MUSIC • for the • MELODRAMATIC THEATRE in Nineteenth-Century LONDON & NEW YORK STUDIES IN THEATRE HISTORY AND CULTURE EditEd by Heather Nathans MICHAEL V. PISANI MUSIC • for the • MELODRAMATIC THEATRE in Nineteenth-Century LONDON & NEW YORK University of i owa Press, i owa City University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2014 by the University of Iowa Press Printed in the United States of America Design by Richard Hendel www.uiowapress.org No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources. Printed on acid- free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data iSbN: 978-1-60938-230-8 (pbk) iSbN: 978-1-60938-265-0 (ebk) lccN: 2013953635 Once the theatre was cleared of audience, Elliston, fancying himself the equivalent of Alexander the Great, Henry V, or Napoleon Bonaparte, came striding onto the stage and then stopped, rapping his “wand of authority” on the floor and calling out to all. “Carpenters, fall in and take close order. Leader of the band, marshal your men in the van—yes, have them all in the orchestra, and prepare to sound the alarm. Prompter, take up your position on the left- wing with your call- boy, property- man, and assistants. Acting- manager, be pre- pared at the right- wing. Scene- shifters, you will form in double file, two deep. Flymen, you will occupy the heights. Wingmen, you will skirt the rear. Trapmen and cellarmen, be prepared to act as sappers and miners . . . Dismiss, you others, and to your work. Call on the opening chorus, prompter. Play the first melos, leader. Band, strike up in the orchestra, for Judah’s lion is o’erthrown for ever. Yes, now I’m satisfied—I’ve tri- umphed!—greatly triumphed! . . .—so quick, quick!—off with the flats, and on with the rehearsal!” Robert W. Elliston, rehearsing a melodrama at the Surrey Theatre, London, 1809 (W. T. Moncrieff, “Ellistoniana, No. XII: Elliston’s Valour,” New Monthly Magazine 69 [1843])  CONTENTS  Acknowledgments, ix Introduction. Genres, Concepts, and Terms, xi PART ONE ForgiNg a NEw MuSico- draMatic gENrE 1. The Eighteenth- Century Roots of Melos, 3 2. The Rise of Melodrama in the Age of Revolution, 40 3. The Early Popular Drama in the Public Theatres, 73 PART TWO ProPagatiNg thE PoPular draMa 4. The Anglo- American Melodrama and Its Music, 107 5. Victorian Theatre Bands and Their Leaders, 126 6. The Craft of Melos in Rehearsal and Performance, 136 7. Music, Suspense, and the Sensation Drama, 168 PART THREE traNSForMiNg thE PoPular draMa 8. Melos in Crisis, 207 9. Nationalism, “Prestige Music,” and Irving’s Lyceum, 244 10. Melodrama and Glamour at Century’s End, 275 Conclusion. The Legacy of Melos, 309 Notes, 319 Index, 361  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  This book is the result of nearly twenty years of research. It would not have been possible without the pioneering work and continuing encourage- ment of David Mayer, theatre historian and professor emeritus of drama at the University of Manchester. He is the first and lasting inspiration for this study. I am also grateful to my editor at the University of Iowa Press, Thomas Postlewait, especially for his keen eye, sharp pen, and sage ad- vice. I am unable personally to thank Anne Dhu McLucas, one of the first musicologists to undertake serious research in music and English-l anguage melodrama, but I know that before her untimely death she was looking for- ward to the completion of this study and would have been pleased to find in its pages much evidence of her foundational work. Other historians of theatre and music as well as research librarians de- serve special thanks for their generous responses to requests for infor- mation and advice. Chief among them are Stephen Banfield, Philip Carli, Stephen Cockett, Annette Davison, Richard Divall, Joseph Donohue, Victor Emeljanow, Annette Fern, Christina Fuhrmann, Aubrey Garlington, John Graziano, Sarah Hibberd, David Hulme, Bridget Keown, Marian Wilson Kimber, John Koegel, Bob Kosovsky, Alan Lewis, Katherine K. Preston, Margaret Sherry Rich, Deane L. Root, Emilio Sala, Laurence Senelick, Denise Walen, and Don Wilmeth. Also special thanks to my supportive col- leagues and friends throughout this project: Ralph P. Locke, T. J. Hoch- strasser, Karen Robertson, Mark and Qin Stubis, and Christopher Huebner. What really fueled my passion for this topic was a deep and abiding love for drama, already in evidence at age twelve when I tried to inveigle neigh- borhood kids to participate in a backyard production of Gilbert and Sulli- van’s H.M.S. Pinafore. I owe my practical experience with the theatre to years spent as an assistant conductor for several major opera companies, in- cluding the Houston Grand Opera, the Seattle Opera, Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera, and the Opera Company of Boston. In this capacity, I worked with remarkable singer- actors such as Karan Armstrong, Mirella Freni, Marilyn Horne, Diane Kesling, Jon Vickers, and Thomas Stewart and directors such as Colin Graham, Jean- Pierre Ponnelle, Götz Friedrich, Sarah Caldwell, Stephen Wadsworth, Francesca Zambello, and Frank Corsaro. I witnessed effective collaboration between such visionary artists and equally visionary ix