Scott Joplin and Opera
Known for his piano rags, Scott Joplin’s ambition to become an opera composer surprised many of his contemporaries. It still surprises music-lovers today. However, examining his life can bring some understanding to the issue. He wanted to be recognized as a serious musical artist, not simply as a writer of ragtime, a form widely disparaged, often with open racist underpinnings. A show he developed in 1899—soon after the publication of his Maple Leaf Rag—demonstrates his interest in musical theater. It was performed in Sedalia at Wood’s Opera House in November 1899, and he continued to develop and perform it in Sedalia and neighboring towns the following year. The title he applied to his show before a Sedalia performance in June 1900 was The Ragtime Song and Dance Quadrille. (For further discussion of this work, see Edward A. Berlin, King of Ragtime, 2nd ed., pp. 87–90.)
Opera, in combining many artistic endeavors into a single theatrical presentation—music, drama, dance, costumes, stage design—was often considered by those in the classical music world as the highest form of musical expression. Richard Wagner’s operas were especially celebrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Joplin was aware of Wagner, as
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