''The Padlock'' is a two-act '

afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

Charles Dibdin Charles Dibdin (before 4 March 1745 – 25 July 1814) was an English composer, musician, dramatist, novelist, singer and actor. With over 600 songs to his name, for many of which he wrote both the lyrics and the music and performed them himself, ...

. The text was by

Isaac Bickerstaffe Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff (26 September 1733 – after 1808) was an Irish playwright and Librettist. Early life Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government posi ...

. It debuted in 1768 at the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drur ...

in London as a companion piece to '' The Earl of Warwick''. It partnered other plays before a run of six performances in tandem with ''

The Fatal Discovery ''The Fatal Discovery'' is a 1769 tragedy by the British writer John Home. The original cast included Spranger Barry as Ronan, Samuel Reddish as Orellan, Francis Aickin as Connan, John Palmer as Durstan, Thomas Jefferson as Kathul, James Ai ...

'' by John Home. "The Padlock" was a success, largely due to Dibdin's portrayal of Mungo, a

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

of a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

servant from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. The company took the production to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

the next year, where a portrayal by Lewis Hallam, Jr. as Mungo met with even greater accolades. The

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

was first published in London around 1768 and in Dublin in 1775. The play remained in regular circulation in the U.S. as late as 1843. It was revived by the Old Vic Company in London and on tour in the UK in 1979 in a new orchestration by Don Fraser and played in a double-bill with Garrick's ''Miss In Her Teens''. The role of Mungo was, again, played by a white actor. Opera Theatre of Chicago have recently revived the piece (2007?) where, it would seem, the role of Mungo was changed to that of an Irish servant.

Story and music

Bickerstaffe's

, based on

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

' ''

El celoso extremeño The short story "El Celoso extremeño" ("The Jealous Extremaduran") is one of twelve short stories published by Miguel de Cervantes in 1613 under the title '' Novelas Ejemplares''. Plot Filipo de Carrizales, a former soldier, who after much fina ...

'' (a work translated into English as ''The Jealous Husband''; the title literally means "the jealous

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

n"), consists of normal dialogue with a few interludes of song. It tells the story of an old

miser A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who ...

who keeps his fiancée behind the closed door of their home for fear that she will not be faithful to him (in Cervantes's version, the woman is his wife). The opera's title comes from the large

padlock Padlocks are portable locks with a shackle that may be passed through an opening (such as a chain link, or hasp staple) to prevent use, theft, vandalism or harm. Naming and etymology The term ''padlock'' is from the late fifteenth century. T ...

that the old man keeps on the cottage's door. In contrast to Cervantes's miser-centred story, ''The Padlock'' is centred on the old man's

servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

, a black man named Mungo from the

, who also provides a large part of the comedy. The part was played by a white man in

, making ''The Padlock'' an early example of this practice, but not ''the'' earliest as claimed by some sources. Mungo is a

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

: a musical, heavy drinking, money-grubbing servant who speaks in an approximation of the black dialect of West Indies slaves. Mungo's master beats him with a rattan cane and makes him sing and dance on cue. The servant's pretense at being an opera singer constitutes the

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

for Act 2. He is normally obsequious to whites, but in moments of drunkenness or solitude, he becomes impudent: :Dear heart, what a terrible life am I led! :A dog has a better, that's shelter'd and fed; ::Night and day, 'tis de same, ::My pain is dere game: :Me wish to de Lord me was dead. ::Whate'ers to be done, ::Poor blacky must run; ::Mungo here, Mungo dere, ::Mungo every where; ::Above and below, ::Sirrah, come; sirrah, go; ::Do so, and do so. ::Oh! oh! :Me wish to de Lord me was dead.Bickerstaffe, Isaac (1825). ''The Padlock: A Comic Opera in Two Acts''. New York: Charles Willey, p. 15. Quoted in Cockrell 20. An actor named John Moody, who was supposed to have been familiar with the dialect of the blacks in the West Indies, was originally scheduled to play the part. However, in the end, Dibdin stood in for him. Audience reactions to Dibdin's performance were overwhelmingly positive, and in 1787, he spun his fame as Mungo into a

one-man show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...

wherein he sang, gave speeches, and did impressions of black people. Ira Aldridge, one of the most famous actor of the nineteen century and the first

Black American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

actor to play Othello on a British scene played the role of Mungo in a later production of the opera. During all his career, Ira Aldridge was an important advocate of the anti-slavery movement. Therefore, to sensitize the public to inhumanity and abjectness of enslavement, Aldridge has transformed the play. His portrayal of Mungo was totally different from the original play. He gave a more serious interpretation of this character. Aldridge added a new song to the operetta. At the end of the night addressed directly to the audience on a variety of social issues which affected the United States, Europe, and Africa. In particular, Aldridge spoke on his pro-abolitionist sentiments to his audience, which received such impassioned oration positively. Mungo was, with Othello, one of the two favorite roles of Aldridge and was one of Aldridge‘s most lauded roles by the public and the critiques. Aldridge tried to play both ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' (as the title character) and ''The Padlock'' on the same night to make the audience both think and laugh, show his acting talent and generate good publicity. Dibdin's music shows heavy influence from

Italian opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous ...

tic traditions.Nathan 22. In fact, one Italian composer, today unknown, accused Dibdin of stealing material from him. Dibdin thus used the preface of the published version of ''The Padlock'' to refute the claims. Although touted as a genuine depiction of a black character, Mungo's singing parts show no influence from African musical traditions. There is an in-depth analysis of ''The Padlock''; Mungo's character, speech, and dress; and the opera's popularity in the North American British colonies and the new United States in Monica L. Miller's ''Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity'' in her chapter "Mungo Macaroni," pp. 27-76 (bibliographic information in References below).

Notes

References

*Cockrell, Dale (1997). ''Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. *Lindfors, Bernth (Summer 1999).
'Mislike me not for my complexion…': Ira Aldridge in whiteface
. ''African American Review''. Accessed 10 November 2005. *Mahar, William J. (1999). ''Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy in Antebellum American Culture''. Chicago:

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic project ...

. *Miller, Monica L. (2009). ''Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity''. Durham:

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...

. *Nathan, Hans (1962). ''Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy''. Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established i ...

. *Scheytt, Jochen
"The Minstrel Show"
Accessed 10 November 2005. *Sussman, Charlotte (24 August 2000)

of Kitson, Peter and Lee, Debbie, eds. ''Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Writings in the British Romantic Period''. Accessed 10 November 2005.

External links

* * 178

from the ''Gentleman's Magazine''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Padlock, The Blackface minstrel shows and films Operas by Charles Dibdin Plays by Isaac Bickerstaffe English comic operas 1768 operas Operas