“But think of this maxim, and put off your sorrow, The wretch of to-day, may be happy tomorrow” - The Beggar’s Opera. The Beggars’ Opera is a three act play written in 1728 by John Gay of England. It is one of the most influential productions that has come out of 18th Century England. The play is a perfect example of a ballad opera, a ironic comedy, and satire. It’s elements of music and comedic pantomime makes the piece unique for its time. Today, The Beggars’ Opera is still being performed globally and has helped shape on going theatre.
The production begins with the Beggar and the Player introducing the opera. The Beggar explains that is still an opera that is different but no means unorthodox. The Player then cues the overture to begin playing. The story opens with Mr. Peachum , a thief catcher, checking his finances when he is interrupted by Mrs. Peachum who brings disturbing news. Their daughter, Polly Peachum, has secretly married a highwayman named Macheath. The two contemplate how to fix the situation and come to a conclusion that Macheath must be killed so the marriage is ended and the Peachum’s receive his inheritance. Polly overhears this and warns Macheath. Macheath goes to a whorehouse where he meets some lovely prostitutes. They share stories of their crimes, when two of the prostitutes turn him in to Mr. Peachum.
Macheath became imprisoned under the supervision of warden Lockit. Lockit’s daughter Lucy is in love with Macheath and it is discovered that he previously proposed to her. Polly entered the scene looking for her husband Macheath. Lucy then discovers this betrayal. However Macheath tells Lucy that Polly has just gone mad. Still in doubt over the situation, Lucy helps Macheath escape from prison. Lockit ...
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...uge hit having it’s first run last sixty two nights. The play was later performed in Dublin, Glasgow, Jamaica, and is one of the first musical comedies to be performed in America, more specifically New York. The audiences found it easy to connect with the realism, fall into the catchiness of the tunes, and laugh at the satire. The Beggars’ Opera was so popular it performed every year after it opened in the 18th century.
The Beggars’ Opera is one of the best examples of a ballad opera of all time. The unparalleled comedy, influences of satires, and irony makes this piece acceptably unique. The music took the play to a whole new element while remaining entertaining and witty. While controversial, the show realism allows the audience to connects easier to the piece. The Beggars’ Opera used a combination of humor and social issues and ended up becoming a classic play!
Ever heard of a story that sings of the “Angel of Music” and the “Phantom of the Opera”? A tale that once you have listened to the sweet melody that you will realized that you've pasted the “Point of No Return”? This love triangle has captivated multitudes ever since the 1910 original Phantom of the Opera was published in France by Monsieur Leroux, although most story lovers recall the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber or the motion picture adaption. Although this story has been entertaining people for over a century, in this new era have prerecorded voices and movements begun to overshadow the talented performers of live theater? Although “The lavish screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (2005) only deepened the damage” of the dislike of musicals made into film “with non-stars in the leads and an unimaginative production,”(Musical),which version, the live performance or the film, makes the story more attractive? To answer these questions, permit this essay to analyze two methods of storytelling: 2011 live performance Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and the 2005 film, and decide if music and story lovers everywhere have too “turned from true beauty”.
The play begins with a prologue explaining the basic idea of what happens between the two households in Verona saying “where
Christmas and Opera did not merely seem to correlate, but understanding where the two events derived from can help one to understand the similarities and differences between them. The development of Christmas was different from the creation of opera because the working class was controlling the other social classes for profit. Whereas for opera, the different social classes unified to keep opera as entertainment and not a social event. Another difference came within the writing and context throughout the article and the presentation of information conveyed by the author. Yet the events share the similarity of both being refined and reinvented.
Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, play carefully uses satire as a didactic tool to mask the underlying social commentary with the help of comedy through characters theme and dialogue. Wilde uses satire to ridicule class and wealth, marriage and the ignorance of the Victorian Age. Audiences are continually amused by Wilde’s use of linguistic and comic devices such as double entendre, puns, paradox and epigrams, especially in the case of social commentary and didactic lessons. Characters portrayed in the play such as Jack, Cecily, Algernon and Lady Bracknell, allow Wilde to express his opinions on the social problems during the Victorian Age.
It was good setting to get the attention from the audience and also a way to move around or change settings of the play. Although I love this play my small critic for this play was the players. Some others actors had understandable accents but others didn’t. For example, the brother of the servant his accent was confusing because he kept switching his accent from different country languages. This play was really nice it had a little of bit of everything drama, comedy, romance, betrayal. What like about this play it was how they used the dramatic structure the inciting incident and the climax. The inciting incident for this play of musical comedy murders of 1940 was guessing who the killer of the play was because there was tension building up not knowing who the murder was. The climax for this play would be for me finding out who was the murder and just being in shock how everything had change into a new scenario. Overall it was amazing show how it developed and how well an organized transition the play
The play begins with Orgon’s mother, Madame Pernelle, unleashing her unsolicited and shameless opinions upon her grandchildren as she prepares to take her leave. She begins with her grandson Damis, who she claims is a dunce, unworthy of his noble father’s love and affection. She then turns her attentions to his sister Mariane, who she believes to be a manipulative and mysterious girl who plays at being wholesome and shy. To her daughter-in-law Elmire, Madame Pernelle offers up her thoughts on Elmire’s bad examples for her children, stating that she is too free with her expenses and that her brother Cleante is much too experienced in the ways of the world to be considered decent company to keep. In fact, the only words of kindness she has to offer are to Tartuffe, a religious man who has found his way into the good graces of her son Orgon.
How would feel if you were in the La Scala opera house, listening to a Vincenzo Bellini operas. Would it be warm felt or just would be nice to be there. To know that there is people out there that can sing with the power and flexibility that they can do. Vincenzo Bellini is one of the many opera composers that the nineteenth century had to offer (The National Opera Center America). Bellini like many of the composers in this time was born in Italy. During the nineteenth century, opera stories most of the time was had a theme of passion and romance. That is one of the reasons that this century is also called Romantic Era.
The Phantom of the Opera is known as the most successful musical in history, but its age most clearly shows through some of the themes it displays. Most noticeable to me, is the fact that The Phantom of the Opera conforms to and supports traditional gender roles. This becomes evident after analyzing the characters and their interactions during the 25th anniversary production in London. As a whole, The Phantom of the Opera suggests that the ideal man is authoritative, powerful, decisive, and jealous, while the ideal woman is feminine, indecisive, and naïve.
With the Romantic era taking a foothold in the nineteenth century, the rise of the German opera was nourished with the rise of nationalism in music. Due to the comparative nature of the German language versus the Italian language, early German language operas were imitative but could not effectively compete with Italian language operas. “Traditional operatic singing was a function, an outgrowth of the Italian language, the nature of its vowels, and consonants, and its ability to sustain melisma. As long as German language opera attempted to compete with Italian opera on its own artistic turf without one embracing the unique character of German language vocal music and two, by employing plot elements that would somehow distinguish it from
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
Opera is a unique genre of spoken word and song accompanied by music. The music takes one through ascending and descending ranges of emotions. Mozart's Don Giovanni is a perfect example of how this genre emits a wide variety of feelings and attitudes. This "dark comedy seems to convey Mozart's feeling that events have both comical and serious dimensions…" (Kerman, 205). The opera, as a whole, is neither exclusively comedic nor entirely tragic.
As complex, troubled characters Blanche and Viola established a relationship with the audience, which leaves the audience feeling sympathetic toward them both. The nature of the sympathy felt by the audience varies between characters. Viola loses her brother, and is wash...
are still in place in today's society. The play is a comedy but to a
Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a beautifully constructed depiction of nineteenth century Victorian life. The quirky and often irreverent situations presented were often witty and amusing but in many instances revealed a biting critique of traditional expectations and behaviour. Wilde arguably would have used the play to showcase his literary prowess and it is to what extent that Wilde used the play as a platform or used the play to expose hypocritical values that would be questioned by both contemporary and modern audiences.
The Phantom of the Opera directed by Joel Schumacher is the 2004 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical of the same name. The Phantom of the Opera stars Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine Daaé, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, who are embroiled in a love triangle. The film was met with generally mixed and negative reviews: Schumacher’s use of mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing, as well as symbolism contributes to the production of The Phantom of the Opera.