The purposes of this project, ballad opera are defined as any British stage production from 1728 to 1760 that combines a comic or sentimental play with musical numbers.

In Greek Theatres men were the only people that were allowed to act. However in Ballad Operas both women and men are allowed to take part.

Ballad Opera

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/William_Hogarth_016.jpg/300px-William_Hogarth_016.jpgThe audiences were middle and top class, the age groups where just Adults, say in a couple or a group. The children were at home with a babysitter as the Adults where wealthy who went.

http://www.ledahoffmann.com/uploads/4/0/4/6/4046468/6531239_orig.jpghttp://img.ehowcdn.co.uk/article-page-main/ehow/images/a08/26/7e/do-ballad-opera-cantata-common-800x800.jpghttp://www.hoasm.org/VIIJ/PrinceWales.jpgIn a ballad Opera I would expect a group of Men and Women singing and acting to an audience, however their singing wont be basic singing, the performers would be hitting high notes and I would also expect traditional costumes to be worn and allot of fighting and romantic scenes.

http://www.youthmusictheatreuk.org/images/uploads/images/SK_The-Beggars-Opera1.jpghttp://s265039441.onlinehome.us/philpaine/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/listening-2010-march-beggars-opera-hogarth-17292.jpgIt is generally accepted that the first ballad opera, and the one that was to prove the most successful, was The Beggar's Opera of 1728.

Ballad opera has been called an "eighteenth-century protest against the Italian conquest of the London operatic scene".

English stage entertainment 18th Century

Michael McCauley