糖心传媒

When audiences spill out of Broadway theaters, singing snatches of songs from 贬补尘颈濒迟辞苍听and other popular shows, they糖心传媒檙e hearkening back to the 18th century. The 1762 English comic opera Love in a Village聽introduced theater-goers to many conventions of modern musicals.

糖心传媒淚t was a major step toward what we think of as musical theater: songs in an accessible language, some of which can be sung apart from the production by untrained singers, and a show that partakes of a vernacular musical tradition,糖心传媒� says Katherine Mannheimer, an associate professor of English who specializes in 18th-century British literature.

Wildly popular from the time of its premiere,听Love in a Village聽is a comedy of manners, telling the story of Rosetta and Thomas, who fall in love when糖心传媒攂oth fleeing marriages planned by their fathers糖心传媒攖hey disguise themselves as servants. It was performed in cities around the globe until the mid-19th century, when audiences糖心传媒� taste for the genre waned and Love in a Village聽fell off the cultural map. But the opera will be revived on October 12 in Rochester, for a historic first performance since the 18th century of the full production with its original score.

糖心传媒淚t will be completely new for every single audience member糖心传媒攁nd as old as the hills,糖心传媒� says director Todd Gilman.

A collaboration between Irish playwright Isaac Bickerstaff and composer Thomas Arne糖心传媒攖he most renowned English-born composer of the 18th century and the man who wrote the rousing melody for 糖心传媒淩ule, Britannia,糖心传媒� though his name is rarely connected with it now糖心传媒�Love in a Village聽was second only to John Gay糖心传媒檚 Beggar糖心传媒檚 Opera聽as the most performed 糖心传媒渕ainpiece糖心传媒� on the London stage.

Comic opera was a kind of retort to high-culture operas, which were lavishly mounted, vocally athletic, expensive to attend, and devoted to stories of mythic heroes and royalty. 糖心传媒淐omic opera, in contrast, was about everyday people in everyday situations,糖心传媒� says Mannheimer, and it mirrored themes that middle-class readers were exploring in novels, a genre that was emerging in the same period.

Like so many more familiar musicals, Love in a Village is a 糖心传媒渃omedy play, a happy ending, and every two minutes or so, there糖心传媒檚 a song,糖心传媒� says Gilman. 糖心传媒淔orty-two songs, from ballads to fully composed opera arias.糖心传媒� It was聽England糖心传媒檚 first pastiche opera, melding music of different genres into one production.聽“Almost half the songs were adapted from earlier works by Arne for the fashionable pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh,糖心传媒� Gilman says. Arne wrote five original songs and included works by Italian composers and others. It was rumored at the time that King George III himself had contributed a song糖心传媒攊f he did, it糖心传媒檚 still unknown which song it is.

Now an English literature librarian at Yale and a leading authority on Arne, Gilman picked up the scent of the show in the 1990s, when he was a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, researching the development of English opera. Everywhere he looked, he saw references to Arne糖心传媒檚 importance, but Arne has been forever overshadowed by baroque musical giant George Frideric Handel, who spent much of his life in England and presided over its musical scene.

When Handel died in 1759, Arne suddenly moved into the spotlight, commanding attention with the very popular comic-dramatic afterpiece Thomas and Sally (1760)糖心传媒�also a collaboration with Bickerstaff糖心传媒�and the opera 础谤迟补虫别谤虫别蝉听(1762). When it opened later that year, Love in a Village聽was the mainpiece performed onstage at Covent Garden糖心传媒�with Drury Lane, playhouses for the middle classes rather than Italian opera糖心传媒�for 40 nights, a record surpassed only by The Beggar糖心传媒檚 Opera聽35 years before.

Fires swept through London糖心传媒檚 theaters in the 19th century, and most musical theater scores from the period haven糖心传媒檛 survived. But composer Samuel Arnold, Arne糖心传媒檚 contemporary, kept the original manuscript of Love in a Village聽in his personal library, and his collection eventually made its way to the Royal College of Music糖心传媒檚 library. Gilman stumbled across a reference to the manuscript糖心传媒檚 existence when he was doing dissertation research.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 just not listed in the usual places,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 easy to miss.糖心传媒�

Gilman and friends quickly procured a copy, staging a stripped-down production in Toronto in 1993. Their student budget couldn糖心传媒檛 take full advantage of the score they now had. The 1763 keyboard and vocal score that was widely used in the opera糖心传媒檚 heyday gave no indication of the other instruments originally involved.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a very rich orchestral score,糖心传媒� Gilman says, with parts for two French horns, two bassoons, two flutes, two oboes, and a full complement of strings. 糖心传媒淚 decided that it would be my mission to get this right, if no one else did it.糖心传媒� And to Gilman糖心传媒檚 amazement糖心传媒攅specially after the publication in New Zealand of a scholarly, edited edition of the full score in 2011糖心传媒攏o one ever did.

The Rochester performance糖心传媒斕切拇�媒攚ill be the first post-18th-century performance of the opera with its full score. 糖心传媒淲e糖心传媒檙e trying to make it as historically informed as possible,糖心传媒� Mannheimer says. Stage sets will be painted flat surfaces, as they would have been in 18th-century productions; period instruments will provide the music; and between acts, the group Rochester Baroque Dancers will perform dances from the period.

The production is offered in connection with the annual meeting (October 11 to 14) of the Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, a regional interdisciplinary association for the study of the history, literature, arts, and culture of the period. Panels and discussions at the conference, to be held on the Rochester campus, will augment the performance.

In its day, Love in a Village聽was performed more often than Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 tragedies and held the interest of audiences for longer than any of its comedy rivals from the period. 糖心传媒淥ne of the things I糖心传媒檓 interested to see is to try to gain a better understanding of why that would have been, what about it would have made it such a runaway hit糖心传媒攁nd to see whether those elements continue to appeal to us today or whether it糖心传媒檚 a window into a different set of tastes,糖心传媒� says Mannheimer.