Art and Literature Question What are some art forms? Drama ■ Middle Ages: based on stories from the Christian religion ■ Early 15th Century: “morality plays” – characters called Knowledge, God, Death, Beauty, etc ■ Late 15th Century: non-religious plays began to develop Drama ■ Elizabeth I (queen 1550 - 1603): “The golden age of English drama” – plays were very popular ■ They are much less popular now ■ Until 19th Century, drama was almost all written in verse ■ Now, almost none is verse Question What language are the most famous Western operas written in? Answer: Italian Opera (Carmen) Opera ■ Music, singing, acting, dancing – classical music ■ Popular in Europe and America during 18th and 19th centuries Musical theatre ■ Similar to opera, but using “popular” styles of music (rather than classical) – eg The Sound of Music, Cats ■ Reached their peak in 1940s, 1950s ■ Later, many movies were made in this style ■ Even today, these areas are famous for musical theatre: – West End (London), Broadway (New York) Novels ■ First successful novel published in England in 1719 – Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe) ■ Some genres (types) of novel: – romance – western (historical American frontier) – mysteries (also called whodunits) – fantasy (set in different worlds, with dragons, swords, heros, etc) Question What recent, popular film was based on a fantasy novel? Fantasy Novels ■ Lord of the Rings was one of the first fantasy novels – published 1954