Ballad opera

The term Ballad Opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment - originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera. This article describes the principal sub-genres. The original ballad opera consists of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short (mostly a single short stanza and refrain) to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story, which involves lower class, often criminal, characters - and typically shows a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period. The first and most popular "ballad opera" in this sense (and the only one still regularly revived to this day) is The Beggar's Opera of 1728, with libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch, both of whom probably experienced vaudeville theatre in Paris, and may have been motivated to reproduce it... full article at wikipedia