Page 292 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
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290 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
20th-century British opera
BEFORE
1689 First performance
of Henry Purcell’s opera
Dido and Aeneas.
1871–1896 Librettist W.S.
Gilbert and composer Arthur
Sullivan together produce 14
comic operas, including HMS
Pinafore and The Mikado.
1902 Edward German’s opera
Merrie England, a tale of fter Purcell’s death in 1695 The beach at Aldeburgh, the coastal
amorous rivalries at the court and on through the 18th village that inspired Peter Grimes. The
of Elizabeth I, opens at the A and 19th centuries, British opera was staged live here in 2013 to
Savoy Theatre in London. music was dominated by European mark the centenary of Britten’s birth.
1922 Following the success composers, such as Handel, Johann successors to Purcell. Elgar would
Christian Bach, and Mendelssohn.
of his orchestral suite It was not until the publication of never finish The Spanish Lady,
The Planets, Gustav Holst Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, his only attempt at opera, while
composes his one-act opera in 1899, that a British composer Vaughan Williams labored for
The Perfect Fool. began almost single-handedly to years on his first opera, Hugh the
AFTER revitalize the country’s music. Drover, working folk songs and
1955 Michael Tippett’s first At this time, British opera was idioms into the music in the hope
opera, The Midsummer in an especially perilous state. of creating a truly British work.
Marriage, is performed at The comic operas of Gilbert and When the opera opened in 1924,
Covent Garden. Sullivan were popular, as was it met with little initial success.
Edward German’s operetta Merrie The young Benjamin Britten
1966 The one-act opera England, but there were no serious disliked the English pastoral school
Purgatory, by Hugo Weisgall, and wrote of Vaughan Williams,
premieres at England’s “I am afraid I don’t like his music,
Cheltenham Festival. however much I try.” Britten had
hoped to pursue postgraduate
1968 The Aldeburgh Festival studies with the Austrian
includes the first performance composer Alban Berg, a student
of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera Music … has the beauty of of Arnold Schoenberg, whose
Punch and Judy. loneliness of pain: of strength Lyric Suite he admired, but was
and freedom. The beauty of dissuaded by his parents.
1984 Where The Wild Things disappointment and never In 1930, the year Britten began
Are, by Oliver Knussen to a satisfied love. his studies at the Royal College of
libretto by Maurice Sendak, Benjamin Britten Music in London, the Vic-Wells
receives its first performance company was formed in a bid to
at London’s National Theatre. champion British theatre, opera,
and ballet. In 1934, the Old Vic
Theatre became the center for
spoken drama and Sadler’s Wells
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