Haydn's Last Heroine: Hanne, the Seasons, and Sentimental Opera by Rena Marie Roussin Bachelor of Arts with Honours, Acadia U
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Haydn’s Last Heroine: Hanne, The Seasons, and Sentimental Opera by Rena Marie Roussin Bachelor of Arts with Honours, Acadia University, 2014 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the School of Music Rena Marie Roussin, 2018 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Haydn’s Last Heroine: Hanne, The Seasons, and Sentimental Opera by Rena Marie Roussin Bachelor of Arts with Honours, Acadia University, 2014 Supervisory Committee Dr. Joseph Salem, School of Music Supervisor Dr. Michelle Fillion, School of Music Departmental Member Dr. Susan Lewis, School of Music Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Joseph Salem, School of Music Supervisor Dr. Michelle Fillion, School of Music Departmental Member Dr. Susan Lewis, School of Music Departmental Member Joseph Haydn’s final oratorio, The Seasons (1801), has consistently been neglected in performance and scholarship, particularly when compared to its earlier, more successful counterpart, The Creation (1798). A number of factors contribute to this neglect, central among them the belief that The Seasons lacked the musical innovation of Haydn’s setting of the Judeo- Christian creation story, a thought that would gain further momentum as aesthetic and musical tastes changed throughout the nineteenth century. Yet Haydn’s final oratorio is a work of remarkable musical artistry and insight, especially when considered in the context of the eighteenth-century culture of sensibility and the rise of sentimental opera, conventions with which Haydn’s would have been intimately aware given his work in opera composition and production from 1762 to 1790. By examining the ways in which Hanne, one of the three central characters in The Seasons, is constructed as sentimental in van Swieten’s libretto and Haydn’s score, I demonstrate how the librettist and composer engage the trope of the sentimental heroine. Hanne features many of the expected qualities: she is chaste, virtuous, and possesses refined sensibility and sensitivity. Furthermore, her singing style is firmly rooted in sentimental traditions. Yet her music is also imbued with coloratura and musical markers of nobility. Through these musical choices and by textually defining Hanne through joy rather than suffering and pathos, Haydn and van Swieten depart from typical constructions to rethink the sentimental iv heroine. Therefore, in his final major musico-dramatic work, Haydn experiments with one of the central operatic tropes of the eighteenth century. In being aware of this feature, we might simultaneously arrive at a renewed appreciation for The Seasons and of Haydn’s abilities as a musical dramatist. v Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi List of Musical Examples ................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................ viii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... ix A Note on the Text .............................................................................................................. x Epigraph ............................................................................................................................. xi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Hanne in Text and Context ........................................................................... 9 Chapter Two: Hanne in Music .......................................................................................... 33 Chapter Three: Haydn’s Last Heroine .............................................................................. 67 Conclusion: Hearing Beyond Hanne, or, Hearing Haydn for the Sentiment .................... 86 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 89 vi List of Figures Figure 1.1: A Plot Summary of The Seasons .............................................................................. 122 Figure 2.1: Expressive Strategies of the Sentimental Mode, reproduced from and used with the permission of Eloise Boisjoli. ....................................................................................................... 42 Figure 2.2: A Summary of Form, Harmony, and Textual ideas in "Ihr Schönen" ……………...64 Figure 3.1: Pieces and Characters Consulted for Comparison against Hanne …………………..68 Figure 3.2: Comparative Texts of "Ihr Schönen" and "Rosina vezzossina" …………………… 76 vii List of Musical Examples Musical Example 2.1: “Knurre, schnurre, knurre,” mm. 11-24 ………………………………....46 Musical Example 2.2: “Ein Mädchen,” mm. 1-8 ………………………………………………. 50 Musical Example 2.3: “Ein Mädchen,” mm. 33-44 ……………………………………………. 52 Musical Example 2.4: “Welche Labung,” mm. 1-12 …………………………………………... 59 Musical Example 2.5: “Ihr Schönen aus der Stadt,” mm. 1-5 …………………………………. 63 Musical Example 3.1a: “Ihr Schönen aus der Stadt,” mm. 220-233 ……………………………76 Musical Example 3.1b: “Rosina vezzossina,” mm. 55-76 ……………………………………... 77 Musical Example 3.2a: mm. 54-84 of “Welche Labung,” an example of Hanne’s coloratura ... 83 Musical Example 3.2b: mm. 37-61 of “È la pompa,” an example of Sandrina’s coloratura ….. 84 viii Acknowledgments It is with distinct pleasure that I thank the many people whose work and support have made this thesis possible. I must begin by thanking the members of my committee, who have provided unfailingly generous and wise guidance, not only in the course of writing this thesis, but throughout my entire time at the University of Victoria. It has been a joy and an honour to work with my co-supervisors, Dr. Michelle Fillion and Dr. Joseph Salem (administrative policies required that Michelle, an Emeritus professor, be listed as a departmental member on the opening pages of this thesis; here I acknowledge her true role). They have both been world-class mentors, and have made this a better thesis and me a better scholar. I thank both of them for sharing their formidable intellects and senses of humour with me, and for their boundless kindness and patience. I owe Michelle an extra word of gratitude for being my mentor since the earliest days of my undergraduate work; it is a testament to her mentoring that she has made a musicologist of the political science student who once sat in her music history class unable to read bass clef. My additional departmental member, Dr. Susan Lewis, has also been a central part of my time at the University of Victoria, and I am thankful for her time, encouragement, and the substantial contributions she made to this thesis. I am also thankful to Sharon Krebs for her assistance with German translations and for always asking how the thesis was going, and to Dr. Harald Krebs, whose Rhythm and Meter seminar led to many of the insights that eventually formed a large part of Chapter Two. I am very much indebted to my beloved friend, Liam Elliot, who throughout our lives as academics has set my restless, neurotic mind at ease more times than I can count, and who also set the musical examples that appear throughout this thesis. Dr. Eloise Boisjoli generously shared her doctoral dissertation with me when it was in pre-defense stages; I am thankful for her kindness in sharing her ideas with me, and for her encouragement of my work. I also thank G. Henle Publishing for their kind permission to reproduce the musical examples that appear throughout this thesis, all from Joseph Haydn Werke. I thank my friends and fellow graduate students in the School of Music for making the past four years so enjoyable; I will treasure the music and the memories we have made for the rest of my life. Particular thanks are due to Sarah DeNiverville, Arkadi Futerman, Alanna Kazdan, Nicole Lavallée, Julio Lopez, Kimberley Mannerikar, Dave Riedstra, and Emily Sabados, who have all discussed this thesis and other academic projects and ideas with me over many meals and libations, as have my wonderful friends Kristin Franseen, Alexandra Fournier, Nathan Friedman, Alex Jang, Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins, and Annalise Smith. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my parents, Melody Gagnon and Brandon Roussin, as well as my step-father, Greg Taylor; their support and unconditional love has made this thesis possible. I would also like to thank my family’s sweet French Bulldogs, Coco Chanel and Voltaire, who contributed to this thesis by way of the many times they interrupted its writing to offer (or, in some cases, demand!) cuddles. Lastly, I thank Joseph Haydn, for his music of indescribable beauty and insight, and for Hanne. The lessons she has taught me about joy and gratitude will