The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1909. THE MORALITY OF COMIC OPERA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 484, 17 April 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1909. THE MORALITY OF COMIC OPERA.

4—: The enormous vogue of comic opera, in which-term may be included, for-the, purpose of this article, its ■degenerate offspring, musical cbmedy,-,is one 'of.'tho iripst noticeable features-of tho ■ modern stage.,. The way in which this frivolous attraction has superseded,- in the minds of thousands' of playgoers, ",'tho claims ofthe legitimate drama, .recalls the impudent charms, of upstart mistress Nell Gwvnn, which, held King.- Charles' from his ambassadors. And : tho analogy might bo pressed further than that of ovorduc; popularity, for as wo read that Misthess Nell,, translated from the 'boards; ■• was put into a groat scold.by a;rude ; fellow who cast imputation on her antecedents and'her virtue, so there are peoplo nowadays who cry "fie," and. worse ■: than fie, upon the morals of comic opera. Their case against the favourite should not be too severely pressed; comic opera is very unassuming, it exists only to amuse people, and that is quite a worthy object in itself, despite some misconceptions on the subject. "There is nothing beside the goodness of God that preserves health so much as honest mirth, especially 'mirth used at dinner and supper, ■ and mirth towards bed,"; says an old writer, a doctor of medicine; to-boot, and comicopera provides that mirth at the most opportune time. It has no such solemn object as to show "the very age and body of the time his' form and pressure;" arid ■ to judge , the fanciful delight of after-busi-ness hours by ; too severe and serious ■standards would be to break a butterfly. Nevertheless there are some foibles in the character of the dainty lady that may suggest . . ■ ; ' ; : : . The only rival of comic opera upon the boards, in general popularity, is that curious compound, melodrama, which is well known to be ,as moral ■■ as Mrs. Grundy. . Melodrama never .makes the mistake of ignoring vice; the , monster is •displayed iriall- his .hideousnese, and every melodrama is a conflict of St. Geokqe and the Dragon; in which we are , supposed to ; view, with much excitement, every ■ movement of either combatant, and applaud ■ the; virtuous hero when he triumphs' over 1 tremendous odds. Vice is here treated as an evil' thing) arid oven in the ; modern problem play and social play, where it'is inspected almost with a morbid closeness and persistence, it is still regarded-as the exceptional and harmful thing. But in'a certain class; of comic 'opera, which has enjoyed a peculiar vogue of late, vice is treated as the normal arid pleasant thing, to which virtue 'itself, is the exception. , - The conventibn is; a very irresponsible one, but' it exists, and-it is liable to spread. The "Belle of-New-York," ; one of the most successful of recent comic operas, is concerned with characters who, in real life, would be utterly heartless, cynical, and objectionable. l -A young-man is-so drunk at' midnight, preceding his wedding 'that he has to .be;wheeled upstairs'to-bed on his'bicycle; when/tho wedding ceremony is about tobegiiii his affections •(?), are diverted to; % ybrazon 'littler lady; who :wears''her: : skirts < a" trifle .higher; than the bride. The latter, by the by, , is not disconsolate,' having .been,.' 'married 'about five times before. (The'young-man; disinherited, wanders forth with his 'new love, whom ho shamefully deserts a few days later 'for another pretty face, and he is rewarded ultimately by his father's millions, and presumably the of the audience. Religion and' philanthropy are, also; made ridiculous, in this opera, 1 but.these aspects are'exceptional. In "The Merry .Widow," which'is' attracting, Wellington audiences by its genuine musical charm and sparkle, the convention holds that every married woman is engaged in an intrigue behind. her husband's' back; nobody remarks upon such conduct, it is, presumably, the usual thing. And there, are false conventions similar, to thesoi.n other comic operas and musical comedies, though, to do them justice,- there are hundreds of productions of this kind—the brilliant operas of Gilbert and.; Sullivan, for example—on which no such: criticism . can be passed. The skirt in musical-comedy, moreover, is , a property which has been used to absolute weariness. A fortune should await: the ingenious. composer who shall invent some other, accompaniment .to a charming' chorus "than the -long-grown tiresome, never-ending swish of, skirts. It is a curious'reflection that b'dtfr comic opera and melodrama,' however they may differ in moral reputation now, had their distant origin in religion. The earliest Greek drama was employed to represent the deeds ;of gods' and heroes, but tho "evil' spirit' early entered in, and the greatest of Greek comic dramatists used his 'country's comedy to ridicule, the oracles and traditions.- In England the old religious miracle plays, contained the germ of modern melodrama;;the modern villain,' indiscriminate with that sharpshooter, ridiculous in declamation, and falling in the death agony when the hero obviously fires above his head, is lineal descendant to King Herod, ;. massacring the innocents,-brandishing a sword in fits of fury, flourishing it up and down, and breaking it in his passion, and finally destroyed by a spectre at tho banquet table: The worst immoralities of English drama were seen in the Restoration period,, and for them the excuse was mad-} by Elia that the assumption in those plays of universal immorality is harmless, becauso the entire atmosphere of the comedies is so artificial, that no one could: confuse their standards with ■those of ordinary life. To find fault with their obliquities is to condomn a quito imaginary world, to "indict our very dreams." It is an ingenious argument, .which may be used to dofend the minor r .lapse3 of; the' modern stage; but is the ordinary public capablo of making such a nice distinction? Thackeray has'suggested that the. lively performances .of tho stage> the ballads which advise young maidens to gather rosebuds while they may,.'. and the lawless extravagances of the ever-popular Mr. .Punch,.are so many demonstrations of the old spirit of Paganism, 'fighting against restraint. If

that is so, it is woll to sec that tho spirit of Paganism finds vent in as seemly a, manner as possible, and that propriety and morality are not unnecessarily offended.