The ballad opera is a type of English comic opera that began in the early 18th century and kept changing over the next century and beyond. Like the earlier comédie en vaudeville and the later Singspiel, its main feature is the use of songs in a popular style (either already existing or newly created) along with spoken dialogue. These English plays were called "operas" mainly because they made fun of the rules of imported opera seria. Music critic Peter Gammond said the ballad opera was "an important step in the emancipation of both the musical stage and the popular song."

Earliest ballad operas

Ballad opera was a type of musical theater that appeared in the 18th century. It was a way to challenge the dominance of Italian opera in London. Ballad operas mix spoken English dialogue with short songs, often only one verse and a repeated line. These songs are kept simple to keep the story moving. The stories usually focus on characters from the lower classes, such as criminals, and often show a change or opposite of the strict moral rules found in Italian opera.

Most people agree that the first and most successful ballad opera was The Beggar's Opera, created in 1728. The story was written by John Gay, and the music was arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. Both men may have seen similar performances in Paris and wanted to create an English version. They were also influenced by Thomas D’Urfey, a writer known for changing the words of existing songs. A collection of these songs was published in 1700 and used again in The Beggar's Opera.

After The Beggar's Opera became popular, many similar works were made. Thomas Walker, who played the main character in the original, wrote other ballad operas. John Gay also created a less successful follow-up called Polly. Other writers, such as Henry Fielding, Colley Cibber, and Thomas Arne, made ballad operas that were widely enjoyed. However, by the middle of the 18th century, this style of music theater was no longer as popular.

Although ballad operas often focused on lower-class characters, their audiences were usually middle-class people in London. These works were a response to Italian opera, which was often serious and sung in Italian. The music and words in ballad operas were meant to be funny and critical of society. For example, in The Beggar's Opera, a character named Peachum was a joke about Sir Robert Walpole, a real person. Because of this satire, some plays were banned by the government.

The music in early ballad operas was usually taken from existing songs, much like a modern musical that uses popular songs. These songs came from many sources, including folk tunes, classical composers like Purcell, and even nursery rhymes. A major source of music was the songs used in 18th-century London broadside ballads. This connection to familiar music is why the term "ballad opera" was used. The use of old songs helps distinguish early ballad operas from later ones. By the 1750s, many ballad operas used the same tunes, such as "Lillibullero," and new music became necessary. In 1762, Thomas Arne’s Love in a Village introduced a new style with mostly original music. A similar work, Lionel and Clarissa by Charles Dibdin, followed in 1768.

In 1762, The Disappointment became one of the first ballad operas written in America.

Singspiel connection

In 1736, the Prussian ambassador in England asked for a German version of a popular ballad opera called The Devil to Pay, written by Charles Coffey. This version was performed successfully in cities like Hamburg and Leipzig in Germany during the 1740s. In 1766, a new version was created by C.F. Weisse and Johann Adam Hiller. The success of this version marked the start of many more works by these two collaborators. According to Grove, they are known as "the fathers of the German Singspiel." The story of The Devil to Pay was also used by Gluck for his 1759 French opera, Le diable à quatre.

Pastoral ballad opera

A later development, sometimes called ballad opera, focused more on peaceful, rural themes. These ballad operas were different from the more humorous versions. Instead of using a mix of existing music, like in The Beggar's Opera, these works mostly used original music. However, they sometimes included or copied folk songs. Examples include Love in a Village by Thomas Arne and Isaac Bickerstaffe, and Rosina (1781) by William Shield. Many of these pieces were added as extra parts after Italian opera performances.

Later in the century, broader comedies like Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Duenna and many plays by Charles Dibdin shifted the focus back to the original style. However, the strong influence of the satirical ballad opera had mostly faded by this time.

19th century

English 19th-century opera was strongly influenced by the "pastoral" style of ballad opera. Even works meant to be serious, like those by John Barnett, sometimes include elements of satire. The humorous and critical style of early ballad opera appears in a more polished way in the operas written by Gilbert for Gilbert and Sullivan. At the same time, the pastoral style of ballad opera is mocked in one of Gilbert and Sullivan's early plays, The Sorcerer (1877).

20th century

The Threepenny Opera, written by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1928, is a new version of The Beggar's Opera. It tells the same story with the same characters and keeps the same humorous criticism. However, it only uses one song from the original, while all the other music was created specifically for this opera. This means it does not include one of the most unique features of the original ballad opera.

In a very different style, Hugh the Drover, an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams, was first performed in 1924. This opera is sometimes called a "ballad opera," but it is much more similar to Shield's Rosina than to The Beggar's Opera.

In the twentieth century, folk singers created musical plays with songs that are folk or sound like folk music. These were also called "ballad operas." For example, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, and others recorded The Martins and the Coys in 1944. Later, Peter Bellamy and others recorded The Transports in 1977. The first of these is connected to the "pastoral" style of ballad opera, while the second is linked to the satirical style of The Beggar's Opera. Both are new ways of using the term "ballad opera."

Interestingly, the musicals of Kander and Ebb, especially Chicago and Cabaret, best keep the kind of humor found in The Beggar's Opera and its early versions. However, unlike the first ballad operas of the 18th century, the music in these musicals was not reused from earlier songs but was composed specifically for them.