Detailed Information on Publication Record
2020
"Enemy to the Muses!" : The Generic Challenge of the Early 18th-Century Ballad Opera
MIKYŠKOVÁ, AnnaBasic information
Original name
"Enemy to the Muses!" : The Generic Challenge of the Early 18th-Century Ballad Opera
Authors
MIKYŠKOVÁ, Anna (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)
Edition
11th Brno International Conference of English, American and Canadian Studies : "Breaking the Boundaries : In Between Texts, Cultures and Conventions", 12–14 February, 2020, Brno, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, 2020
Other information
Language
English
Type of outcome
Prezentace na konferencích
Field of Study
60206 Specific literatures
Country of publisher
Czech Republic
Confidentiality degree
není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství
References:
RIV identification code
RIV/00216224:14210/20:00114232
Organization unit
Faculty of Arts
Keywords in English
ballad opera; pantomime; Italian opera; satire; Henry Fielding; James Ralph; popular genres
Tags
Tags
International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 18/2/2021 12:47, Mgr. Zuzana Matulíková
Abstract
V originále
The first three decades of the 18th century mark a peculiar period in the development of English music theatre. In the 1720s, London was swept by the grandeur of Italian opera which remained a musical and theatrical highlight for many years. However, partially due to the growing elitism of the London productions of Italian opera, popular taste slowly changed, and a new satirical version of Italian opera emerged: the uniquely English genre of ballad opera. The new genre was famously inaugurated by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728), whose success was achieved by the employment of popular songs, a highly efficient parody of Italian operas and the unprecedented metatheatrical response to contemporary anti-opera sentiments. The multiple ballad operas that kept flooding London theatres for the next ten years were to a great extent attempts at repeating Gay and Pepusch’s financial success. Nevertheless, the aim of this paper is to go beyond the generally known story of The Beggar’s Opera and to focus on later ballad operas which developed the original criticism further. An interesting case in point is James Ralph’s ballad opera The Fashionable Lady; or Harlequin’s Opera (1730) which provides an intriguing comment on the genre of ballad operas itself (especially in the underlying conflict between Mr. Ballad, opponent of Italian “squeakish Recitatives” and “paltry Eunuchs”, and Mr. Drama and other critics who despise the modern English entertainment business). The presentation will demonstrate that the genre of ballad operas, which was based on its satiric mode, also became a subject of its own parody.
Links
GA19-07494S, research and development project |
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