English Opera Research Articles

The Rise of English Opera

The Rise of English Opera

Foreign Opera in English

Foreign Opera in English

The Rise of English Opera

The Rise of English Opera

The Rise of English Opera

The Rise of English Opera

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Journal Article REVIEWS OF BOOKS Get access The Rise of English Opera. By Eric Walter White pp. 335. (London: John Lehmann, 1951. 21s.) W. D. W. D. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume XXXII, Issue 4, October 1951, Pages 373–377, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/XXXII.4.373 Published: 01 October 1951

Correction

In the last issue of TEMPO it was stated incorrectly that The Rise of English Opera, by Eric Walter White, was published by John Lehmann Ltd. at the price of 12s. od. The correct price is 21s. od.

Arthur Benjamin's Operas

Ever since the seventeenth century composers of English operas have been handicapped by the snob-preference for foreign works irrespective of their merits. In Purcell's day a second-rate French composer, whose past is still shrouded in Continental mystery, was so boosted in London even by Dryden that it was only through an open-air performance by Mr. Priest's school-girls at Chelsea that Dido and Aeneas convinced both London theatre managers and eventually Dryden himself that Purcell was “equal with the best abroad.” In this century, when the usual opera favourites were established, it has been even more difficult for English opera-composers to get a showing (at one time it had not been unheard of for English operas to be translated into Italian or German for production in this country): but twenty-five years ago the Royal College of Music followed the example of Mr. Priest by producing for the first time Vaughan Williams' Hugh the Drover, which was afterwards given publicly by the British National Opera Company, and in 1931 under the auspices of the Ernest Palmer Opera Fund, introduced The Devil Take Her, the first opera by the Australian composer Arthur Benjamin. The enthusiasm of the singers, headed by Sarah Fischer and Trefor Jones, the cunning skill of the conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham and the practical knowledge of the producer, John B. Gordon, who had had so much experience at Cologne and who was at the time doing such good work for opera at the Old Vic, all combined to make the performance outstanding.

Opera in London

During the three months, September ist to December ist, London has had the opportunity of seeing twenty-three different operas, given by five organisations—Sadlers Wells, the resident Co vent Garden Company, the New London Opera Company, the Vienna State Opera, and the English Opera Group. These twenty-three works have been made up as follows; four by Puccini: three each by Mozart and Britten: two by Verdi and Richard Strauss: and one each by Beethoven, Rossini, Donizetti, Smetana, Gounod, Bizet, Rimsky-Korsakov, Leoncavallo and Mascagni; that is to say, three written in the eighteenth century, twelve in the nineteenth, and eight in the twentieth. There is a certain amount of inevitable duplication amongst the five organisations concerned, and the considerable variation in production and performance is probably best seen by looking at the repertory of each company separately.

Peter Grimes and Albert Herring

The first-night audience for Peter Grimes at La Scala, Milan, was not unprepared for Benjamin Britten's opera. Fragments had been performed at the Venice International Festival last September, to be followed by two complete radio performances from Rome under Fernando Previtali. Yet on March nth, as the curtain rose—the rebuilt auditorium victoriously obliterating memories of bomb-havoc in a symphony of white and gold—one sensed an atmosphere of keen curiosity concerning this rare phenomenon, an English opera.

Opera at Covent Garden

During the first season of opera in English at Covent Garden since the war, six works have been produced. Opera has alternated with ballet in the repertory, and the theatre has been open for a longer consecutive period of time than ever before in its history. Thus the initial stage in the immensely ambitious plan with which the Covent Garden Opera Trust is charged, has been accomplished. Properly to evaluate the worth of what has been done so far, it is important to look at it in relation to what is ultimately intended. This, it will be remembered, is the establishment of opera in England on a secure and lasting basis; not as an exotic luxury, imported from time to time for the benefit of a fortunate minority; but as a normal amenity of civilized life, a school in which all who wish to do so may learn discrimination. To say that there was no tradition of opera in this country would be an exaggeration. But the tradition is a very weak one, and from this aspect the Trust had few initial assets other than a glorious opera house, the living recollection of some great performances, and the knowledge that people in England were hungry for music.

THE OPERATIC CRITICISM OF THE TATLER AND SPECTATOR

PERATIC ESTHETICS and criticism, natural intellectual phenomena Italy, the native country of opera, appear as controversial subjects all other countries. As Italian opera conquered Europe it engendered opposition at times mounting to heated denunciation. Among the hostile nations, Britain and France were the most vocal-and least understanding; addicted to reason and logic, obviously difficult to apply to music, and boasting a highly developed spoken drama, they could not but refuse recognition to this foreign intruder. While France succeeded producing both a counterpart to Italian opera and a national variant, English opera never ventured beyond one superb episode-Henry Purcell. There are weighty reasons for this attitude, the inception of which is well demonstrated i 8th-century English discussions of opera. The operatic criticism of the Tatler and Spectator is almost as much a problem political thought as it is literature and musicology. Like the literary and dramatic criticism of the papers, it does not present much that is new doctrine, but rather crystallizes a set of judgments current among the great wits of Queen Anne's day. There is, however, a striking difference the case of operatic criticism. Steele and Addison, like many other I8thcentury men of letters, had only a slight feeling for music. Despite Addison's having written the libretto for Rosamond, he admits that he speaks of musical matters as an amateur. Since the Palace of Music has been burnt down, he says Spectator No. i8, anyone, even such a man as himself, is at liberty to offer plans for its rebuilding in a problematical Manner, to be considered by those who are Masters the Art.' But this humility of the unskilled does not inhibit Addison from generous condemnation of the opera. For to the authors of the Spectator papers opera was not, like the drama, a thing to be analyzed and discussed according to a well-known, recognized tradition, but rather a popular institu-

Covent Garden—A New Venture

The news that Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd. had acquired the lease of Govent Garden doubtless caused some surprise in musical circles; and those who asked (a little contemptuously, perhaps) what experience the firm possessed of running opera, were quite justified in so doing. The answer to that question is—to speak quite frankly—“All too little.” But since the firm has no intention of attempting to run the Opera House by its own unaided efforts and, on the contrary, is anxious to secure the collaboration of those with the requisite experience of operatic policy, management and production, the anxiety rightly felt on this account will I hope, be somewhat alleviated. It is well understood that the foundation of a permanent English Opera of the highest standard is a matter of paramount concern to every genuine music-lover in this country; and the project will be approached with the seriousness and determination which it demands.

The Translation of Operas

There are some people who maintain that all translation of vocal music into other languages is barbarous, and that no opera ought ever to be performed except in the language to which it was written. This position is a perfectly logical one, and I can sympathise very cordially with it in theory; I would certainly say that for the detailed study and criticism of any opera a knowledge of it in the original language is indispensable. But for practical purposes translation is a necessity, if opera is to receive any popular encouragement. In France, Germany and Italy, as well as in other countries such as Holland, Sweden, Poland and Hungary, where the native language is not one that is commonly learned by foreigners, opera is regularly performed in the language of the people; it is therefore only commonsense that opera in England should be performed in English, at any rate in those theatres where opera is performed regularly throughout the season. I shall therefore assume that I need waste no more words this afternoon in defending the principle of opera in English. I must however, make it quite clear to you that my paper deals solely with the translation of operas, and that it will not treat at all of the translations of any other kind of vocal music. It is necessary for me to mention this, because the conditions of opera require methods of translation which would often be quite inappropriate, or even utterly inadmissible, in such forms as oratorios and single songs. In these branches of music I have little experience as regards translation, and I do not intend to discuss them at all.

Opera in English - [I

Opera in English - [I

Early English Opera

Early English Opera

Stages in the History of Opera: II. Early English Opera

Stages in the History of Opera: II. Early English Opera

'Foundations of English Opera'

'Foundations of English Opera'

Foundations of English Opera. A Study of Musical Drama in England during the Seventeenth Century

Foundations of English Opera. A Study of Musical Drama in England during the Seventeenth Century

Foundations of English Opera

Foundations of English Opera

English Opera

The most ardent patriot could hardly contend that the history of English Opera has been a glorious record; but the most captious critic must admit that that record has at least been intensely English. It has been a continuous—no, a very discontinuous—record of amateurishness and “muddling through somehow,” and it is well known that these are the characteristics of our English attitude to life in general. Our national temperament does not incline us to be positively proud of them, but we are certainly well contented with them, and there seems every probability that we shall continue for the rest of our national existence to take them for granted as our instinctive guiding principles, if indeed we are ever conscious of proceeding on principles at all.