THE OSCHOLARS
___________
Vol. IV |
No. 10 |
Issue no 43: December 2007
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OSCHOLARS
'MAD,
SCARLET MUSIC'
A monthly page
dedicated to Oscar Wilde and Music, compiled by
Additionally,
we will be looking at some of the other operas of the period, or inspired by
it.
To go to previous pages of Mad, Scarlet Music,
click as appropriate
Note: for the time being only the pages since
February 2007 are posted at www.oscholars.com.
Earlier pages are at www.irishdiaspora.net, but will be
transferred over as time permits. There
is difficulty in accessing these directly, which is why we are transferring
them.
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Before July 2002, ‘Mad, Scarlet Music’ was
incorporated in the Editorial pages of THE
OSCHOLARS.
Click in the Table of Contents for direct access to
the information about each item.
WILDE
NIGHTS AT THE OPERA |
|
1.
The Birthday of the Infanta |
|
2.
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime |
|
BEYOND
THE WILDERNESS |
|
Massenet
/ Werther |
|
RESEARCH |
|
A new section on research into the music of the
period |
A new production is announced for The Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden, 21st February 2008 to 12th March 2008. Booking opened 10th October 2007. It will be sung in
German with English surtitles. We are told (warned? promised? encouraged?) that ’This
opera contains scenes of nudity and violence’.
Salome |
Nadja Michael |
|
Herodias |
Michaela Schuster |
|
Page to Herodias |
Daniela
Sindram |
|
Herod |
Thomas
Moser |
|
Narraboth |
Joseph
Kaiser |
|
Jokanaan |
Michael
Volle |
|
Philippe
Jordan |
Conductor |
|
David
McVicar |
Director |
|
Es
Devlin |
Designs |
|
Wolfgang
Göbbel |
Lighting |
|
Andrew
George |
Choreography |
In our last edition we published some notes on the first Covent Garden production of Salome (8th, 10th, 12th (m), 14th December 1910), with Ackté in the title role, from Charles Reid: Thomas Beecham – An Independent Biography.
For the new 2007/08 season, the Vienna Staatsoper
will continue its Richard Strauss focus, including four performances of Salome on 6th January, 22nd and 24th April, and 23rd May
2008 in a production by Boleslaw Barlog.
Salome |
Camilla
Nylund |
Herodias |
Janina
Baechle/Daniela Denschlag |
Herod |
Michael
Roider/Wolfgang Schmidt |
Jokanaan |
Peter
Weber/Terje Stensvold/Alan Titus |
Stefan
Soltesz |
Conductor |
Boleslaw
Barlog |
Director |
For more detailed information, including a short video extract, see:
Salome
Opernhaus Dortmund Dir. Alexander Schulin Opened 21st September; 5th,
26th October, 24th November, 2nd December 2007; 13th January, 22nd February 2008. |
|
Herod |
Hannes Brock/Jeff
Martin |
Herodias |
Szilvia Rálik |
Salome |
Valérie Suty |
Jochanaan |
Simon Neal |
Narraboth |
Charles
Kim/Thomas Piffka |
Page |
Maria
Hilmes/Franziska Rabl |
Salome
The Florentine Opera Company
Milwaukee
15th, 16th & 17th February
Herodias
|
Joyce Castle |
|
Herod |
Joel Sorensen
|
|
John
the Baptist |
Mark Doss |
|
Salome
(16) |
Kelly Cae Hogan |
|
Salome (15 & 17) |
Erika Sunnegårdh
|
|
Narraboth
|
Eric Johnston |
|
John Hoomes
|
Stage Director |
|
Joseph Rescigno
|
Conductor |
|
Salome
Dallas Opera,
Dallas, Texas
1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th & 9th February 2008
Salome |
Mlada Khudoley |
|
Herod Antipas |
||
Herodias |
||
Jokanaan |
Robert Hayward |
|
Narraboth |
Jonathan Boyd |
|
Page |
Eudora Brown |
|
Graeme Jenkins |
Music Director |
|
|
Los
Angeles Opera
17th, 23rd February;
1st, 8th March 2008
The Dwarf |
Rodrick
Dixon |
The Infanta |
Mary Dunleavy |
Don Estoban |
James
Johnson |
Ghita |
Susan
B Anthony |
James
Conlon |
Conductor |
Darko Tresnjak |
Producer |
Ralph Funicello |
Sets |
Linda Cho |
Costumes |
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime was a short novel written in 1891 at
the height of Wilde’s powers. As a spoof on credulity in the upper classes, and
their attempts to cheat destiny, it involves one murder and two attempted
murders. These horrors are concealed by the patina of wit that suffuses the
story; and the murders (intended and fulfilled), as in detective stories, are
only agents for the development of the plot.
Lord
Arthur Savile's Crime has been adapted for the musical stage a few times, notably as
opera by Giorgio Ferrari, the late Geoffrey Bush and Edwin Carr and as operetta or musical by the
late Chris DeBlasio. Although we find information on the musical works and
their composers, the information on the productions of the adaptations is
scarce.
The Italian composer Giorgio Ferrari (b Genova1925)
is not very well-known. Bibliographical information is difficult to find. The
Swiss Pizzicato Verlag gives some facts (at the moment only in Italian
available).
FERRARI GIORGIO
Nato a Genova nel 1925, è autore di musica sinfonica, da camera e di quattro
opere teatrali. Compiuto a Torino gli studi classici e musicali iniziati a
Genova, si diplomò in Violino ed in Composizione sotto la guida di Riccardo
Bellardi e di Ruggero Maghini; per la direzione d'orchestra fu allievo di Carlo
Zecchi alla Accademia Chigiana di Siena. Iniziò l'attività professionale come
violinista nel 1949: dopo aver ottenuto negli anni '50 e '60 importanti premi
in Concorsi nazionali ed internazionali di composizione (Vercelli 1950 -
Trieste Rassegna nazionale 1954 - Parigi Premio della critica nel 1959 Festival
di Divonne les bains - Firenze ‘Serate musicali fiorentine’ I Premio 1959 -
Ginevra I Premio Maria José 1960 - Liegi I premio Concorso per quartetto
d'archi 1962), si dedicò prevalentemente alla composizione. Fu anche attivo
come direttore d'orchestra, con le orchestre RAI di Milano e di Torino, con le
orchestre della Radio Suisse Romande di Ginevra e di Losanna, con l'orchestra
da camera di Padova, dell'AIDEM di Firenze, dell'Angelicum di Milano, con
l'orchestra sinfonica di Sanremo, con l'Orchestra Accademica di Sofia.
Direttore dell'Istituto Musicale di Sassari dal 1961 al 1966, dal 1966 al 1978
titolare della cattedra di Composizione al Conservatorio ‘G.Verdi’ di Torino,
di cui fu Direttore titolare per 16 anni, dal 1978 al 1994. Accademico
effettivo di S:Cecilia in Roma, è stato insignito, per la sua attività, dal
Capo dello Stato Italiano, del diploma di benemerito della cultura, dell'arte e
della scuola. Accanto all'attività di compositore, direttore d'orchestra e
didatta, ha svolto opera di organizzatore nella vita musicale italiana come
direttore artistico del Teatro Regio di Torino fra il 1968 e il 1970, e
dell'Autunno Musicale Trevigiano a Treviso dal 1975 al 1978. Dal 1987 è direttore
artistico del Premio Paganini -Concorso internazionale di violino a Genova. Per
questa sua attività la Città di Genova gli ha conferito nel 1997 il ‘Grifo
d'oro’. Dall'anno accademico 1994-95 lascia la carica di Direttore titolare del
Conservatorio di Torino. E' Accademico effettivo dell'Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia in Roma. In riconoscimento della sua attività il Capo delo Stato
gli conferisce, con decreto del giugno 1994, il diploma dei Benemeriti della
Scuola, della Cultura e dell'Arte. La sua opera di compositore si muove dalle
esperienze della musica europea del ’900, nel filone del rinnovamento musicale
italiano, affermandosi per uno stile personale, libero da posizioni
conservatrici e tuttavia non legato da pregiudizi di ‘corrente³, interessanto
ai problemi della nuova musica nella ricerca costante di un coerente
rinnovamento del proprio linguaggio. Per tali
caratteristiche autorevoli critici lo hanno indicato fra i più interessanti
compositori ‘indipendenti’ della sua generazione.
Lord Savile (opera in two acts), Giorgio Ferrari’s setting
of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime was
written for Treviso in 1967. There was a production in 1971 in Catania (Sicily)
in the Teatro Massimo Bellini.
Teatro Massimo Bellini
Kenneth Loveland reported about it in: ‘Reports. Catania’ in: The Musical Times, Vol. 112, No. 1542. (Aug., 1971), pp. 779-781: p. 781
Ferrari wrote it for
Treviso in 1967, arranging his own text. It has not yet caught the public
imagination (…).
The
composer wanted to introduce irony and satire into the opera house, and
reckoned that Wilde’s idea was a good starting point. He added his own level of
parody – Gluck was sent up in an aria for Savile, and there was a clumsily
unsuccessful dynamiter as a caricature of Sparafucile. But irony and satire
depend upon total commitment; and the music was often merely lyrical where it
ought to have been cynical, tough where it should have been cruel. The production
wanted a Kind Hearts and Coronets nonchalance; the orchestral writing needed to
be more sharply pointed. Antonello Madau Diaz’s production had some accurately
studied English society characters, and flirted with technical novelty (slides
of The Times headlines flashed on to a drop curtain). But it all needed a more
suave, lighter touch.
Source: www.pizzicato.ch
The English composer Geoffrey Bush (b London, 23 March 1920; d 24 Feb 1998) was the
son of detective/fiction writer Christopher Bush (who used the pseudonym
Michael Home). The younger Bush maintained a lifelong interest in crime fiction
and even collaborated on a story with fellow composer Bruce Montgomery, who
wrote fiction under the name Edmund Crispin.
Geoffrey Bush began
piano studies at age seven; the following year, he became a probationary chorister
at Salisbury Cathedral. He began writing his own music at ten. At the Lancing
College, he studied with a former student of Vaughan Williams and was
introduced to composer John Ireland, who became a lifelong mentor and friend.
Bush was largely self-taught as a
composer.
Bush obtained a
bachelor's degree in music from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1940. After wartime
service caring for children evacuated from London, he re-emerged from Balliol
in 1946 with a doctorate in classics and composition. For 30 years, he was staff tutor in music for the extramural
department of London University and also lectured and taught at Oxford
University (1946) and King's College London (from 1969).
Though Bush wrote works in every genre, his lyrical
and approachable music, which is firmly rooted in tonality, stems mainly from
the British vocal tradition. Bush emphasized the need for English
composers to write in a specifically English voice, avoiding foreign trends and
influences.
Most of his music,
though, came in smaller forms with a simple, direct manner of expression,
particularly songs using texts by English writers ranging from Chaucer to
Stevie Smith.
Opera for Bush was
essentially an expansion of song, written in a manner accessible to a wide
audience. Like Britten’s, his
opera’s are practically planned and economical in their use of resources. All
are scored for small chamber ensembles and have been aptly devised for
particular contexts and for certain types of performer. The Blind Beggar’s
Daughter (1954), a ballad opera for young people, makes use of folktunes
and of folksong-like material. If the Cap Fits (1956) and Lord Arthur
Savile’s Crime (1972) are more sophisticated entertainment pieces written
respectively for the three-strong Intimate Opera Company and for the students
of the Guildhall School of Music, the latter work revealing a talent for parody and epigram which match the
mood and manner of Wilde’s short story. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
employs many witty musical allusions. Bush adapted himself the short story. The Equation (1967), which was commissioned by the Sacred
Music-Drama Society and performed in London at All Saints, Margaret Street,
treats a serious pacifist theme: two pairs of friends are on opposite sides in
the Roman-Jewish war of ad 70; in
each case, one friend dies at the hands of one of the opposing pair, and the
futile equation is completed. The Cat who Went to Heaven (1976) is a
music-theatre work based on a Buddhist story, with dialogue, and scenes linked
by a narrator.
Geoffrey Bush's agreeable
personality was manifested in his music, which displayed serious craftsmanship
but was often leavened with good humor and a gentle spirit. Bush preferred
writing songs and operas, but he also produced a fair amount of chamber and
orchestral music.
Bush championed English
music as a scholar, as well as a composer; he edited several volumes of the Musica
Britannica series, four of them devoted to nineteenth century song. He also
helped bring out editions of works by Ireland, Parry, Stanford, and Elgar.
Among his honors and awards were being made an honorary fellow of the
University College of Wales in 1986 and the Royal Philharmonic Society's prize
for his overture Yorick, one of his most often-performed pieces.
Lord Arthur Savile’s
Crime (opera in one act), was first
performed in London, Guildhall School of Music, 5th December
1972. The opera was first broadcast 27th July 1986, a BBC opera
production conducted by Simon Joly with Donald Maxwell (bar), Alan Watt (bar),
Philip O'Reilly (bar), Anne Pashley (msop), Eirian James (msop), Lynne Dawson
(sop), David Johnston (ten), John Winfield (ten),
Geoffrey Moses (voc)…
Bush
wrote about his work in ‘Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. Geoffrey Bush’, in:
The Musical Times, Vol. 113, No. 1558 (Dec., 1972), pp. 1181-1182
… But I need a
stageworthy original to work from.
The idea of obtaining this from Oscar Wilde first occurred to me
when I was asleep: I dreamt that I had set The Importance of being Earnest to
music . It would be difficult to conceive a less suitable operatic subject:
however, it did remind me of the existence of Lord Arthur Savile, that
unfortunate nobleman who was told by a palmist on the eve of his marriage that
he was destined to commit a murder. Lord Arthur, a man of integrity, believed it
his duty to et the murder over and done with before settling down to the
responsibilities of family life … Oscar Wilde wrote this s a short story, but
the plot and dialogue are pure theatre.
(…)
Musically the opera,
proceeds in a traditional way, with set numbers interspersed with recitatives.
The latter are often unaccompanied, to allow Wilde’s witty remarks to be
clearly audible. Where appropriate there is some orchestral commentary by other
composers, including Wagner and Mendelssohn. The set pieces provide thematic
material which recurs (but is not developed like the Wagnerian leitmotif)
during the course of the opera. They include a Victorian Ballad, which Lord
Arthur’s fiancée sings at Lady Windermere’s party, a ‘commercial’ for dynamite
(the anarchist’s contribution), and a nocturnal love duet sung by the River
Thames. For the Victorian Ballad I was unable ft find a suitable lyric by Wilde
himself, but I discovered just what I needed among the poems of one of his
contemporaries, Dollie Radford. Wilde’s words provide the basis for the other
set pieces, though not necessarily in the order or in the context in which they
originally occurred.
(…)
An avant-garde musical
idiom would obviously be inappropriate to an operatic subject like Lord Arthur
Savile’s Crime. What is not obvious is exactly what idiom would be appropriate.
The great comic operas of the past seem to have relied on three elements:
straightforward melodic invention of a directly appealing nd memorable kind; an
elementary harmonic framework; and a regular pulse simple enough to allow
rhythmic excitement to be generated at a moment’s notice.
(…)
Whether the music I
have written for Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime has succeeded in being comic
without being entirely uncontemporary I cannot tell; all I do know is that it
was the only music I found in the end I could write.
Sources:
‘Bush,
Geoffrey’ by Hugo Cole, in: The Grove Dictionary of Music, www.grovemusic.com
Edwin Carr (b New Zealand, Auckland, 10th August 1926 d Waiheke Island, 27th March 2003) studied music at Otago and Auckland
Universities from 1944 to 1947; and composition in London at the Guildhall School of Music under Benjamin Frankel. He studied
under Frankel until 1953.
Carr
attended the historic first composers’ class under Lilburn at the Cambridge
Summer School of Music in 1947 and since then devoted himself to the
establishment of a vigorous New Zealand musical tradition. His Mardi Gras
Overture (1950), which won the first prize at the
Auckland Festival, pulsates
with colour and verve, qualities that characterize his music, which is also
marked by a strongly expressive melodic sense and a flair for effective
dramatic gesture.
A British Council Scholarship awarded in 1954
allowed Carr to study with Gofreddo Petrassi at the Conservatorio di Santa
Cecilia in Rome, and another scholarship awarded in the same year enabled him
to attend the Accademia di Chigiana at Siena. In 1955 he was appointed Musical
Director of Il Nuovo Balletto d'Italia for their extensive tour of Italy and
composed two ballets for this company, Electra
and Caccati dal Paradiso. This experience laid the foundations of his lifelong love
of ballet for which he showed a particular flair.
Another British Council Scholarship, awarded
in 1957, enabled Carr to study with Carl Orff at the Hochschule für Musik in
Munich for a brief period.
Carr returned to New Zealand in 1958, where he
completed commissions for the NZ Broadcasting Orchestra, the NZ Chamber Music
Federation and the Auckland Association of Organists. He lectured at Victoria
University in Wellington in 1959, and in 1960 travelled to Sydney where he
worked for the ABC. He did not remain in Australia long, however, and later
that year returned to England to teach at the Suffolk Rural Music School and at
Civic College, Ipswich. He continued his studies with Benjamin Frankel in 1961
and 1962, and spent most of the Sixties in England, where a number of his
compositions were performed.
In 1970 Carr received a commission from the
British Arts Council for Nastasya, a three-act
opera based on Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, and
returned to New Zealand to work with librettist Edward Hill in Wellington. This
opera was completed in England the following year. In 1973 he took up a
two-year Mozart Fellowship at Otago University, Dunedin (NZ).
Carr moved to Sydney in 1975 and became a
lecturer at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, as well as teaching piano
and composition privately. He continued to compose, receiving commissions from
the New Zealand Embassy in Bonn, Musica Viva, Radio NZ, the Australia Council
and Sally Mays. He was also commissioned by Alberts to write a harmony book for
students in 1976. Edwin Carr returned to New Zealand in 1984. He continued to
teach until the end of 1987, thereafter devoting himself to composition.
Edwin Carr's works have been performed
internationally, and have also been recorded. A conductor as well as a
composer, Carr himself conducted some of these recordings, including that of Nastasya, and concerts of his own and other composers'
music in New Zealand and Australia.
Edwin Carr died in March 2003 aged 76. His
autobiography, A life set to music: the autobiography of
Edwin Carr, was published by Blanchard Press in 2001.
The opera Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1 act, 8
scenes) was composed in 1991.
Sources:
Australian
Music Centre: http://www.amcoz.com.au/
‘Carr, Edwin’ by J. M. Thomson, in: The Grove
Dictionary of Music, www.grovemusic.com
Photo: courtesy estate of Chris DeBlasio
The American composer and pianist Chris
DeBlasio (b West Long Branch, New Jersey 22 February 1959 d New
York 21 July 1993) was one of America’s versatile and gifted young composers. He studied theatre arts at New York
University and composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where his
principal teachers included John Corigliano and Giampoalo Bracale. During his
short life he pursued three musical interests: music theatre, art song and
sacred music. He wrote for the stage and the chamber music salon in
addition to creating sacred works of soaring beauty and songs of dark humor. Among his works are two complete musicals, Instant
Lives (1984) and A Murder is Foretold (1990), scores for
several plays, the song cycles All the Way Through Evening (1990) and In
Endless Assent (1993), and commissions from Union Theological Seminary,
Central Synagogue as Higher O'er the Lonely Hills and
Two Other Liturgical Pieces (1990) and Trinity Church (all in New York). His song ‘Walt Whitman in 1989’ was part of ‘The AIDS Quilt
Songbook 1992,’ a program presented at Alice Tully Hall in June 1992. His style combined idiomatic writing for the
voice (whether in a popular idiom or in solemn Biblical settings) with a sure
and haunting melodic gift; his few non-vocal works, such as God is our
Righteousness (1992), are equally adept. On hearing of his death from
AIDS-related illnesses, Corigliano described DeBlasio as ‘a young composer who
embodied that rarest of all things – a truly original lyric voice’.
The musical A Murder is Foretold (book and lyrics by
Sharon Holland) was written 1990, no productions are known
Chris DeBlasio died at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. He was
34. His companion said the cause was AIDS.
Several of his works are recorded. A selection:
The AIDS Quilt Songbook, Harmonia Mundi
HMN 907602 (1994) contains Walt Whitman in 1989
L'Amour Bleu / tenor Tom Bogdan, Poppy
Records (1999) contains Walt Whitman in 1989; In Endless Ascent
(complete song cycle)
And Trouble Came: Musical Responses to AIDS, Musicians Accord, CRI CD 729 (1996) contains All The Way
Through Evening (complete song cycle) with Chris DeBlasio, piano
Echoes and Shadows: Romantic Choral Music, PGM 401 (1997)
Gay American Composers, CRI CD 721 (1996) contains Walt Whitman in
1989 with Chris DeBlasio, piano
Heartbeats: New Songs from Minnesota for the AIDS Quilt Songbook, Innova No. 500 (1994) contains Walt Whitman in 1989
Memento Bittersweet, BMG/Catalyst
09026-61979-2 (1994) contains God Is Our Righteousness
Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Downtown Music Productions,
(http://www.downtownmusicproductions.org) contains All The Way Through
Evening (complete song cycle); ‘Butcher’ (from Villagers song cycle)
Sources:
The Estate Project for Artists with AIDS: ‘Chris
DeBlasio’ http://www.artistswithaids.org/artforms/music/catalogue/deblasio.html
‘DeBlasio, Chris’ by Tim Page, in: The Grove
Dictionary of Music, www.grovemusic.com
A
glance at some of the other operas with which Wilde’s contemporaries (and
sometimes Wilde himself) would have been familiar; and those that derive from
the works of the period.
Jules Massenet in La Monnaie, Brussels
La Monnaie, Place de la
Monnaie - 1000 Bruxelles – Belgium
4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21 December 2007 20:00; 9,
16 December 2007 15:00; 23 December 2007 14:00
Jules
Massenet
The opera Hérodiade, based on the novella Hérodias
by Gustave Flaubert, was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in
Brussels on December 19, 1881.
In December 2007 Massenet is once more the guest
of honor. On the playbill appears Werther.
The opera Werther (four acts) is based on
the German novella The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe. It was first performed at the Hofoper in Vienna on February 16, 1892.
The French composer Jules Massenet (1842-1912) is
best known for his operas, which were very popular in the late 19th and early
20th century, bu afterwards fell into oblivion for the most part, though since
the mid-1970’s they have undergone periodic revivals.
Massenet was born in Montaud in the Loire. When he
was eleven his family moved to Paris so that he could study at the
Conservatoire there. In 1862 he won the Grand Prix de Rome and spent three
years in Rome. His first opera La
grand'tante was a
one-act production at the Opéra-Comique in 1867.
Massenet took a break to serve as a soldier in the
Franco-Prussian War, but returned to his art following the end of the conflict
in 1871. From 1878 he was professor of composition at the Conservatoire de
Paris where his pupils included Gustave Charpentier, Reynaldo Hahn and Charles
Koechlin.
His greatest successes were Manon in 1884, Werther
in 1892, and Thaïs in 1894. Notable later operas were Le jongleur de
Notre-Dame, produces in 1902, and Don Quichotte, produced in Monte Carlo in
1910, with the legendary Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin in the title-role.
Jules Massenet also composed concert suites,
ballet music, oratorios and cantatas and about two hundred songs.
|
In
our October 2007 edition, for the first time, we listed some of the doctoral
research on the music of the period being undertaken at British Universities;
and are very grateful to Dr Katherine
Ellis for drawing this to our attention.
The first resort for
We
hope to expand and internationalise this list in future, and would be glad of
assistance.
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