Why is there no english opera?

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Contratrombone64
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Re: Why is there no english opera?

Post by Contratrombone64 »

I think Arthur Sullivan might just be surprised by your teacher's comment. Look up Ivanhoe, a wonderful opera, now recorded professional by a Welsh team.
reiner torheit
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Re: Why is there no english opera?

Post by reiner torheit »

Actually there's been a lot of English opera... but it's not been especially well cared for since!

C17th
As well as Purcell (obviously) there were Locke, Blow, Eccles and a few others too.

C18th
The first part of the C18th was largely dominated by foreign composers working in Britain - not only Handel, but also Ariosti, Lotti, Bononcini, and numerous others. But there was also the anglicised German composer Lampe, who produced a number of English-language operatic skits... THE DRAGON OF WANTLEY and PYRAMUS & THISBE are the main ones. And there was also THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, for which the music was mostly arranged from popular song and dance tunes by Pepusch.

In the second half of the C18th things looked a great deal better for English opera, with a whole new generation of native composers writing in the genre (mostly in the "opera with spoken dialogue" genre, in fact). There was the eccentric Charles Dibdin, who wrote various pieces mostly connected with seafaring (his particular passion). William Shield wrote a number of operas which mix-up the ballad-opera style with a more Italianate style. His operatic entertainment FONTAINEBLEU, or OUR WAY IN FRANCE is a typical example. But the best of English opera came in the closing decades of the C18th, with the work of Stephen Storace. He had been sent to study in Italy, and had worked at the Imperial Court in Vienna (he co-wrote pieces with Salieri there) before returning to England. His major operas are THE HAUNTED TOWER, THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE, THE PIRATES, and THE CHEROKEE - all based on "action" topics in the popular style of the time. The music is in a clearly Mozartian idiom, while still keeping a few rumty-tumty ballads to keep the crowd in the balcony happy. Storace's greatest work, however - DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE - appears to have been lost forever. Sadly Storace died in his early 30s, and the tradition largely died with him - no-one of any note took over from him (Linley - the other great hope of the era - had been killed in a boating accident). It's nigh on criminal that there's no Stephen Storace on IMSLP. Worth noting that the orchestral scores and parts of Storace's works were never printed - in an anti-piracy move by his employer, Sheridan. Probably they were all burnt in Sheridan's office at the Drury Lane Theatre when the theatre burnt down. However, extensively detailed and heavily cued vocal scores exist - it's not too hard to recreate conjectural reorchestrations based on these. You need to do a bit of research first - it emerges that there were only six woodwind players, and the oboes/flutes/clarinets were all doubling each other, so you can't have more than six at a time (if you want to be authentic to Storace's intentions).

C19th
I don't know them in any depth, but Henry Bishop's works are said to be worth a look. After Bishop things did indeed take a nosedive. Towards the end of the C19th there was a revival of interest - not only with Sullivan's comic pieces (and his rarer serious works), but also in the circle which surrounded him - notably Alfred Cellier, some of whose works are here on IMSLP.
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