What are the points of contact between American musical theatre and European opera?

Dating back to the 16th Century, opera was an upper class and aristocratic event to attend1.

It was only until German playwriter, Friedrich Schiller, had written about how theatres

should be a place for society to combine and connect those theatres became much more

inclusive and a social event for all classes2. The success of opera and theatre inspired many

American composers, including Jerome Kern (who eventually joined forces with Oscar

Hammerstein II) and George Gershwin in the early 20th Century. These first musical theatre

composers wrote in an operatic style, however, between then and now, theatre music has

become much more versatile and modern to keep new and young audiences interested. In

this essay, I will be looking at the social side to theatre and how traditions are kept from

centuries long ago when theatres and opera houses were first made. However, I’ll start by

looking at the first American musicals and how they stemmed from European operas.

One of the first shows on Broadway was George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. First performed

on Broadway in 1935, Porgy and Bess was originally written as a folk opera which was based

in South America. Along with the release of this performance, there came along criticism

toward the stereotyping it has toward black Southern Americans. Critics also argued against

the songs featured in the show, saying that they were not operatic enough 3 despite being

labelled a ‘folk opera’. Gershwin replied to this criticism saying that “Nearly all of Verdi’s

1
Theodore K. Rabb “Introduction: Opera, Musicology, and History” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History,
36:3, (2006), 323
2
Philipp Ther, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr.
Charlotte Hughes Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.13
3
Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey (2nd edition; United States of America:
Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002) p.61
operas contain what are known as ‘song hits.’ Carmen is almost a collection of song hits.”4

Carmen is like Porgy and Bess in regard to the composers writing for different backgrounds.

French composer, Georges Bizet, wrote the opera for Spanish gypsy characters. Using the

habanera rhythm and flamenco influences in the music, Bizet wrote this folk opera which

also had a negative reaction on opening night. Comparing this early American Broadway

musical and European opera, we can see that when Broadway shows first started, they were

very similar to the European operas due to the lack of variety of influence and

experimentation that they had at the time. Despite the bad start, Porgy and Bess now has

had multiple stage adaptations that have been on Broadway and different productions

around the country, so despite it being seen in a negative light when it was released, it’s one

of the shows that we now see as a ‘classic’ and audiences will still go and watch it now.

When opera was first around in the 16th Century, it wasn’t available to anyone who couldn’t

afford a ticket5, therefore, it was only the upper class and royals who could attend these

performances. “As grand palaces of culture, opera theaters marked the center of European

cities like the cathedrals of the Middle Ages”6. Opera theatres were seen as landmarks and

still are now – for example, the Sydney Opera House (1959). When these major cities built

their opera houses, smaller cities also did the same. The opera houses were for the upper

class at this point; therefore, it made the cities look richer because they could afford to build

one and had the people to utilise them.

4
George Gershwin ‘RHAPSODY IN CATFISH ROW: Mr. Gershwin Tells the Origin and Scheme for His Music in
That New Folk Opera Called 'Porgy and Bess'’ The New York Times, Section X (October 1935), 1
5
John Storey ‘The social life of opera’ European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6:1 (2003), 33
6
Philipp Ther, Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr. Charlotte Hughes
Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.1
The whole theatre experience is much different nowadays to how it was when the upper

class would go and attend an opera - going to ‘watch’ an opera was seen as a social event.

Figure 1 Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth, Germany

The Margravial Opera House was built in the 18th century and is an example of an early

opera house. We can see in Figure 1 that the general seating on the floor is all at one level –

these theatres were not made to watch what’s happening on the stage. Therefore, the

stages wouldn’t be very big. Instead, the seats were made so the private boxes were in

perfect view from the floor, and the ‘audience’ could watch and see the aristocracy or

royals7. Everyone attending would dress in their best evening garments; the house lights

weren’t dimmed so the social event wouldn’t be ‘disrupted’ by the opera. We can see just

how lavish this lifestyle would be and how different it is to the theatre experience today.

Wagner was one of the first operatic composers to decide to change the way going to see an

opera worked. He wanted the people on stage to get more recognition and praise. However,

due to the social aspect of seeing an opera before, the singers on stage wouldn’t put much
7
Philipp Ther, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr.
Charlotte Hughes Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.2
effort or quality into their performances because they realised that no one was paying

attention. So, Wagner thought that if he gave the audience a better-quality performance,

then there would be more demand of tickets due to more people wanting to watch the

performers instead of going to socialise. The first step to getting more attention on the

performers was to distract away from the royalty and aristocrats. As a result of this, he

made his own theatre to design it how he wanted.

Figure 2 The Bayreuth Festspielhaus auditorium

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus was built in the 1870s. Looking at Figure 2, we can see a massive

difference from the Margravial Opera House. The biggest one being the seating. Bach used

tapered, curved seats that look down on the stage, so everyone in the ‘general’ seating has

an equal and fair view. The Margravial Opera House had seats all on the floor so the further

back you would be, the more the stage would be obstructed by the people sat in front of

you. We can also see that there is minimal decoration, and all the walls are neutral colours

so there are no distractions. With the previous opera house, all of the walls and royal boxes

were decorated with gold statues. In the Bayreuth, the boxes are at the back of the
auditorium, for the reason to not distract from the performance and the lack of boxes

meant that he could fit more general seating in.

The success of this arrangement would alone suffice to give an idea

of the spectator's completely changed relation to the scenic picture.
His seat once taken, he finds himself in an actual "theatron," i.e. a
room made ready for no other purpose than his looking in, and that
or looking straight in front of him. Between him and the picture to be
looked at there is nothing plainly visible, merely a floating
atmosphere of distance8

Everything that Wagner did has been reflected in Broadway theatres nowadays, yet one of

the main things that he did, changed theatres forever – he dimmed the house lights. For the

first time, when the opera started, the lights go down and the room goes quiet. This simple

idea is now used for every stage show and is the cue for the start of the show.

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus is still active now. Every year at summer they hold a music

festival dedicated to the performances and presentations of Wagner’s operas.

In the modern era, opera is becoming less popular. Ticket sales are declining, and opera

houses are closing. To get new, young audiences to see operas, some of the big European

opera houses are hosting opera style musicals. For example, South Pacific and Carousel have

been performed at Oper Graz in Austria, and Into the Woods and The King and I are being

performed in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris9. Overall, European opera and American

8
Richard Wagner, ‘Richard Wagner’s Prose Works’, tr. William Ashton Ellis, 5 (1896), 335
9
David Belcher, ‘Musical or Opera? Stage Companies Are Drawing on Both Art Forms’, The New York Times
International Edition (March 2014)
Broadway are vastly different – they have their differences, especially nowadays and I

believe that John Fulljames sums it up perfectly:

I think a musical is different than an opera, but it’s a hard definition

to draw. In a way, that distinction is easier to make now than it was
40 or 50 years ago, because that type of unamplified singing in early
American musicals doesn’t really exist anymore in musical theater. 10

In conclusion, we realise that European opera and American Broadway go with each other.

If we didn’t have opera then we wouldn’t have musical theatre, likewise, if we didn’t have

musical theatre, we wouldn’t have opera around anymore. There are many points of

contact with similarities of what happens on stage but more into the social side of it as well.

We see how the composers of operas inspired musical theatre composers and how the

theatres and theatre experience has changed and developed into the experience we have

today. Wagner particularly has had a massive influence in this change, he realised that the

more the audience pays attention to the performance, the better the quality, therefore, the

better the overall experience for everyone.

Belcher, David, ‘Musical or Opera? Stage Companies Are Drawing on Both Art Forms’, The New York Times
International Edition (March 2014)
10
Ibid.
Gershwin, George ‘RHAPSODY IN CATFISH ROW: Mr. Gershwin Tells the Origin and Scheme for His Music in
That New Folk Opera Called 'Porgy and Bess'’ The New York Times, Section X (October 1935), 1

Rabb, Theodore K. “Introduction: Opera, Musicology, and History” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 36:3,
(2006), 321-30

Storey, John ‘The social life of opera’ European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6:1 (2003), 5-35

Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey (2nd edition; United States of America:
Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002) p.61

Ther, Philipp, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr.
Charlotte Hughes Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.13

Ther, Philipp, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr.
Charlotte Hughes Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.2

Ther, Philipp, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe, tr.
Charlotte Hughes Kreutzmuller (Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2014), p.1

Wagner, Richard, ‘Richard Wagner’s Prose Works’, tr. William Ashton Ellis, 5 (1896), 1-383