Le Bal Masqué
Le Bal Masqué ("The masked ball") is a comic opera[1] by Arthur Henry Ward (1883–1959)[2], with music by Henry Vernon.
Sometimes also found as The Bal Masqué
Contents
The original text
According to Allardyce Nicoll (1975), this was first performed at the Parkhurst Theatre on 16 May, 1898 and billed as a "new opera" done by the Battersby Juvenile Opera in Eastbourne on 25 May 1898.
Translations and adaptations
A "side-splitting entertainment" called The Bal Masqué (Sloppy Sam) was apparently well known in Cape Town in the 1860s and is ascribed to Arthur H. Ward by F.C.L. Bosman (1980: p. 260). However this is highly unlikely to be true since Ward was only born in 1883. It must have been earlier, burlesque-style work.
Performance history in South Africa
1867: Performed on 15 June by the 9th Regiment in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town. Part of a Dramatic and Gymnastic Entertainment" which also included a "Gymnastics Display" and as The Rose of Ettrick Vale (Lynch), a "beautiful Scotch National Drama".
Sources
Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. A History of English Drama 1660-1900: Late 19th Century Drama 1850-1900 Cambridge University Press[3]
Eastbourne Gazette East Sussex, England, 25 May 1898[4]
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.260, Go to ESAT Bibliography
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