The Musical Stage

1. The Musical Stage Chapter 8

2. Early History of Musical Theater • Musical rituals date back as far as 30,000 B.C.E. • Music song and dance combine to create Dionysian festivals in early Greece • Elizabethan theater included music • Opera was developed in Italy in the late seventeenth century

3. Mozart • Many say his operas have never been surpassed. • Signature style: melodious arias alternating with dialogue, sometimes spoken but mostly sung. This solved the problem of telling a dramatic story in song.

4. Terms • Sung dialogue is called recitative • The combination of recitative and song is called singspiel • Singspiel is sometimes hard to listen to because it is not melodious like a song • Libretto- the lyrics and recitatives of an opera

5. The Marriage of Figaro Verdi and the Romantic Opera • Most popular of Mozart’s work • 2 lowly servants outwit the master of the house • Finale is “what it would sound like if God could sing!” • Romantic movement protests restraint • Verdi’s operas are melodramas with music • Characters are thwarted by social restrictions

6. Richard Wagner • Romanticism fostered nationalism (Germany) • Wanted to create true music-drama that would be in the same class as Sophocles and Shakespeare • Gave Germany a mythology

7. Operetta vs. Opera • Spoken dialogue moves the play forward but is continually interrupted by arias • Shortened spaces between songs • Many songs, 2 dimensional characters • All or most of dialogue is sung • Desire to create works that are elegant and noble • Heavier than operetta • More complicated

8. Other Famous Operas • Porgy and Bess • Amahl and the Night Visitors • Candide • Sweeney Todd • The Ghost of Versailles

9. Broadway Musicals • Of Thee I Sing • Satire of Presidential Politics • Candidates will do anything to win the election • Pal Joey • Deepened the Broadway musical and deserves to be called a musical play • Led to others wanting greater depth in the genre

10. Oklahoma! West Side Story • About the courtship of a cowboy and a farm girl • Includes folk dance, ballet • Took musical stage in a startling new direction • Modernization of Romeo and Juliette • Arias have become classics • Rival gangs of New York

11. Dance • Egyptians took part in elaborate dance ceremonies • Greece marked the beginning of dance as an official form of public entertainment • Dance awakens the Dionysian spirit in all of us

12. Ballet • Known as the premier form of dance art • Athletic, yet graceful • Classical ballet often tells a story, but is not needed • Giselle • Tchaikosvsky-Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker

13. Modern Dance • Breaks with classical tradition • Starts with classical moves but then adds in athleticism, complex variations • Mikhail Baryshnikov- famous modern dancer/now actor

14. Famous Modern Dance Choreographers • Martha Graham • Agnes De Mille • Michael Bennett • Jose Limon • Twyla Tharp

15. Folkloric Dance • Rooted in time honored values and customs • Usually vastly different from formal dance, requires little or no training

16. Native American Traditional Forms • Potlatch-Northwest tradition where community members come together to feast and dance to celebrate special occasions • Bear Dance-far west, reenactment of a ceremony ritualizing the hunt • Powwow-plains, sequence-grand entry, signing of anthem, series of dances representing life activities (planting, harvest, courtship, marriage)

17. Mexican Folkloric Ballet vs. Asian Dance • Highly trained dancers • “Set Pieces”-Stag Dance, love, marriage, cycle of life • Joyous mood, colorful • Every dancer is a monk • Black metal caps adorned with peacock feathers, purposely monotonous to still emotions • Next dance, colorful silk because they believe color can be experienced temporarily

18. Flamenco Spanish, from Gypsy songs 4 females, 2 males, 2 guitars and 2 singers