite few. Gay satirized opera‟s purported excesses, and in doing so, established 1 These were sometimes full-length plays with three acts, but more often, they were one-act afterpieces. Some three- act ballad operas found more success when trimmed down to afterpieces, as with Colley Cibber‟s Damon and Phillida. See: Edmond McAdoo Gagey, Ballad Opera (Bronx, NY: B. Blom, 1965) 79-81. 2 Several ballad operas, however, included newly-composed songs, including The Beggar’s Opera. 2 ballad opera as a decidedly English construct, in opposition to Italian entertainments. Ballad opera also signaled the end of the public‟s taste in opera seria. What followed The Beggar’s Opera was a mass production of similar entertainments, designed to capitalize on the first ballad opera‟s initial success. Ballad operas immediately following The Beggar’s Opera were similar in plot, title, and song choices—some even using most of the same songs as Gay‟s work—to their forerunner. Unfortunately, no other ballad opera was able to match the success of The Beggar’s Opera, and the genre was for all intents and purposes dead by the middle of the century. Theater during the Commonwealth Ballad opera has its roots in English theater from the Restoration to 1728. Oliver Cromwell's Puritan government had lasting effects on drama; he detested “vulgar” and “immoral” plays, and as a result banned all spoken drama and closed the public theaters. Despite the fact that the Cromwell years (1642-1660) may be seen as a bleak time in the history of English theater,3 the 1642 proclamation against stage-playing had a positive effect on music and its place in theaters. Although Cromwell banned spoken plays, he had a strong affection for music, and public concerts were permitted, even sponsored, by the government. Music and poetry had often been combined on stage previously, but during the Commonwealth, the two arts became linked together in an even tighter bond. This period produced the first attempts at English opera. These works fused elements of plays, masques, dancing, song, and recitative. 3 Both Susan Wiseman and Dale B. J. Randall challenge this notion, however. Both view the period as a highly diverse and innovative time for English drama. See: Dale B. J. Randall, Winter Fruit: English Drama, 1642-1660 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995) and Susan Wiseman, Drama and Politics in the English Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 3 Restoration Theater and Theater Music from 1660-1728 Music continued to be integral to drama after Cromwell‟s reign. Every stage work from the Restoration to the beginning of the eighteenth century included music in some fashion. Both theaters granted licenses by Charles II employed regular musicians, and whether the play included singing or not, instrumentalists were on hand to provide