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Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza,〔According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "the various genre terms were always applied freely", and by the 1860s their use had become "arbitrary and capricious": see ("Burlesque," ) ''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online, accessed 3 February 2011 . In an 1896 article on Burlesque in ''The Theatre'', the three terms are used interchangeably: see Adams, W. Davenport. "Burlesque: Old ''v.'' New", ''The Theatre'', 1 March 1896, pp. 144–45〕 is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid 19th century. It is a form of parody in which a well-known opera or piece of classical theatre or ballet is adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical play, usually risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and often quoting or pastiching text or music from the original work. Victorian burlesque is one of several forms of burlesque. Like ballad opera, burlesques featured musical scores drawing on a wide range of music, from popular contemporary songs to operatic arias, although later burlesques, from the 1880s, sometimes featured original scores. Dance played an important part, and great attention was paid to the staging, costumes and other spectacular elements of stagecraft, as many of the pieces were staged as extravaganzas. Many of the male roles were played by actresses as breeches roles, purposely to show off their physical charms, and some of the older female roles were taken by male actors. Originally short, one-act pieces, burlesques were later full-length shows, occupying most or all of an evening's programme. Authors who wrote burlesques included J. R. Planché, H. J. Byron, G. R. Sims, F. C. Burnand, W. S. Gilbert and Fred Leslie. ==History== Burlesque theatre became popular around the beginning of the Victorian era. The word "burlesque" is derived from the Italian ''burla'', which means "ridicule or mockery".〔The ''Oxford English Dictionary'', which defines the word as "That species of literary composition, or of dramatic representation, which aims at exciting laughter by caricature of the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects; a literary or dramatic work of this kind."〕〔Baldick, Chris. ("Burlesque", ) ''The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms'', Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 16 February 2011 〕 According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', Victorian burlesque was "related to and in part derived from pantomime and may be considered an extension of the introductory section of pantomime with the addition of gags and 'turns'."〔Schwandt, Erich et al. ("Burlesque", ) ''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online, accessed 3 February 2011 〕 Another antecedent was ballad opera, in which new words were fitted to existing tunes.〔Moss, Harold Gene. ("Popular Music and the Ballad Opera", ) ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'', Vol. 26, No. 3 (Autumn, 1973), pp. 365–82, University of California Press, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 Madame Vestris produced burlesques at the Olympic Theatre beginning in 1831 with ''Olympic Revels'' by J. R. Planché.〔Adams, W. Davenport. ''A Book of Burlesque'' (London: Henry and Co., 1891), p. 44〕 In these pieces, comedy stemmed from the incongruity and absurdity of the grand classical subjects, with realistic historical dress and settings, being juxtaposed with the everyday modern activities portrayed by the actors. For example, ''Olympic Revels'' opens with the gods of Olympus in classical Greek dress playing whist.〔Reinhardt, p. 541〕 In the early burlesques, the words of the songs were written to popular music, as had been done earlier in ''The Beggar's Opera''. Later in the Victorian era, burlesque mixed operetta, music hall and revue, and some of the large-scale burlesque spectacles were known as extravaganzas.〔For example, H. J. Byron's 1863 ''Il trovatore'' parody, which was labelled "a burlesque extravaganza": see Marvin, Roberta Montemorra. ("Verdian Opera Burlesqued: A Glimpse into Mid-Victorian Theatrical Culture", ) ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', Vol. 15, No. 1 (March 2003), p. 42, Cambridge University Press, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 The English style of burlesque was successfully launched in New York in the 1840s by the manager and comedian William Mitchell, who had opened his Olympic Theatre in December 1839. Like the London prototypes, his burlesques included characters with nonsensical names such as Wunsuponatyme and The King of Neverminditsnamia, and made fun of all kinds of music currently being presented in the city.〔Rogers, Delmer D. ("Public Music Performances in New York City from 1800 to 1850", ) ''Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical'', Vol. 6 (1970), pp. 5–50, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 Unlike pantomime, which aimed at all ages and classes, burlesque was aimed at a narrower, highly literate audience;〔 some writers, such as the Brough brothers,〔Robert Barnabas Brough and his brother William Brough wrote successful burlesques, sometimes jointly and sometimes alone. Their burlesques include ''The Enchanted Isle'' (1848), ''Medea'' (1856), ''Masaniello'' (1857), ''The Sphinx'' (1849) and ''The Last Edition of Ivanhoe'' (1850). See Dereli, Cynthia. ("Brough, Robert Barnabas (1828–1860)", ) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 3 February 2011 〕 aimed at a conservative middle class audience, and H. J. Byron's success was attributed to his skill in appealing to the lower middle classes.〔Speaight, George. "All froth and bubble", ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 1 October 1976, p. 1233〕 Some of the most frequent subjects for burlesque were the plays of Shakespeare and grand opera. From the 1850s onwards, burlesquing of Italian, French and, later in the century, German opera was popular with London audiences. Verdi's ''Il trovatore'' and ''La traviata'' received their British premieres in 1855 and 1856 respectively; British burlesques of them followed quickly. ''Our Lady of the Cameleon'' by Leicester Silk Buckingham and ''Our Traviata'' by William F. Vandervell (both 1857) were followed by five different burlesque treatments of ''Il trovatore'', two of them by H. J. Byron: ''Ill Treated Trovatore, or the Mother the Maiden and the Musicianer'' (1863) and ''Il Trovatore or Larks with a Libretto'' (1880).〔Marvin, Roberta Montemorra. ("Verdian Opera Burlesqued: A Glimpse into Mid-Victorian Theatrical Culture", ) ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', Vol. 15, No. 1 (March 2003), pp. 33–66, Cambridge University Press, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 The operas of Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Gounod, Handel, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Rossini, Wagner and Weber were burlesqued.〔〔 In a 2003 study of the subject, Roberta Montemorra Marvin noted:
W. S. Gilbert wrote five opera burlesques early in his career, beginning with ''Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack'' (1866), the most successful of which was ''Robert the Devil'' (1868).〔Stedman, p. 62〕 In the 1870s, Lydia Thompson's burlesque troupe, with Willie Edouin, became famous for their burlesques, by such authors as H. B. Farnie and Robert Reece, both in Britain and the U.S.〔Lawrence, W. J., rev. J. Gilliland. "Thompson, Lydia (1838–1908)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008 〕 The Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells notes that although parodies of Shakespeare had appeared even in Shakespeare's lifetime, the heyday of Shakespearean burlesque was the Victorian era.〔Wells, Stanley. ("Shakespearian Burlesques", ) ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter, 1965), pp. 49–61, Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 Wells observes that the typical Victorian Shakespeare burlesque "takes a Shakespeare play as its point of departure and creates from it a mainly comic entertainment, often in ways that bear no relation to the original play."〔Wells, p. 55〕 Wells gives, as an example of the puns in the texts, the following: Macbeth and Banquo make their first entrance under an umbrella. The witches greet them with "Hail! hail! hail!": Macbeth asks Banquo, "What mean these salutations, noble thane?" and is told "These showers of 'Hail' anticipate your 'reign'".〔 Musically, Shakespearean burlesques were as varied as the others of the genre. An 1859 burlesque of ''Romeo and Juliet'' contained 23 musical numbers, some from opera, such as the serenade from ''Don Pasquale'', and some from traditional airs and popular songs of the day including "Buffalo Gals", and "Nix my Dolly".〔Jacobs, Henry E., ("The Bard Debunked", ) ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer, 1980), pp. 294–96, Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 The dialogue for burlesques was generally written in rhyming couplets, or, less often, in other verse forms, such as blank verse; it was notable for its bad puns.〔 For example, in ''Faust up to Date'' (1888), a couplet reads: :Mephistopheles: "Along the Riviera dudes her praises sing." :Walerlie: "Oh, did you Riviera such a thing?"〔Lubbock, Mark. ("History of British musical theatre", ) ''The Complete Book of Light Opera'', New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962, pp. 467–68〕 According to ''Grove'', although "an almost indispensable element of burlesque was the display of attractive women dressed in tights, often in travesty roles ... the plays themselves did not normally tend to indecency."〔 Some contemporary critics took a sterner view; in an 1885 article, the critic Thomas Heyward praised Planché ("fanciful and elegant") and Gilbert ("witty, never vulgar"), but wrote of the genre as a whole, "the flashy, 'leggy', burlesque, with its 'slangy' songs, loutish 'breakdowns', vulgar jests, paltry puns and witless grimacing at all that is graceful and poetic is simply odious. … Burlesque, insensate, spiritless and undiscriminating, demoralizes both the audience and the players. It debases the public taste."〔Heyward, Thomas, "Burlesque: Its Uses and Abuses", ''Tinsley's Magazine'', November 1885, p. 477〕 Gilbert expressed his own views on the worth of burlesque:
In his 1859 Longfellow burlesque ''Hi-A-Wa-Tha'', the American playwright Charles Walcot encapsulated the character of burlesque in the epilogue, addressed to the audience by Mrs. John Wood as Minnehaha: :Ye who love extravaganza, :Love to laugh at all things funny, :Love the bold anachronism. :And the work of paste and scissors, :And "the unities" destruction, :Nigger airs, old glees, and catches, :Interspersed with gems of Op'ra, :Jokes and puns, good, bad, and so-so, – :Come and see this mutilation, :This disgraceful Hiawatha, Mongrel, doggerel Hiawatha!〔''Quoted'' in Hewitt, Barnard. ( "Mrs. John Wood and the Lost Art of Burlesque Acting", ) ''Educational Theatre Journal'', Vol. 13, No. 2 (May, 1961), pp. 82–85, Johns Hopkins University Press, accessed 2 February 2011 〕 In a similar vein, ten years later, Gilbert gave an English viewpoint on burlesque, in his epilogue to ''The Pretty Druidess'': :So for burlesque I plead. Forgive our rhymes; :Forgive the jokes you've heard five thousand times; :Forgive each breakdown, cellar-flap, and clog,〔Three types of dance popular in burlesque〕 :Our low-bred songs – our slangy dialogue; :And, above all – oh, ye with double barrel – :Forgive the scantiness of our apparel! 〔Gilbert, p. 25〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Victorian burlesque」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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