What is burlesque?

Burlesque is literary, dramatic, or musical paintings that are supposed to cause laughter by caricaturing the image or spirit of significant works or using an absurd interpretation of their themes. The word comes from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, comes from the Italian burla – a story about a shaggy dog, a mockery or mockery.

Burlesque intersects in meaning with caricature, parody, and parody, and in a theatrical sense - with extravaganza, as it was proposed throughout Victorian technology. "Burlesque" was used in English in this literary and theatrical sense for the reason that in the seventeenth century. It was implemented retrospectively in relation to the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, as well as to the Greco-Roman classics. Contrasting examples of literary burlesque are The Rape of the Castle by Alexander Pope and Hudibras by Samuel Butler. An example of musical burlesque is Richard Strauss's 1890 Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra. Examples of theatrical burlesques are "Robert the Devil" by W. S. Gilbert and the shows of A.S. Torr-Meyer Lutz, such as "Ruy Blas" and "Jaded Rue".

The later use of this time period, mainly in the United States, refers to performances in an extended display format. They were famous from the 1860s to the forties of the nineteenth century, often performed in cabarets and golf courses, as well as in theaters, and showed obscene comedies and girlish striptease. Some Hollywood films tried to recreate the spirit of these performances from the 1930s to the sixties, or captured burlesque-style scenes in dramatic films, including the 1972 cabaret and in 1979, among other things, in all this jazz. In this format, there was a revival of the hobby, because in the nineties of the nineteenth century.

Literary origins and development

This phrase first appears in the title of Francesco Berni's opera Burlesque of the early 16th century, works that were widely distributed in manuscripts before they were published. For a while, burlesque poems were called "poetry of Bernesque" in his honor. "Burlesque" as a literary period of time became significant in Italy and France of the 17th century, and eventually in England, where it represented an ugly imitation of the worthy or pitiful. Shakespeare's Pyram and the scene of Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the general mockery of romance in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Flaming Pestle were early examples of such imitation.

In 17th-century Spain, the playwright and poet Miguel de Cervantes ridiculed medieval romance in his numerous satirical works. Among the works of Cervantes are Exemplary Novels, Eight Comedies, and Eight New Interludes, published in 1615. The term "burlesque" was applied retrospectively to the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, as well as to the Greco-Roman classics.

Burlesque was intentionally funny in the sense that it imitated several models and mixed imitations of certain authors and artists with absurd descriptions. At this time, the time period began to be often used interchangeably with "parody", "parody" and the "parody-heroic" style of the 17th and 18th centuries. Burlesque trusted the reader's (or listener's) information about the problem to exert the intended influence, and an excessive degree of literacy began to be perceived as a right.

burlesque of the 17th and 18th centuries became divided into two types: High burlesque refers to the imitation of burlesque, in which the literary, extended way becomes an ordinary or comically irrelevant challenge, as, for example, in literary parody and parody-heroic. One of the most commonly noted examples of high burlesque is Alexander Pope's "sly, knowledgeable and courteous" The Rape of the Castle. Low burlesque carried an irreverent, mocking fashion to serious concern; An example is Samuel Butler's poem "Hudibras", which describes the misadventures of a Puritan knight in satirical verse, using a colloquial idiom. Butler's addition of an ethical subtext to his comedy poem turned his cartoons into satire.

Victorian theatrical burlesque

Victorian burlesque, occasionally known as "parody" or "extravaganza", was popular in London theaters between the 1830s and the eighteen-nineties. This took the form of a musical theatrical parody, in which a well-known opera, play or ballet turned into an adapted straight into a broad comedy play, usually, a musical play, often risky in fashion, ridiculing theatrical and musical conventions and varieties of authentic work, as well as quoting or inserting a text or song from original paintings. Comedy often stemmed from the incongruity and absurdity of classical plots, with practical historical clothing and setting juxtaposed with contemporary activities portrayed with the help of actors. Madame Vestris staged burlesques at the Olympic Theater, starting in 1831, with Olympic revels, using J. R. Planchet. Other burlesque authors defended H.J. Byron, G. R. Sims, F. K. Bernand, W. S. Gilbert, and Fred Leslie.

Victorian burlesque, associated with traditional English pantomime and being its component, "with the addition of jokes and "twists"". In early burlesques, following the example of ballad opera, the lyrics were written to a famous song; later burlesques mixed the track of opera, operetta, singing hall and revue, and some of the more ambitious proposals composed a unique track for them. This English burlesque style was successfully transferred to New York in the 1840s.

One of the most common themes for burlesque was Shakespeare's performances and the Grand Opera. The message was usually written in rhyming couplets, liberally interspersed with terrible puns. A common example from Macbeth's burlesque: Macbeth and Banquo enter under an umbrella, and the witches greet them with "Hello! Greetings! Greetings!" Macbeth asks Banquo, "What do these greetings mean, noble thane?" and they advise him: "These showers of "Hail" count on your "rule"." The main element of burlesque turned into a show of attractive women in parody roles, dressed in tights to show their legs, but the plays themselves were rarely anything more than modestly risky.

Burlesque became a specialty of positive London theaters, including the Gaiety Theater and the Royal Strand Theater from the 1860s to the early 1890s. Until the 1870s, burlesques often consisted of one-act fragments lasting much less than an hour, using parodies and parodies of famous songs, opera arias and various melodies that the audience could easily recognize. The stars of the house covered Nellie Farren, John D'Auban, Edward Terry, and Fred Leslie. From about 1880, Victorian burlesques became longer and longer, until they turned into an all-night entertainment, preferring part of a double or triple bill.

American burlesque

American burlesque suggests that at first, it was an offshoot of Victorian burlesque. The English genre has been successfully staged in New York since the 1840s, and it became popular thanks to the touring British burlesque troupe Lydia Thompson and The British Blondes, starting in 1868. New York burlesque suggests that the factors and structure of popular minstrel shows were soon incorporated. They consisted of three elements: first, songs and obscene comedy sketches performed by low comedians; 2d, various olio and male numbers, which include acrobats, magicians, and solo singers; and 1/3, refrain numbers and sometimes burlesque in English fashion about politics or a current play. Leisure usually ends with an outstanding dancer or a wrestling or boxing match.

Gypsy Rose Lee

Entertainment was held in golf clubs and cabarets, as well as in concert halls and theaters. By the early 20th century, there were national burlesque shows competing with vaudeville shows, as well as local businesses in New York, including Minsky's in the Winter Garden. The transition from burlesque in vintage lines to striptease was replaced by a slow one. At first, soubrettes confirmed their figures even when they sang and danced; some of them were much less lively but were compensated by playing in elaborate costumes. Strippers steadily displaced singing and dancing soubrettes; By 1932, there were at least 150 striptease executives in the United States. Star strippers defended Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, Tempest Storm, Lily Saint. Sire, Blaze Starr, Ann Corio, and Margie Hart, who turned into famous enough to be celebrated in melodic lyrics through Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter. By the late 1930s in burlesque, it was assumed that up to six strippers would be supported by one or more comics and a master of ceremonies. Comics that seemed burlesque at the beginning of their careers covered Fanny Brice, Mae West, Eddie Cantor, Abbott and Costello, W. K. Fields, Jackie Gleason, Danny Thomas, Al Jolson, Bert Lahr, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, and Sophie Tucker.

Michelle L'Amour, 2005 Miss Exotic World

The relaxed atmosphere of burlesque establishments is largely due to the fact that the loose ones go with the flow of alcoholic beverages, and the observance of Prohibition has become a serious blow. In New York, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia suppressed burlesque, correctly putting it out of business in the early 1940s. He lingered somewhere else in the United States, more and more ignored, and in the seventies of the nineteenth century, when nudity was not unusual in theaters, he reached "his last miserable death." Both at some point in his advanced years and subsequently, there were films that sought to capture American burlesque, along with the Burlesque Lady (1943), Striporama (1953), and the Night they raided Minsky (1968).