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When audiences spill out of Broadway theaters, singing snatches of songs from 贬补尘颈濒迟辞苍听and other popular shows, they鈥檙e hearkening back to the 18th century. The 1762 English comic opera Love in a Village聽introduced theater-goers to many conventions of modern musicals.

鈥淚t was a major step toward what we think of as musical theater: songs in an accessible language, some of which can be sung apart from the production by untrained singers, and a show that partakes of a vernacular musical tradition,鈥� says Katherine Mannheimer, an associate professor of English who specializes in 18th-century British literature.

Wildly popular from the time of its premiere,听Love in a Village聽is a comedy of manners, telling the story of Rosetta and Thomas, who fall in love when鈥攂oth fleeing marriages planned by their fathers鈥攖hey disguise themselves as servants. It was performed in cities around the globe until the mid-19th century, when audiences鈥� taste for the genre waned and Love in a Village聽fell off the cultural map. But the opera will be revived on October 12 in Rochester, for a historic first performance since the 18th century of the full production with its original score.

鈥淚t will be completely new for every single audience member鈥攁nd as old as the hills,鈥� says director Todd Gilman.

A collaboration between Irish playwright Isaac Bickerstaff and composer Thomas Arne鈥攖he most renowned English-born composer of the 18th century and the man who wrote the rousing melody for 鈥淩ule, Britannia,鈥� though his name is rarely connected with it now鈥�Love in a Village聽was second only to John Gay鈥檚 Beggar鈥檚 Opera聽as the most performed 鈥渕ainpiece鈥� on the London stage.

Comic opera was a kind of retort to high-culture operas, which were lavishly mounted, vocally athletic, expensive to attend, and devoted to stories of mythic heroes and royalty. 鈥淐omic opera, in contrast, was about everyday people in everyday situations,鈥� says Mannheimer, and it mirrored themes that middle-class readers were exploring in novels, a genre that was emerging in the same period.

Like so many more familiar musicals, Love in a Village is a 鈥渃omedy play, a happy ending, and every two minutes or so, there鈥檚 a song,鈥� says Gilman. 鈥淔orty-two songs, from ballads to fully composed opera arias.鈥� It was聽England鈥檚 first pastiche opera, melding music of different genres into one production.聽“Almost half the songs were adapted from earlier works by Arne for the fashionable pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh,鈥� Gilman says. Arne wrote five original songs and included works by Italian composers and others. It was rumored at the time that King George III himself had contributed a song鈥攊f he did, it鈥檚 still unknown which song it is.

Now an English literature librarian at Yale and a leading authority on Arne, Gilman picked up the scent of the show in the 1990s, when he was a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, researching the development of English opera. Everywhere he looked, he saw references to Arne鈥檚 importance, but Arne has been forever overshadowed by baroque musical giant George Frideric Handel, who spent much of his life in England and presided over its musical scene.

When Handel died in 1759, Arne suddenly moved into the spotlight, commanding attention with the very popular comic-dramatic afterpiece Thomas and Sally (1760)鈥�also a collaboration with Bickerstaff鈥�and the opera 础谤迟补虫别谤虫别蝉听(1762). When it opened later that year, Love in a Village聽was the mainpiece performed onstage at Covent Garden鈥�with Drury Lane, playhouses for the middle classes rather than Italian opera鈥�for 40 nights, a record surpassed only by The Beggar鈥檚 Opera聽35 years before.

Fires swept through London鈥檚 theaters in the 19th century, and most musical theater scores from the period haven鈥檛 survived. But composer Samuel Arnold, Arne鈥檚 contemporary, kept the original manuscript of Love in a Village聽in his personal library, and his collection eventually made its way to the Royal College of Music鈥檚 library. Gilman stumbled across a reference to the manuscript鈥檚 existence when he was doing dissertation research.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just not listed in the usual places,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to miss.鈥�

Gilman and friends quickly procured a copy, staging a stripped-down production in Toronto in 1993. Their student budget couldn鈥檛 take full advantage of the score they now had. The 1763 keyboard and vocal score that was widely used in the opera鈥檚 heyday gave no indication of the other instruments originally involved.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very rich orchestral score,鈥� Gilman says, with parts for two French horns, two bassoons, two flutes, two oboes, and a full complement of strings. 鈥淚 decided that it would be my mission to get this right, if no one else did it.鈥� And to Gilman鈥檚 amazement鈥攅specially after the publication in New Zealand of a scholarly, edited edition of the full score in 2011鈥攏o one ever did.

The Rochester performance鈥斺�攚ill be the first post-18th-century performance of the opera with its full score. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to make it as historically informed as possible,鈥� Mannheimer says. Stage sets will be painted flat surfaces, as they would have been in 18th-century productions; period instruments will provide the music; and between acts, the group Rochester Baroque Dancers will perform dances from the period.

The production is offered in connection with the annual meeting (October 11 to 14) of the Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, a regional interdisciplinary association for the study of the history, literature, arts, and culture of the period. Panels and discussions at the conference, to be held on the Rochester campus, will augment the performance.

In its day, Love in a Village聽was performed more often than Shakespeare鈥檚 tragedies and held the interest of audiences for longer than any of its comedy rivals from the period. 鈥淥ne of the things I鈥檓 interested to see is to try to gain a better understanding of why that would have been, what about it would have made it such a runaway hit鈥攁nd to see whether those elements continue to appeal to us today or whether it鈥檚 a window into a different set of tastes,鈥� says Mannheimer.