Western Classical Plays and Operas

Musical play is a form of theatre that combines songs, with dialogue, acting, and dance. It has
drama in which performers act out a story in front of an audience. Theater or play is a
combination of difficult emotional actions or movements while entertaining the audience.

Western classical plays and operas show diverse art forms in a single play presentation. These
can be seen more on dance presentations such as on the elaborated prints found in the
costumes and cinematic approaches which include dramatic light and effects of sound.

Lesson 1:
Greek Theatre
Ancient Greek drama is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient
Greece from c. 700 BC. It started as part of a festival called the
Dionysia, which honored the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 500 BC),
comedy (490 BC), and the satyr play (a comic, burlesque version of a
mythological subject) were the three dramatic genres to emerge there.
Athens exported the festival to its other colonies and allies to promote
a common cultural identity. Classical Greeks valued the power of the
spoken word and it was their main method of communication and
storytelling

Dramatic performances were important to the Athenians made clear by the creation of a
tragedy competition and festival in the City of Dionysia which was organized to foster loyalty
among the tribes of Attica.
Tragedy and comedy were viewed as separate genres and no plays merged aspects of the two.
Satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic
manner.
Characteristics

Parts of Greek Theatre

The plays had a chorus made. up of 12 to 15

people who performed the plays in verse
accompanied by music, beginning in the
morning and lasting until the evening. The
performance space was a simple circular space
called the orchestra, where the chorus danced
and sang. The orchestra, with an average
diameter of 78 feet, was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which
produced a natural theatron or "seeing place". The coryphaeus was the head chorus member
who could enter the story as a character able to interact with the characters of a play.
The theatres were originally built to accommodate the large number of people on stage as well
as the large number of people in the audience

Greek theatre designers had to consider acoustics so the actors' voices could be heard
throughout the theatre. The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the ground)
were wooden, but around 499 BC the practice of inlaying stone blocks into the side of the hill to
create permanent and stable seating became more common. They were called prohedria and
were reserved Ar priests and a few most respected citizens.

In 465 BC, playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall, which hung or stood behind the
orchestra, which also served as an area where actors could change their costumes. It was
known as the skêné (scene). The death of a character was always done behind the skênê,
because it was considered inappropriate to show a killing in view of the audience. In 425 BC a
stone scene wall, called a paraskenia, became a common supplement to skênê in the theatres. It
was a long wall with projecting sides which may have had doorways for entrances and exits.
Behind the paraskenia was the proskenion (in front of the scene). The proskenion was similar to
the modern day proscenium.

Greek theatres also had tall, arched entrances called parodoi or eisodoi, through which actors
and chorus members entered and exited the orchestra. By the end of the 5th century BC, the
skêne the back wall, was two stories high. The upper story was called the episkenion. Some
theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.
There were several scenic elements commonly used in Greek theatre:
1. mechane - a crane that gave the impression of a flying actor (thus, deus ex machina).
2. ekkyklêma - a wheeled platform used to bring dead characters into view for the audience
3. pinakes pictures hung to create scenery
4. thyromata- more complex pictures built into the second-level scene (3rd level from ground)

5. phallic props used for satyr plays, symbolizing fertility in honor of Dionysus.

Masks
Mask-makers were called skeuopoios or "maker of the properties," suggesting that their role
encompassed multiple duties and tasks. The masks linen, leather, wood, or cork, with the wig
consisting of human or animal hair. were most likely made out of light weight, organic materials
like stiffened Due to the visual restrictions imposed by these masks, it was important that actors
hear to orient and balance themselves. It is believed that the ears were covered by substantial
amounts of hair. The mouth opening was relatively small, preventing the mouth to be seen
during performances.

The ancient Greek mask called prosporon (face) was a significant element likely used in
ceremonial rites and celebrations in the worship of Dionysus.
Masks were also made for members of the chorus, who play some part in the action and
provide a commentary on the events in which they are caught up. Although there are twelve or
fifteen members of the tragic chorus, they all wear the same mask because they are considered
to be representing one character. The masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, while
representing a multi-voiced persona or single organism and simultaneously encouraged
interdependency and a heightened sensitivity between each individual of the group. Only 2-3
actors were allowed on the stage at one time, and masks permitted quick transitions from one
character to another. There were only male actors but the masks allowed them to play female
characters.
Effectively, the mask transformed the actor as much as memorization of the text. The mask
'melts' into the face and allows an actor to vanish into the role. Therefore, performance in
ancient Greece did not distinguish the masked actor from his theatrical character.
Other Costume details
Actors with tragic roles wore boots called cothurni that elevated them above the other actors.
The actors with comedic roles only wore thin soled shoes called a sock.
Melpomene is the muse of tragedy and is often depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing
cothurni. Thalia is the muse of comedy and is similarly associated with the mask of comedy and
the comedic “socks”.

• Oedipus the King

This is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was
first performed around 429 BC. The action of
Sophocles' play concerns Oedipus' search for the
murderer of Laius to end a plague ravaging Thebes,
unaware that the killer he is looking for is himself. At
the end of the play, after the truth is revealed,
Jocasta hangs herself while Oedipus, horrified at his
patricide and incest, proceeds to gouge out his own
eyes in despair.

Oedipus the King

Sophocles is credited with several major and minor dramatic innovations like "scene paintings"
or other pictorial props to establish locale or atmosphere. He may have also increased the size
of the chorus from 12 to 15 members. Sophocles' major innovation was his introduction of a
third actor into the dramatic performance. It had previously been permissible for two actors to
"double" (i.e., assume other roles during a play), but the addition of a third actor onstage
enabled the dramatist to increase the number of his characters and widen the variety of their
interactions. The scope of the dramatic conflict was thereby extended, plots could be more
fluid, and situations could be more complex.
A typical Sophoclean drama presents a few characters, impressive in their determination and
power and possessing a few strongly drawn qualities or faults that combine with a particular set
of circumstances to lead them inevitably to a tragic fate all tragically developed with great
economy, concentration, and dramatic effectiveness, creating a coherent, suspenseful situation
which epitomized the tragic form to the classical world.
Many of his scenes dramatize flaws or failure in thinking (deceptive reports and rumors, false
optimism, hasty judgment, madness). Sophocles thus abandoned the spacious Aeschylean
framework of the connected trilogy and instead comprised the entire action in a single play.
His command of language responds flexibly to the dramatic needs of the moment; it can be
ponderously weighty or swift-moving, emotionally intense or easygoing, highly decorative, or
perfectly plain and simple.

Sophocles has also been admired for the sympathy and vividness with which he delineates his
characters as well as unsurpassed-creating moments of high dramatic tension and in his
revealing use of tragic irony.
He confronted neither Aeschylus religious problems nor Euripides intellectual ones. He accepted
the gods of Greek religion and contented himself with presenting human characters and human
conflicts. To him, human beings live for the most part in dark ignorance because they are cut off
from these permanent, unchanging forces and structures of reality. Yet it is pain, suffering, and
the endurance of tragic crisis that bring people into valid contact with the universal order of
things. In the process, a person can become more genuinely human, more genuinely himself.

• Medea
This is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides based on the
myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot
centers on Medea's revenge against Jason's betrayal of her with
another woman.

Lesson 2:

Renaissance and Romantic Theatres

• Renaissance Theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre or Elizabethan theatre,
refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.
The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster, and were three stories high.
Theatres were also constructed to hold large amounts of people.
The cost of admission was based on where in the theatre a person wished to be seated, or
based on what a person could afford. If people wanted a better view of the stage or to be more
separate from the crowd, they would pay more for their entrance.

Performances
The troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row. One distinctive feature of
the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy
players in women's costume. Performances also occurred in the afternoon since no artificial
lighting existed yet. When the light did begin to fade, candles were lit so that the play could
continue until its end. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the
actors through the course of the play.

Costumes
Costumes were often bright in color, visually entrancing, and expensive. Due to the fast-paced
nature of the plays and their runs, the actors wore contemporary and not period specific
clothing for the plays. Occasionally costumes were donated by patrons, but more often than r
actors wore the clothes of their day.
Costumes were also used to recognize characters. Colors symbolized class, and costumes were
made to reflect that. The colors as well as the different fabrics of the costumes allowed viewers
to know the roles of each actor when they came on stage.

Genres
Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history.
Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V, belong to this
category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and George Peele's famous "Chronicle of King
Edward the First".

Tragedy was an amazingly popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally popular, such
as "Dr. Faustus" and "The Jew of Malta". The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such
as Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy". The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's
greatest ("Hamlet", Othello", "King Lear", and "Macbeth") were composed during this period.

Comedies were also common. A subgenre developed in this period was the city comedy, which
deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy. Examples are
Thomas Dekker's "The Shoemaker's Holiday" and Thomas Middleton's "A Chaste Maid in
Cheapside".
• Romantic Theatre
Several important technical innovations were introduced between 1875 and 1914. First gas
lighting and then electric lights. The elevator stage (1884, Budapest Opera House) allowed
entire sections of the stage to be raised, lowered, or tilted to give depth and levels to the scene.
The revolving stage was introduced to Europe by Karl Lautenschläger at the Residenz Theatre,
Munich in 1896.
Melodrama was the predominant theatrical style: it involved a number of scenic effects, an
intensely emotional but codified acting style, and a developing stage technology that advanced
the arts of theatre towards grandly spectacular staging. By the end of the 19th century, the term
melodrama had narrowed down to a specific genre of more or less rhythmically spoken words
(often poetry)-not sung, sometimes more of less enacted, at least with some dramatic structure
or plot-synchronized to an accompaniment of music (usually piano). It was looked down as a
genre for authors and composers of lesser stature.

Technological Changes

• Stage lighting
From eighteenth century theatre lit by candles and oil-lamps, major early 19th century theatres
slowly adopted gas lighting to provide illumination for the house and the stage. The
introduction of gas lighting provided more natural and adequate light for the play and the scenic
space upstage of the proscenium arch. Theatres in London developed limelight for the stage in
the late 1830s. In Paris, the electric carbon are lamp first came into use in the 1840s. Both of
these types of lighting were hand-operated and could be focused by means of an attached lens,
thus giving the theatre the ability to focus light on particular performers for the first time.
From the 1880s onwards, theatres began to be gradually electrified with the Savoy Theatre
becoming the first theatre in the world to introduce a fully electrified theatrical lighting system
in 1881. Notably, the introduction of electric light coincided with the rise of realism: the new
forms of lighting encouraged more realistic scenic detail and a subtler. more realistic acting
style.

• Scenic design

One of the most important scenic transition into the century was from the often-used two-
dimensional scenic backdrop to three-dimensional sets. As a two-dimensional environment,
scenery did not provide, an embracing, physical environment for the dramatic action happening
on stage. This changed when three-dimensional sets were introduced in the first half of the
century. This, coupled with changes in audience and stage dynamics as well as advancement in
theatre architecture that allowed for hidden scene changes transported audiences to a
conceived 'other' world. S
Early 19th century also saw the innovation of the moving panorama: a setting painted on a long
cloth, which could be unrolled across the stage by turning spools to create an illusion of
movement and changing locales.

Romeo and Juliet

"Romeo and Juliet" is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two
young lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among
Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with "Hamlet", is one of his
most frequently performed plays.

William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's use of poetic dramatic structure (especially
effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to
heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his
use of sub-plots to embellish the story) has been praised as an
early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different
poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the
form as the character develops.

In the 20th and into the 21st century, the play has been adapted in versions as diverse as
George Cukor's 1935 film "Romeo and Juliet", Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version "Romeo and Juliet,
and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired "Romeo + Juliet".
Main Characters:
Carmen
"Carmen" is an opera in four acts with the libretto written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halivy
based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée.
The opera is written in the genre of opera comique with musical numbers separated by
dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naive
soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood
sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen’s love to the glamorous
toreador Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life,
immorality and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new
ground in French opera and were highly controversials.
Carmen (Opera) 1875
"Carmen" forms the bridge between the tradition of opera comique and the realism or terismo
that characterized late 19th century Italian opera.

Georges Bizet
Alexandre César Léopold Bizet was a French composer of the romantic era best known for his
operas Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, "Carmen", which has become one of
the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

Lesson 3:
Basic Elements of Musical Theatre

Playwriting
Playwriting and creating drama for each playwright is distinctively different. Plays can develop
out of any combination of starting points and patterns. The processes by which drama is created
for each playwright can be varied in the steps used to create the text. Below is a simple list in a
progressive order, but order can change depending on each playwright's characteristic style and
preferences for writing.
The basic steps involved in the development of drama include:
1. Coming up with the thought/theme/ideas to be expressed through the work
2. Determining the genre and style of the work

3. Outlining the basic action of the work and creating plot.

4. Establishing the structure of the play and overall framework
5. Developing characters presented in the work.
6. Creating dialogue and the language of the characters.

7. Creating music that involves the rhythm of the language or actual music composition and the
lyrics of the songs.
8. Establishing spectacle that includes the visual and environmental elements of the work.
9. Researching subject matter and relevant issues presented in the play

Elements of Drama
Most successful playwrights follow the theories of playwriting and drama that were established
over two thousand years ago by a man named Aristotle. In his work The Poetics”, Aristotle
outlined the six elements of drama in his critical analysis of the classical Greek tragedy “Oedipus
Rex” written by the Greek playwright, Sophocles, in the fifth century B.C. The six elements as
they are outlined involve: Thought, Theme, Ideas; Action or Plot; Characters; Language; Music;
and Spectacle.

1. Thought/Theme/Ideas
What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is clearly
stated in the title. It may be stated through dialogue by a character acting as the playwright’s
voice or it may be less obvious and emerges only after some study or thought like the abstract
issues and feelings that grow out of a dramatic action.
2. Action/Plot

The events of a play: the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it
means. The plot must have some sort of unity and clarity by setting up a pattern by which each
action initiates the next rather than stands alone without connection to what came before it or
what follows. The action and movement in the play begins from the initial entanglement,
through rising action, climax, and falling action to resolution.
 3. Characters
These are the people presented in the play involved in the perusing plot. Each character should
have their own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socioeconomic background, and
language.
4. Language
The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the language.
The language and dialogue delivered by the characters move the plot and action along, provides
exposition and defines the distinct characters. Each playwright can create their own specific
style in relationship to language choices they use in establishing the characters and dialogue.
5. Music
Music can encompass the rhythm of dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean the
aspects of the melody and music compositions as with musical theatre. Each theatrical
presentation delivers music, rhythm and melody in its own distinctive manner. Music is not a
part of every play but can be included to mean all sounds in a production-sound effects, the
actor’s voices, songs, and instrumental music played as underscore in a play. Music creates
patterns and establishes tempo in theatre. In the aspects of a musical theatre, the songs are
used to push the plot forward and move the story to a higher level of intensity. Composers and
lyricists work together with playwrights to strengthen the themes and ideas of the play.
Character’s wants and desires can be strengthened for the audience through lyrics and music.
6. Spectacle

The spectacle in the theatre can involve all aspects of scenery, costumes, and special effects in a
production. It includes all visual elements of a play created for theatrical event. These qualities
are determined by the playwright creates the world and atmosphere of the play for the
audience’s eye.

Script/Text, Scenario, Plan

This is the starting point or blue print of a theatrical performance. The element most often
considered as the domain of the playwright in theatre. The playwright's script is the text by
which theatre is created. It can be simplistic, as in the 16th century, with the scenarios used by
the acting troupes of the Commedia dell' arte, or it can be elaborate, such as the works of
William Shakespeare.
The Process
This is the coordination of the creative efforts usually headed by the director. It is the process by
which the playwright’s work is brought to realization by the director, actors, designers,
technicians, dancers, musicians, and any other collaborators that come together on the script,
scenario, or plan. This is the “work in progress” stage.

The Product
This is the end result of the process of work involved. The final product results from all of the
labors coming together to complete the finished work of script, scenario, and plan, in union
with all of the collaborators to create the final product. This is what the audience will witness
when they sit in the theatre and view the work.

The Audience
Theatre requires an audience. For all of the arts, public is essential. The physical presence of an
audience can change a performance, inspire actors, and create expectations. Theatre is a living
breathing art form. The presence of live actors on the stage in front of live audiences sets it
apart from modern day films and television.

Further Considerations of the Playwright

Above and beyond the elements outlined above, the playwright has other major considerations
to take into account when writing. The Genre and Form of the play is an important aspect. Some
playwrights are pure in the choice of genre for a play. They write strictly tragedy or comedy.
Other playwrights tend to mix genre, combining both comedy and tragedy in one piece of
dramatic work.

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