Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 12

himself, possibly even written by him. It was called a pantomimical
ballet (“tragic pantomical [sic] entertainment”), with music from
Gluck’s widely imitated score (1761?). It should be of especial
interest to us here in the United States because, transported over
seas, it played Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wash
ington, Alexandria, and Charleston, South Carolina, from its
December 20,1792 Philadelphia premiere, well on into the 1800s.
New Y ork’s April 3,1865 performance is the last I can document*
It served as America’s introduction to Don Juan. All these
pantomimes and vaudevilles and the like were characterized by the
usual unfixed stage action and dialogue. Acrobatics and humorous
bits were de rigueur, with much burlesqued ad-libbing.
Late in the eighteenth century England devised something
called the burletta (a comic opera, usually entirely sung). Two
well-known practitioners were Thomas J. Dibdin (1776-1847) and
W illiam T. Moncrieff (1794-1859). The former presented the
London stage in 1817 with an opus entitled Don Giovanni; or, A

Spectre on Horseback! a Comic, Heroic, Operatic, Tragic, Panto
mimic, Burletta-Spectacular Extravaganza (which Mandel [399]
claims is the best line in the whole play). M oncrieffs entertain
ment was a cut better. His Giovanni in London, or, The Libertine
Reclaimed! An Operatic Extravaganza in Two Acts (also 1817) was
good enough to warrant reprinting for some twenty-five years. The
London production enjoyed twenty-nine performances in 1820
alone (Mandel 399). It mixed popular farce with equally popular,
singable tunes. Leporello actually marries his master’s Donna
Anna. Giovanni is pardoned - well, more accurately, banished from
hell by the jealous Pluto for kissing the latter’s wife Proserpine. It
is worth noting that in those days, if not now, classical myth could
be considered popular fare. There were, it might be added, other
similar Don Juan burlettas during the same century. Cf. John
Churchill Brennan (?)’s Don Giovanni, Jr.; or, The Shakey Page,
More Funky t [