CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN MUSIC, DANCE, AND FILM 719Her splendid course shall run....
The gods decree
That she shall be
A nation great....And the suppliants respond:... Let loud paeans rend the skies;
Great Minerva Pow'r divine!
Praise! exalted praise be thine.
The Development of Musical Theater. As far as theatrical performances for the
public were concerned, the struggle for their maintenance and survival in the
eighteenth century confirms the strong religious puritanism of early America.
For many years anti-theater laws in Boston (1750) and Philadelphia (1778) were
inhibiting, but it was impossible to suppress the need and desire of those who
would promote and attend the theater. By the end of the century, such laws were
either repealed or safely ignored and a vigorous theatrical life in America be-
gan to flourish.
Music was an integral part of the theater of the eighteenth century since
much of the repertoire for the early companies included the English type of
ballad-opera (i.e., plays interspersed with music) that was usually compiled from
miscellaneous sources. Then at the end of the century came a piece that fore-
shadowed important developments in American musical theater; as Sonneck
perceptively observed: "In 1797 a form of entertainment was introduced in New
York for which I believe the Americans to be peculiarly gifted: the melodrama."^17
This portentous form of entertainment was, significantly enough, initiated by a
work with a classical theme: Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, in the Isle ofNaxos, in
one act, its text of unknown authorship; its advertisement claimed, "Between
the different passages by the actors, will be Full Orchestral Music, expressive of
each situation and passion. The music composed and managed by Pelissier." It
is not an unlikely conjecture that some songs may have been included along
with the background music. The composer, Victor Pelissier, a French musician,
first appeared in Philadelphia in 1792; he became associated with the Old Amer-
ican Company, for which he arranged and adapted foreign ballad-operas and
composed original scores.
In the development of the American musical over the years, two on mytho-
logical themes may be singled out. Adonis (1884), by Edward Everett Rice (1848-
1924), was a "burlesque-extravaganza" based vaguely on the theme of Pyg-
malion and Galatea. With 603 performances, it had the longest run in Broadway
history up to that time.^18 Up and Down Broadway (1910), a musical revue by Jean
Schwartz, had Apollo and the other gods arrive in New York determined to re-
form taste in the theater, but they finally come to the conclusion that they do
not know as much about good entertainment as Broadway does. With them is
Momus. The song, "Chinatown, My Chinatown," originated in this show; the