Musical Theatre History

It is true that the art of performing stories with music in front of large audiences dates back in time to Ancient Greece. The great Greek playwrights commonly included music and dance in some of their stage comedies and tragedies. These performances contributed in the development of musical theatre as we know it today. Theatre coupled with song and dance became more popular in the 1600 -1700’s. Ballad operas became popular, using some comedy and popularly known songs. Some critics of the theatre do not believe that musical theater descended from opera, and in fact, they feel it does not try to imitate grand opera. Despite being called “comic operas”, shows on Broadway such as Robin Hood were not really operas at all they were more musicals.

Noblemen commissioned singers and composers to create individualized pieces for them and the opera was normally only performed once.

The first opera house opened in 1637. The early public opera houses were yet another experiment of the times. It was the first time that the paying public could take in an opera. The lowest-priced tickets admitted patrons to the main floor of the house where there were no seats, so they stood or circulated amongst the crowd. Those who had rented a box could bring in chairs in which to sit and, at their leisure, and watch a performance. Performances lasted many hours, where lovers flirted, dinner was eaten in the boxes, gossip was shared, and where business was conducted.

The opera houses were constructed in a horseshoe shape with “layer upon layer of boxes for the wealthy who bought season tickets” (Graybill p. 88) while the average Venetian purchased standing room only tickets. The small opera houses replicated the private spaces of the rectangular shaped ballrooms found in the palaces. The new opera houses had hard reflecting walls that could enhance the length of the reverberations than that of the palace rooms. The opera house was illuminated by candlelight, which were not dimmed during the performance, as the lights are now dimmed during modern Broadway plays as a signal for the audience to

The most important artist in the theater was the stage designer and audiences were so fascinated by the extraordinary effects these stage designers created to allow the audience to visually follow the plot of the new Stage designers used intricate machines designed to make clouds appear in the sky, cities sink into oblivion, or enable gods to descend from the heavens--DEUS EX MACHINA. The mechanical noises combined with the masking music must have made the stage a loud place in which to perform. The noises from the equipment eventually lead composers to include instrumental music to be played at critical points to mask these sounds.

Broadway musicals “American Opera”, is predominantly drawn from the operatic arts culture. Opera made use of drama, music, costumes, and art to tell ageless stories and this is where modern Broadway musicals have taken their cues. There are many parallels between subject matter of opera buffa and the musical comedy. Songs are used to create drama, move the story forward, and hopefully teach us something about our own lives. The use of an orchestra is still used to support the singers and add depth to their