Extravaganza

[2] Professor Carolyn Wiliams writes that playwrights, producers and critics have often muddled the distinction between burlesque and extravaganza, but she describes the genre this way: "Sexy yet free of "offensive vulgarity", silly yet intelligent, raucus yet spectacularly beautiful, extravaganza was a relatively "high" form of burlesque, intended for an urbane adult audience.

[3] 19th-century British dramatist, James Planché, who was known for his extravaganzas, defined the genre as "the whimsical treatment of a poetical subject.

"[4] In 1881, Percy Fitzgerald described the classic transformation scene as follows: First the "gauzes" lift slowly one behind the other – perhaps the most pleasing of all scenic effects – giving glimpses of "the Realms of Bliss", seen behind in a tantalizing fashion.

[Finally], the most glorious paradise of all will open, revealing the pure empyrean itself, and some fair spirit aloft in a cloud among the stars, the apex of all.

Then, all motion ceases; the work is complete; the fumes of crimson, green and blue fire begin to rise at the wings; the music bursts into a crash of exultation; and, possibly to the general disenchantment, a burly man in a black frock steps out from the side and bows awkwardly.