... create operas?
Or at least as many as the Italians, Germans and French and Russians? And whilst all those classic non-English operas were dominating the scene, what was happening in England?
It’s rare for English operas to be performed. The full array of English operatic writing over the years is seldom explored. Blame Cromwell? Or the Plague? Or the Great Fire? Or merely the overwhelming fashion for European opera? Or lack of support and patronage from the Royal Family? (*see below)
We’ll ask such questions as we tour the operas that were produced before the twentieth century. There’s an excellent summary on Opera101 here. And it takes us straight into our new term. Ignoring the debate about what was the first English opera, (and also John Blow, one of the candidates), we start here.
One of Blow’s students, Henry Purcell, would soon create the crowning achievement of the English Baroque operatic movement in Dido and Aeneas, 1689. Purcell then gave up on the fully-sung opera and wrote semi-operas for the rest of his career. The semi-opera, a decidedly British form, harkens back to Davenant’s quasi-musical creations being spoken plays with musical episodes tacked on. The best known today is Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, 1692, a hacked apart version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
From Purcell (1659-1695), we’ll wander to Handel (1685 – 1759) who wasn’t English, but was great at using the English class system. Then to his contemporary John Gay (1685-1732), who used opera to decry the misery of those lower in the same class system. A big timegap to explain before Thomas Arne (1710 –1778) offered a historical opera about another country and legend. Another time leap to Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) who ascended to Shakespeare for his only ‘real’ opera.
That’s our term 2 - and we haven’t even started on Benjamin Britten!
England, their England
We do know a lot about the history of England in these times, and most is pretty grim. You can set the scene with a England, my England, a tragi-comedy account of the England within which Purcell wrote exquisite baroque music. The 1995 film ruthlessly depicts the squalor and corruption of the times, (and being by John Osborne, the script ruthlessly compares with modern English history). It’s all set to a glorious soundtrack of Purcell pieces as played by the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra under John Eliot Gardiner. Listen to the soundtrack here. And for sheer fun, read Tony Palmer’s Insider Account of the making of the film.
Extracts from the film are on YouTube - the first is here. Fourth is here.
Henry Purcell
Not much is known about the historical Purcell, but his music (in great abundance) lasted as one of the great glories of the Restoration. Here’s a short intro to his life – and it summarizes pretty much all that is known about him.
Purcell worked in Westminster for three different kings over twenty-five years in Restoration London, becoming organist of Westminster Abbey. He died at the same age as Mozart – 36 – and is buried in the Abbey.
His only opera – Dido and Aeneas
Quick Links History, composition
Synopsis
Libretto
The Aeneid
Full opera video - a youth performance
Here's a stunning introduction - Stephen Johnson's analysis of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Nicholas Kraemer, harpsichordist and hugely informed interpreter - and a lineup of great soloists and chorus. It's 40 mins long, and every minute packed with insight Click here: BBC analysis of D&A At this time there was no public opera in London, and public concerts were just beginning. Dido and Aeneas was written (1689) for a girl’s school, and later works, including The Fairy-Queen (1692) were music to accompany theatre, musical dramas, and incidental stage music.
We start with the only ‘real’ opera he wrote - Dido and Aeneas – which is commonly labelled as England's oldest opera. The story is from part of the Aeneid by Virgil. It was probably originally designed as a court masque for a small audience, perhaps alluding to the way James II's Catholicism deflected him from his kingly duty (the Jesuits as witches?)
Dido, Queen of Carthage, falls in love with Aeneas, who has landed in Carthage after fleeing from Troy after defeat in the Trojan War. However, some witches who hate Dido remind him that he is fated to go and be the founder of the Roman Empire – so he does. Dido is heartbroken, sings the famous lament (‘When I am laid in earth’) and kills herself. This endin made the opera unusual for the time: in most pre-19th Century opera, the hero or heroine's life may be threatened, but something usually happens to save them right at the end of the opera. However the opera was a huge success, and launched young Purcell’s brief career.
Here’s that famous lament, with Sarah Connolly as Dido. This beautiful aria is a recognised concert piece for sopranos the world over – listen to Jessye Norman and Emma Kirkby give totally different renditions. A favourite for me (left) is Malena Ernman singing the lament.
The Lament is regarded as one of the finest examples of Baroque word painting, ‘the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death.’ Download this discussion of the Lament.
Like all the Baroque composers, he wrote songs - over 100 - (listen here), and music for many settings - the church, the stage, the court, and private entertainment. Best known is his music to accompany Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the lovely Fairy-Queen. (We’ll get there next.) ‘His sensitivity to his texts has been matched by few masters in musical history; when he had worthy poetry to set, he could hardly fail to produce a masterpiece.’ More here.
We will be playing excerpts from a 2012 production by Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie; with a favourable review from The Gramophone, and one critical of everything by Brian Robins.
Looking forward: Purcell’s music was a major influence on Benjamin Britten, whose The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra is based on a theme from Purcell’s Abelazar. Listen here
Postscript
*Royal family? Historically, there are no accounts of the sort of patronage European aristocracy provided opera. The Queen’s cousin reports that Elizabeth and Margaret at 13 and 11 were taken to Wagner’s Ring and ‘found it hysterically funny that someone was singing a sentence as opposed to hurrying-up and saying it…. they got shoved to the back of the Royal Box, because nobody wants to see the fact that they were giggling so much. I have a feeling that was the last of her opera days.’ Years later at the premiere of Opera Australia’s The Eighth Wonder, she remarked that the opera ‘goes on for way too long’
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