Ballad Opera - The 19th Century

The 19th Century

English nineteenth century opera is very heavily drawn from the "pastoral" form of the ballad opera, and traces even of the satiric kind can be found in the work of "serious" practitioners such as John Barnett. Much of the satiric spirit (albeit in a greatly refined form) of the original ballad opera can be found in Gilbert's contribution to the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, and the more pastoral form of ballad opera is imitated, or at least emulated, in one of Gilbert and Sullivan's early works, The Sorcerer.