Western Classical Plays/Opera

HISTORY OF THE THREATRICAL FORMS AND THEIR EVOLUTION

• Theatre began from myth, ritual, and ceremony.
•Theatre means "place of seeing", but it is more than the buildings
where performance take place.
•To produce theatre, a playwright writes the scripts, the director
rehearses the performers, the designer and technical crew produce
props to create the scenes, and actors and actresses perform on stage.

ANCIENT THEATER (700 B.C.E - 410 C.E.)

Greek Theater
• European theatre began in Ancient Greece.
• It began around 700 B.C. with festivals honoring their many gods.
• The city-states of Athens was the center of a significant cultural, political,
and military power during this period where the festivals and competitions
were usually performed.

THE THREE WELL-KNOWN GREEK TRAGEDY PLAYWRIGHTS

Euripides Sophocles
"Experience travel "Always desire
- these are as to learn
education in something
themselves". useful”.

Aeschylus
"Memory is the
mother of all
wisdom".

The theater of the ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama:

Tragedy
• Is a compound of two Greek words, "tragos" or "goat" and "ode" meaning song,
referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before performances, or to goat -skins
worn by the performers.
In Greece, tragedy was the most admired type of play. It dealt with tragic events
and have an unhappy ending, esp. one concerning the downfall of the main
character.
Thespis > the 1st actor and introduced the use of masks and was called as the
"Father of Tragedy".
Comedy
• were derived from imitation; there were no traces of origin. •Aristophanes
wrote most of the comedy plays. Out of these 11 plays, LYSISTRATA survived,
a humorous tale about a strong woman who led a female coalition to end war
in Greece.
• Euripides also wrote Cyclops, an adventurous comedy.
Satyr
• contains comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a
happy ending.
• This play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed.
• It is an ancient Greek form of tragic comedy.
• This featured half-man / half-goat characters known as Satyrs. They were
awful, ridiculous, and usually drunk.
• The Satyr characters lusted after everyone on stage, and they delivered the
most humorous lines, often at the expense of others.
ANCIENT THEATER TERMS
• Theater building were called theatron.
• Theater - a large, open-air structures
constructed on the slopes of a hill. It
consists of three main elements: the
orchestra, the skene, and the audience.
• Orchestra - a large circular or
rectangular area at the center part of the
theater, where the play, dance, religious
rites, and acting took place.
• Theatron -viewing place on the slope of
a hill
• Skene - stage
• Parados - side entrance
Roman Theater
• Theater of ancient Rome started in the 3rd century BC.
• It had varied and interesting art forms, like festival performances of
street theater, acrobatics, the staging of comedies of Plautus, and the
high-verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.
• Roman culture in the 3rd century BC had an intense and energizing
effect on Roman theater and encouraged the development of Latin
literature.
• According to Roman historian Livy, in the 4th century BC, the Etruscan
actors were the first experienced theater.
• Roman drama began with the plays of Livius Andronicus in 240 BC. •
Greek theaters had a great influence on the Roman's theater too.
• Triumvir Pompey was one of the first permanent (non- wooden)
theaters in Rome, structure is similar to the theatron of Athens.
Theater of Pompey

• The building was a part of a multi-

use complex that included large a
quadriporticus (a columned
quadrangle), directly behind the
scanae fron -, an elaborately
decorated background of theater
stage enclosed by the large
columned porticos with an
expansive garden complex of
fountains and statues.

• There were also rooms that were dedicated to the exposition of art and
other works collected by Pompey Magnus located along the stretch of
covered arcade.
• The usual themes for Roman theater plays were chariots races,
gladiators, and public executions.
• Romans loved a good spectacle.
• They loved to watch combat, admired blood sports and gladiator
competition. The more realistic the violence, the more it pleased Roman
audiences.
•Comedy plays were also popular in the Roman Theater from 350 to 250
BC and women were allowed to perform on stage.
MEDIEVAL THEATER (500 C.E - 1400)
• During the Medieval era, theater performances were not allowed
throughout Europe. To keep the theater alive, minstrels, though denounced
by the Church, performed in markets, public places and festivals.
• They travelled from one town to another as puppeteers, jugglers, story
tellers, dancers, singers, and other theatrical acts.
• These minstrels were viewed as a dangerous and pagan.
• Churches in Europe started staging their own theater performances
during Easter Sundays with Biblical stories and events.
• Eventually, some plays were brought outside the church due to their
portrayal of the devil and hell.
• Example of this kind of play is the "Mystere d' Adam or The Mystery of
Adam". The story revolves around Adam and Eve and ends with the devil
capturing and bringing them to hell.
• Over the centuries, the plays revolved around biblical themes from the
Story of the Creation to the Last Judgment.

RENAISSANCE THEATER (1400 - 1600)

• Renaissance theater arts were characterized by a return of Classical Greek
and Roman arts and culture.
→ Morality plays (in which the protagonist was met by personifications of
moral attributes who try to choose a Godly life over the evil.
→ University Drama were formed to recreate Athenian tragedy.
→ Public theatre were developed like the Commedia dell'arte and the
elaborate masques.
★
• Commedia dell'arte > Italian comedy and a humorous theatrical
presentation performed by professional players who travelled in troupes.
★
• Elaborate masques > a dramatic entertainment consisting of
pantomime, dancing, dialogue, and song and sometimes players wore
masks.
• Queen Elizabeth I - one of the most prominent supporters of the theatre.
• The companies of actors were organized by aristocrats and performed
seasonally in many places. They were called professional players that
performed on the Elizabethan stage.
• Gorboduc (also known as Ferrex and Porrex) was an English play and first
performed at the Christmas celebration in 1561; and performed before
Queen Elizabeth I on January 18, 1562 by the Gentlemen of the Inner
Temple (one of the four INNS of court - professional associations for
barrister and judges in London) •Authors of the Gorboduc were Thomas
Norton and Thomas Sackville.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

• the famous actor and poet who emerged in this

period.
• baptized on April 26, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616.
•He was an English poet, playwright and actor and
regarded as the greatest writer and dramatist in the
whole world.
• as often called as the England's national poet and the
"Bard of Avon"

• His works consists of 38 plays •The four greatest works of Tragedies

★ Romeo and Juliet ★ Hamlet
★ Hamlet ★ Othello
★ Midsummer Night's Dream ★ King Lear
★ Cleopatra ★ Macbeth
★ Julius Caesar
★ Much Ado about Nothing

OTHER CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHTS

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE THOMAS KYD
• was an English
Greatest works:
★
Dr. Faustus
playwright, the author of
★
The Jew of
The Spanish Tragedy, and
one of the most important
Malta
figures in the
development of
Elizabethan drama.
Greatest works:
★ The Spanish tragedy
★ Cornelia

HISTORY PLAYS - DEPICTED ENGLISH OR EUROPEAN HISTORY

Shakespeare's History plays: Christopher Marlowe's History plays:
✔ Richard III ✔ Edward II
✔ Henry V ✔ Edward I

COMEDIES-DEALT WITH LIFE IN LONDON

Some of the comedy plays:
✔ The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker
✔ A Chaste Maid in Cheapside by Thomas Middleton
BALLET
• was first performed in public.
Is a formalized form of dance which originated from the Italian Renaissance
courts.
• It developed from Italy to France with the help of Catherine de' Medici
(Queen of France)
• Le Paradis d'Amour, the early example of Catherine's development of
ballet.
Is a piece of work presented at her daughter's wedding. Marguerite de
Valois to Henri of Navarre.
Ballet des Polonais in 1573
❖ the first formal "court ballet" ever recognized.
❖ was commissioned by Catherine de Medici to honor the Polish
Ambassadors who visited Paris for the enthronement of King Henry in
Poland.
BAROQUE THEATRE (1600-1750)
Characteristics:
❖ The theatre of the Baroque Period is marked by the use of technology in
current broadways and commercial plays.
❖ The theatre crew uses machines for special effects and scene changes
which may be changed in a matter of seconds with the use of ropes and
pulleys.
❖ This technology affected the content of the performed pieces, practicing
at its best solution.
❖ In which the character gods were finally able to come down from the
heavens and rescue the hero in dangerous situations.
❖ The theatre was richly decorated, the multiplicity of plot turns and a
variety of situations characteristic of Mannerism were succeeded by opera.
❖ The use of theatrical technologies in the Baroque period may be seen in
the films Vatel (2000), Farinelli (1999)and the different stage productions.
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE (1800-1900)
• The Neoclassical period was a movement where the styles of Roman and
Greek societies influenced the theatre arts.
• Theatre was characterized by its grandiosity.
• Costumes and sceneries were highly elaborate.
• The main concepts of the plays were to entertain and to teach lessons.
• Stages were restyled with dramatic arches to highlight the scenes.
• Lighting and sound effects intensified the mood and message of each
scene, enhancing the dramatic experiences.
• The idea of changing scenery and backdrops become more noticeable,
particularly with the invention of pulley systems.
• The concept of decorum (meaning right and proper audience behavior)
was applied in this period which means classical concepts and appropriate
social behavior must be observed.
This period officially established just two types of plays, tragedy and
comedy.
• They never mixed these together, and the restriction led to the use of the
now well- known pair of happy and sad masks that symbolize the theatrical
arts.
Tragedies - portrayed the complex and fateful lives of the upper classes
and royals.
Comedies - which were either public discourse or comedies of manners,
tended to focus on the lower ranks of society.

THREE PLAYWRIGHTS:
Pierre Cornielle (1606-1684)
➤ was often called the Father of the French tragedy,
writing scripts for more than four decades.

Major Work:
★ The Cid

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (better known as Moliere), (1622-1673)

➤ Known for his comedies

Major Works:
★ Tartuffe
★ Missanthrope

Jean Racine (1639-1699)

➤ was a tragedian beloved for his simple
approach to action and the linguistic
rhythms and effects.
Major Work:
★ Andromache and Phaedra

TRIVIA ABOUT THE NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE

• The first "spotlight" was used in the U.S. during this period and was
called the "Limelight".
• The Theatre Regulation Act of 1843 banned drinking in legitimate
theatres.
ROMANTIC THEATRE (1800-2000)
• During the Romantic Period, melodrama and operas became the most
popular theatrical forms.
• Melodrama originated from the French word "melodrame", which is
derived from Greek "melos", music, and French "drame", which is derived
from the Greek "dran" to perform.
• Melodrama can be described as a dramatic work that puts characters in a
lot of danger in order to appeal to the emotions and in which orchestral
music or song was used to accompany the action.
• Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic
work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.
• Acting, scenery, costumes and dance were important elements of theatre.
• It is usually performed in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or
smaller musical ensemble.

ROMANTIC PLAYWRIGHTS:
Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885)
➤ Considered as one of the greatest and best known French writer.
➤ He was a poet, novelist and dramatist of the Romantic movement.
➤ Hugo's literary fame comes from his poetry, novels and his
dramatic achievements.
Major Works:
★ Les Contemplations
★ La Legende des siecles
★ Les Miserables
★ Notre-Dame de Paris known as the Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

➤ This French composer was a pianist and best known for his operas.
➤ Composed the title role for a mezzo-soprano in the character of Carmen.
➤ The opera tells the story of the downfall of Don Jose, a naïve soldier who
is seduced by the charms of the sizzling Gypsy, Carmen
Major Works:
★ Carmen
★ La Pretresse, operetta (1854)
★ Le docteur Miracle, opera bouffe (1857)
★ Don Procopio, opera bouffe (1859)
★ Les pecheurs de perles, opera (1863)
★ Ivan IV, grand opera (unfinished)
★ La jolie fille de Perth, opera (1867)
★ Noe, opera (1869)
★ L'Arlesienne, musique de scene (1872)
★ Djamileh, one-act opera (1872)