English ballad operas and burlesques regularly used borrowed melodies, drawn from popular tunes. The use of these tunes often had a nationalistic motivation, attempting to imbue the music with an English identity, while simultaneously establishing a locale within the opera. The songs for burlesque and ballad operas were adapted from a wide variety of sources, including ballad airs, folk songs, arias from Italian and French opera, and minstrel tunes. The burlesque orchestra also played familiar tunes to signal associations in the minds of the audience, often with humorous intent. Humor played a large role in burlesques, taking form in parody through song, puns in dialogue, and through women playing men’s roles.

Works: Kane O’Hara: Midas (553); James Planche: The Golden Branch (554); Edward Stirling: The Buffalo Girls (555); Albert Smith: Hop-o’-my-Thumb (555); William Leman: Douglas Travestie (556); Francis Talfourd: Macbeth Trovestie (555), Atalanta (557), Electra in a New Electric Light (557); Henry Byron: Ali Baba (557); Joseph Coyne and Francis Talfourd: Leo the Terrible (557); William Rhodes: Bombastes Furioso (557); Maurice Dowling: Othello Travestie (558); Robert Brough: Masaniello (559); Leicester Buckingham: William Tell (559); Joseph Coyne: Willikind and hys Dynah (559); James Planche: Puss in Boots; An Original, Comical, Magical, Mew-sical, Fairy Burletta (561); William Hale and Francis Talfourd, The Mandarin’s Daughter (561).

Sources: Anonymous: Shaan Bwee (553), Sheelagh na guig (553), Larry Grogan (553), Kiss me fast my mother’s coming (553), Bobbing Joan (553); Handel: Overture to Ottone (553); Anonymous: Cherry Ripe (554), If you’re waking, call me early (555); Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (555); Anonymous: Sich a gittin’ up stairs (555), Come haste to the wedding (556), Paddy’s Wedding (557), My Lodging is on the Cold Ground (557), Drink to me only with thine eyes (557), Weippert’s Fancy (557), Lord Cathcart’s Favourite (557), Oh ‘tis love (558), The Ratcatcher’s Daughter (559), We won’t go home till morning (559), My poor dog Tray (559), To all you Ladies now on Land (560); John Christopher Pepusch: The Beggar’s Opera (561); Anonymous: There’s nae luck about the house (561).

Index Classifications: 1700s, 1800s

Contributed by: Maria Fokina