Studying the economic/commercial, aesthetic, entertainment value and socio-political factors present in musicals allows for a well-rounded analysis of the musicals and the many roles they fulfill at Stratford. Musicals should also be assessed aesthetically, and that allows for the values-the tastes-of the critics to be heard. Assessing the entertainment value of musicals means analyzing and valuing the pleasures that audience members derive from theatre that entertains them, even when its aesthetic value might be questionable. I contend that their role cannot be fully understood by examining their economic value alone, but must be understood by analyzing their aesthetic value and entertainment value.
I unpack the history of the way musicals have been trivialized as middlebrow entertainment within theatre communities and academia. I problematize the role of musicals at Stratford, arguing that reducing the value of musicals to economic value alone is rooted in a historical construction of highbrow/lowbrow taste hierarchies that align musicals to bourgeois aesthetics and commercial theatre. The economic value of musicals is undoubtedly important, and I examine it in detail, but it is only one facet of their purpose at Stratford. Theatre critics commonly view musicals as money makers for the Festival to finance its real goal of producing Shakespeare and the classics. I also give a more nuanced reading of the place of musicals at the Stratford Festival in analyzing the physical places where they are produced, and how they are valued within the company.
I trace the history of music theatre at the Festival, including opera and operetta, and argue that the Festival’s commitment to music in its early history led to the organic inclusion of musicals in its seasons. This dissertation explores the place of musicals at the Stratford Festival of Canada-with specific attention focused on the function, and the value of an American art form in a classical theatre company devoted to the works of Shakespeare. This survey includes a brief introduction, review of literature, the ways in which the horn was utilized in early America, the individuals and businesses that made or sold horns and horn-related accoutrements such as music, tutors, crooks, and mouthpieces as well as an examination of the body of repertoire gleaned from performances of hornists in early America. Additionally, all information gathered through examination of sources has been compiled in tables and included in the appendices with the intention of providing a point of reference for others interested in the horn in early America. This time frame also paralleled the popularity of the horn virtuoso in Europe given so much attention by horn scholars. This choice of time period avoided the massive influx of foreign musicians and exponential growth of American musical activities after 1840, as well as that of the general population, as this information would become too unwieldy for anything but studies of individual cities, regions, or specific musical groups. 1700) to the early days of the antebellum era (ca. The purpose of this study was to address an aspect of the history of the horn neglected in traditional horn scholarship-that of the horn in America from the development of colonial society (ca.
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