The Augustan Parody
Henry Carey wrote the libretto to a burlesque opera called The Dragon of Wantley in 1737. The opera, with music composed by John Frederick Lampe, punctured the vacuous operatic conventions and pointed a satirical barb at Robert Walpole and his taxation policies. The opera was a huge success and its initial run was 69 performances in the first season; a number which exceeded even The Beggar's Opera. The opera debuted at the Haymarket Theatre, where its coded attack on Walpole would have been clear, but its long run occurred after it moved to Covent Garden, which had a much greater capacity for staging. Part of its satire of opera was that it had all of the words sung, including the recitatives and da capo arias. The play itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments. The Musical Entertainer from 1739 contains engravings showing how the staging was performed *
The piece is at once a satire of the ridiculousness of operatic staging and an indirect satire of the government's tax policy. In Carey's play, More of More Hall is a drunk who pauses to deal with the dragon only between bouts of drinking and carousing with women. A young country woman offers herself as a human sacrifice to More to persuade him to take on the cause of battling the dragon, and she is opposed by a former lover of More's who has interest in him now that a rival has appeared.
The battle with the dragon takes place entirely offstage, and More only wounds the dragon (who is more reasonable than More in his dialogue) in its anus. The main action concerns the lavish dances and songs by the two sopranos and More.
The opera is now rarely performed. A fully staged production is planned by the West London amateur group, Isleworth Baroque, in late October 2012.
Read more about this topic: Dragon Of Wantley
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