Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall: Connection to the Audience - Literature review Example

Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall: Connection to the Audience Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 2 Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall: Connection to the Audience Two sources of valuable background on the nature of entertainment performance of contemporary culture are the early nineteenth century English melodramas and the late nineteenth century British music halls. The need for entertainment that would connect to those at a certain level of respectability, while still remaining grounded in the cultural tastes for mild scandal would lead to the development of melodramatic stories and music hall entertainment that would connect to the emotional lives of the working-class. These forms of entertainment would create a lasting style of performance that depended on connection, extending their influence into the twentieth and the twenty-first century. The melodrama performances of the early nineteenth century were designed for the middle class. A form of serious drama, Michael R. Booth, in his book Theatre in the Victorian Age, says that “Melodrama contains every possible ingredient of popular appeal: strong emotion, both pathetic and potentially tragic, low comedy, romantic colouring, remarkable events in an exciting and suspenseful plot,”. He goes on to describe the many aspects of the human experience that the melodrama touches, “physical sensations, sharply delineated stock characters, domestic sentiment, domestic settings and domestic life, love, joy, suffering, morality, the reward of virtue, and the punishment of vice.” ( pg 151). These dramas appealed to the working class as they touched on themes that were familiar and relatable to the audience. While much of the work would be done with past historical eras as the time periods, according to Booth, the themes had a nineteenth century contemporary feel and resonance. The first dramatically performed English work that would be termed a melodrama Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 3 was Thomas Holcroft’s, “A Tale of Mystery” which would be performed at Covent Garden in 1802. This piece was “Gothic in nature and influenced by the English Gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, the German “Sturm and Drang” drama, and Parisian melodrama of the post-Revolutionary period.” (Booth, 1991, pg. 155). The story was a translation of the French melodrama, Coelina, ou l’enfant du mystère , from 1800 by René Guilbert de Pixérécourt. According to Dr. Marvin Carlson, professor of comparative literature and executive officer of the Ph.D. program at the University of New York, Early English melodrama, following French examples, tended to treat supernatural or exotic subjects, but by the 1820s more familiar subjects from everyday life were appearing. Englands close ties to the sea were reflected in melodramas about sailors and their loves, the most famous of these being Douglas William Jerrolds Black-Eyed Susan (1829). (Carlson) There were several French adaptations that would start the melodrama phase in English theatrical history. However, the development of the familial connection would create a standard for plot and theme. Family themes were the strongest story lines of the melodramas. One of the most important familial relationships explored by the English melodramas was that of the relationship between father and daughter. “Innumerable plays depict a father doting on his beloved daughter, falling out with her through some misunderstanding or action on her part that does not meet with parental favor, and being tearfully reconciled with her at the end” (Booth, pg 155) This is an indication of the strength of the female presence in the melodrama. Because so many stories were domestically situated and dealt with the Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 4 family, the plight of women was given voice during the course of many of these stories. “Melodrama became the ideal genre for the narration of a woman’s personal story and therefore the perfect vehicle for a popular actress.” (Hadley, pg 133). According to Booth, the female character was responsible for much of the emotional content and the connection between the story and the audience. “Pathos’s is a major part of melodrama’s appeal, and the heroine carries its burden.” (Booth, pg. 157). According to Elaine Hadley, in her book, Melodramatic Tactics: Theatricalized Dissent in the English Marketplace, the end of many of these works would consist of “the solitary woman in a flood of light” (pg. 133). This sense of female emotional content is the core of the melodramatic appeal of these stories that were geared towards people with lives that revolved around the survival of their families. This is the core focus of the working class - the physical and emotional survival of the family. The melodrama puts this at risk, and then resolves the conflict, not always with a positive outcome, but always with a sense of finality that creates an emotional release The Victorian music hall developed from the saloons in the early nineteenth century as a way of entertainment that could satisfy a broad number of appeals to an audience. The saloons were a room with an admission where one could get a drink and see an entertainer who sang, danced, or did a comedy routine. The music halls would have a variety of acts that would entertain an audience that was seated at tables and could order drinks and smoke. The crucial difference between the music and the theatre was this concept of being seated at tables and served during the performance. According to Dagmar Kift, in the book The Victorian Music Hall: Culture, Class, Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 5 and Conflict, the way in which the music halls are defined and seen by contemporary historians comes from a “Select Committee Report on Theatrical Licenses and Regulations, published in 1866”. According to an understanding of this document, Charles Morton’s Canterbury Music Hall in London was the first such hall created. The following is an excerpt from a document submitted by a lawyer named Frederick Stanley of the London Music Hall Proprietors’ Association. Mr. Morton opened a singing room in the ’Canterbury Arms‘. The room was capable of holding 100 persons; it was open once a week, from about seven until twelve o’clock, and was visited by respectable tradesmen and mechanics. Subsequently, it was opened twice a week. At first professional singers were not engaged, but afterwards two or three were engaged, and subsequently a larger number. (Kift, pg. 17) According to the document quoted by Kift, Morton eventually built a building for this purpose which became the first music hall. According to the definition set forth by Frederick Stanley, “criterion for defining the difference between concert rooms and music halls were size and the fact that a music hall was not an extension built on to the pub itself but a separate building erected specifically for the purpose of entertainment.” (Kift, pg. 18) The development of the halls was to create a higher class establishment above the saloons that could serve the working class. According to Peter Bailey, his book Leisure and Class in Victorian England, The take-off in growth for the music halls came in the late 1850’s. In recognition for growing popular demand for entertainment, some of the more enterprising publicans expanded the operations of the singing saloon. They abolished the refreshment check in favor of a straight admission charge plus de-emphasizing the trade in liquor, and relying on the pulling power of the entertainment and the superior appointments of the new establishments - Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 6 the music hall label was meant to indicate and advance in taste and amenities upon the singing saloon. (Bailey, pg. 154) The music halls were fairly lucrative establishments, appealing to the working class by good entertainment with a low cost. The growth of their popularity created a substantial number of openings of the halls during the late nineteenth century that spread beyond London. One of the more famous singers of the music halls was Marie Lloyd. Upon her death, T. S. Elliot is quoted as saying she was, “the greatest music hall artist of her time in England” and that her death “constitutes a decisive crisis for both the working classes and England itself” (Faulk, pg 24). Outside of the talent she presented, Marie Lloyd represented two important events in the history of the music hall. The first event was a charge laid against her that her act was indecent. “Her saucy winks, with which she could say volumes, became famous and eventually her friends were forced to remonstrate with her about her vulgarity and her rude songs were frequently mentioned in the Press.” (Morris). Because if her talent for creating double entendre with gestures and facial expressions which was part of the close relationship she developed between herself and the audience, allowing them the privilege of being part of a private joke with her. She was eventually called to be accountable for these actions. Mrs. Chant made a public protest against Marie from the stalls of the Empire during her act and eventually Marie had to appear before the Vigilance Committee. There she sang her songs without any of her usual winks and gestures and naturally the effect was one of complete innocence and the Committee had to let her go. There then follows the famous story of Marie singing to the Committee the lovely drawing-room ballad "COME INTO THE GARDEN MAUDE" with such a wealth of Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 7 gesture that it became quite obscene. (Morris) This famous account of her encounter with the Vigilance Committee undoubtedly helped her career as much as it tainted it. The second important historical event of which she would be a part was the “Music Hall Strike” of 1907. “This strike was called by the smaller artists who, owing to changes made in contracts, found themselves giving extra performances for no extra pay.”(Morris). Marie gave generously to the strike and went to the meetings in order to support those who needed the terms presented by the strike even though her own personal demands were met readily because of her status in the business. The importance of the strike effected the way in which labor would approach its disputes in other professions. According to George R. Askwith, in his book, Industrial Problems and Disputes, says of the Music Hall Strike, “From the Labour point of view, the serious aspect of the dispute was the notorious and advertised success of a strike in obtaining recognition, order, and a vast improvement in conditions.” (pg. 103). However, the managers and owners would not easily forget Lloyd’s participation and as a result she did not receive the honor of an invitation to the First Royal Command Performance for the music hall entertainments. The effect of both the Victorian music hall and the melodrama on twentieth and twenty-first century entertainment in both the business and the artistic development is significant. Both types of entertainment were geared toward the working class and developed a substantial bond between the performance and the audience. It is essential to recognize, as well, the real life struggles of the performers in regard to the way in which Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 8 they were treated, and the effect this would have on the way in which the performances would be handled. These stories were an outreach to the lives of the audience members, giving both sides a compatriot in the struggle of life. Connection is the key to contemporary performance and that need to connect has been influenced by melodramas of the early nineteenth century, and by the performances in the music halls of the late nineteenth century. Melodramas formed a connection to urban life, and specifically to women. Victoria De Grazia and Ellen Furlough in their book, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, state that “as feminist film critics have convincingly demonstrated, has had a privileged relation to the female audience in the twentieth century” (pg. 359). This emotional connection created to mirror the real life experiences that was created in the early nineteenth century has become a standard for dramas of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While entertainment previous to this time sought to elevate spiritually, or to exemplify the upper class, the new turns of the nineteenth century sought to connect the performer to the audience. When Marie Lloyd winked at her audience and brought them into her confidence, she was setting a standard for stage performance that can be seen at any rock concert across the globe. She sang a song with relatively benign lyrics, but sold her audience on the idea that they were in a privileged environment that only those within the walls of the theater could enjoy. As well, in today’s musical experiences, the lead singer will usually talk to the audience about the privilege they are sharing in their mutual anarchy, antiestablishment, or generally the inclusive nature of just being present at the event. Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 9 This idea of imitation individualized experience can be traced back to the music hall experiences. The innovation of experience created by the Victorian music hall and the melodramas of the nineteenth century represent a turn in the culture. The connection from the performer to the audience became altered in that it was designed to be exclusionary. The performers in both genre’s did not seek to elevate themselves above their audience, but to include themselves among the masses. This idea of inclusion would affect the world of music and theater as it developed work that was designed to mirror the lives of the working and lower classes. The economic power that the large number of population in these classes has overwhelmed the upper-class in shear numbers, allowing it to be financially beneficial to focus on this larger section of society. With the wealthy no longer controlling all of the money, the entertainment needs of the lower classes could be addressed. This has led to performances that are dramatic, scandalous, up-lifting, devastating, dangerous, and triumphant - because these experiences are life. Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall 10 List of References ASKWITH, G. R. (1971). Industrial Problems and Disputes. Freeport, N.Y., Books for Libraries Press. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://books.google.co m/books?id=Wz8QAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Industrial+Problems+ and+Disputes. BAILEY, P. (1987). Leisure and Class in Victorian England,Milton Keynes, London, Methuen & Company, Ltd. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://books. google.com/books?id=pS4OAAAAQAAJ&printsec=copyright&dq=Peter+Bailey. BOOTH, M. R. (1991). Theatre in the Victorian Age. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://books.google.com/books?I d=dbKbaQDSQ4MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Theatre+in+the+Victorian+Age. CARLSON, Marvin B.S., M.A., Ph.D. (2008). "Drama and Dramatic Arts," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 8 January 2008 from http://encarta.m sn.com/encyclopedia_761552006_7/Drama_and_Dramatic_Arts.html. FAULK, B. J. (2004). Music Hall & Modernity: the Late-Victorian Discovery of Popular Culture. Athens, Ohio University Press. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http ://books.google.com/books?id=IWk2-9ElTSoC&printsec=front cover&dq=Mus ic+Hall+%26+Modernity:+the+Late-Victorian+Discovery+of+Popular. HADLEY, E. (1995). Melodramatic Tactics: Theatricalized Dissent in the English Marketplace, 1800-1885. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://books.google.com/books?id=q7SeVU477N4C &printsec=frontcover&dq=Melodramatic+Tactics:+Theatricalized+Dissent+in+th e+English+%09Marketplace. KIFT, D. (1996). The Victorian Music Hall: Culture, Class, and Conflict. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://books.g oogle.com/books?id=kpDpQjLU5h8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Victorian+ Music+Hall:+Culture,+Class,+and+Conflict. MORRIS, Paul. (1997). “Marie Lloyd”. The English Music Hall. Retrieved on 07 January 2008 from http://www.amaranthdesign.ca/musichall/past/lloyd.htm. Read More