Difference between revisions of "The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphos'd"

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''[[The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphos'd]]'' is an English ballad opera[http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/balladoperas/what.php] by Charles Coffey (?-1745 )[
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coffey].
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(Also written ''[[The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphosed]]'' in some editions, and often simply referred to as ''[[The Devil to Pay]]'')
 
(Also written ''[[The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphosed]]'' in some editions, and often simply referred to as ''[[The Devil to Pay]]'')
  
An English ballad opera[http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/balladoperas/what.php] by Charles Coffey (?-1745 ).
 
  
==The text ==
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==The original text ==
  
 
The first, three act version of this work was written by Charles Coffey (?-1745 ), aided by John Mottley (1692-1750) and was based on Thomas Jevon's farce ''[[The Devil of a Wife, or, A Comical Transformation]]''  (1686).  Apparently Coffey and Mottley were each responsible for half of the three acts, and it first performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants in  1731.  
 
The first, three act version of this work was written by Charles Coffey (?-1745 ), aided by John Mottley (1692-1750) and was based on Thomas Jevon's farce ''[[The Devil of a Wife, or, A Comical Transformation]]''  (1686).  Apparently Coffey and Mottley were each responsible for half of the three acts, and it first performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants in  1731.  

Revision as of 05:09, 14 June 2016

The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphos'd is an English ballad opera[1] by Charles Coffey (?-1745 )[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coffey].

(Also written The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphosed in some editions, and often simply referred to as The Devil to Pay)


The original text

The first, three act version of this work was written by Charles Coffey (?-1745 ), aided by John Mottley (1692-1750) and was based on Thomas Jevon's farce The Devil of a Wife, or, A Comical Transformation (1686). Apparently Coffey and Mottley were each responsible for half of the three acts, and it first performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants in 1731.

The original source text

The source of the opera , The Devil of a Wife, or, A Comical Transformation, by Thomas Jevon (1652–1688) , was in its turn based on a plot borrowed from a Philip Sidney story. First performed in 1686 at Dorset Garden, after which various versions , with added music, were performed in later years, including the Coffey and Mottley version of 1731.

Translations and adaptations of the Coffey work

In 1731 the libretto was apparently printed in a two act version, and in 1732 the libretto of a much shorter and more well-received one-act version of the Coffey libretto, edited by Theophilus Cibber, appeared in print. Initially called a "ballad opera", or simply "an opera", it was referred to as "a ballad farce" in later editions of the 19th century, usually only crediting Coffey as the author.

The shorter version became the most successful ballad opera of the 18th century after The Beggar's Opera.

Translated into German as Der Teufel ist Los, oder Die Verwandelten Weiber and performed in Berlin, 24 January 1743, it strongly influenced the development of the German Singspiel.

Performance history in South Africa

1802: Performed in Cape Town's African Theatre on 28 June 1802, in celebration of the King's birthday. It was performed alongside The Little Hunchback, or A Frolic in Bagdad (O'Keeffe), The Interlude of the Magic Zone and The Cunning Wife, or The Lover in the Sack (Petersen). It is most probably the Cibber one-act version they used in this full programme.

1818: Performed in the African Theatre on 24 January by three visiting professional performers from Liverpool - a Mr Cooke, Mrs Cooke, Mrs Brough and Miss Williams, assisted by the Gentlemen Amateurs. The afterpiece to The Honey Moon (Tobin).

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jevon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coffey

http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/balladoperas/what.php

Facsimile of the 1732 one act edition, Internet Archive[2]

Facsimile of the 1748 one act edition, Internet Archive[ https://archive.org/details/deviltopayorwive1748coff]

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2/

Facsimile version of the 1831 edition, Google eBook[3]

Google Books[4]

John Hopkins library catalogue[5]

The Library Company of Philadelphia[6]

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: pp. pp 68-9, 151,


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