Editing Ballad (section)

==Ballad operas==
{{Main article|Ballad opera}}
[[File:William Hogarth 016.jpg|thumb|Painting based on ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', Act III Scene 2, [[William Hogarth]], {{Circa|1728}}]]
In the 18th century ballad operas developed as a form of [[England|English]] [[stage play|stage entertainment]], partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene.<ref>M. Lubbock, ''The Complete Book of Light Opera'' (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962) pp. 467-68.</ref> It consisted of racy and often [[Satire|satirical]] spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Rather than the more aristocratic themes and music of the Italian opera, the ballad operas were set to the music of popular folk songs and dealt with lower-class characters.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/50485/ballad-opera "Ballad opera"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', retrieved 7 April 2015.</ref> Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period.

The first, most important and successful was ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'' of 1728, with a libretto by [[John Gay]] and music arranged by [[John Christopher Pepusch]], both of whom probably influenced by [[Paris]]ian vaudeville and the burlesques and musical plays of [[Thomas d'Urfey]] (1653–1723), a number of whose collected ballads they used in their work.<ref>F. Kidson, ''The Beggar's Opera: Its Predecessors and Successors'' (Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 71.</ref> Gay produced further works in this style, including a sequel under the title ''Polly''. [[Henry Fielding]], [[Colley Cibber]], Arne, Dibdin, Arnold, Shield, Jackson of Exeter, Hook and many others produced ballad operas that enjoyed great popularity.<ref>M. Lubbock, ''The Complete Book of Light Opera'' (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962), pp. 467-68.</ref> Ballad opera was attempted in America and Prussia. Later it moved into a more pastoral form, like [[Isaac Bickerstaffe|Isaac Bickerstaffe's]] ''Love in a Village'' (1763) and [[William Shield|Shield's]] ''Rosina'' (1781), using more original music that imitated, rather than reproduced, existing ballads. Although the form declined in popularity towards the end of the 18th century its influence can be seen in light operas like that of [[Gilbert and Sullivan|Gilbert and Sullivan's]] early works like ''[[The Sorcerer]]'' as well as in the modern musical.<ref>G. Wren, ''A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert and Sullivan'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 41.</ref>

In the 20th century, one of the most influential plays, [[Kurt Weill]] and [[Bertolt Brecht|Bertolt Brecht's]] (1928) ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' was a reworking of ''The Beggar's Opera'', setting a similar story with the same characters, and containing much of the same satirical bite, but only using one tune from the original.<ref>K. Lawrence, ''Decolonizing Tradition: New Views of Twentieth-century "British" Literary Canons'' (University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. 30.</ref> The term ballad opera has also been used to describe musicals using folk music, such as ''The Martins and the Coys'' in 1944, and [[Peter Bellamy|Peter Bellamy's]] ''The Transports'' in 1977.<ref>A. J. Aby and [[Paul Gruchow|P. Gruchow]], ''The North Star State: A Minnesota History Reader'', (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002), p. 461.</ref> The satiric elements of ballad opera can be seen in some modern musicals such as ''[[Chicago (musical)|Chicago]]'' and ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]''.<ref>L. Lehrman, ''Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-bibliography'' (Greenwood, 2005), p. 568.</ref>