Democratising Opera: Opera North and the Access Agenda in Action Part of the AHRC Project ‘Opera As Adaptation’
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Democratising Opera: Opera North and the access agenda in action Part of the AHRC project ‘Opera as Adaptation’ Jennifer Susan Daniel Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Performance and Cultural Industries School of Music March 2016 2 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2016 The University of Leeds and Jennifer Susan Daniel The right of Jennifer Susan Daniel to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 3 Acknowledgements My thanks go out to all those at Opera North (past and present) who have been so welcoming and helpful in facilitating this study, particularly Jane Bonner, Dominic Gray, Rebecca Walsh, Timothy Burke, Jo Bedford, Stuart Leeks, Peter Restall, Jacqui Cameron, and the inspirational Martin Pickard. It was also a great privilege to have Richard Farnes as my supervisor at Opera North, who facilitated so much of this study and whose musical vision, humility and leadership I have greatly admired. I am grateful to the AHRC, to Opera North Futures and to the Fund for Women Graduates for generous funding, without which I would certainly not have been able to complete this thesis. My most profound thanks are offered to my excellent academic supervisors Kara McKechnie and Rachel Cowgill, for the opportunity to work on this project, and for the inspiration, encouragement and education. It has been an epic journey, and I could not have wished for better guidance, understanding and comradeship. Thank you also to various colleagues and friends at the University of Leeds and further afield: those who proof-read, who offered me opportunities and who encouraged my academic endeavours with friendship and debate. Particularly I would like to thank my colleague at the University of Salford Library, Satish Patel, whose flexibility and trust has allowed me the time to complete this work. To my family: I would like to thank Dylan for his encouragement and belief in me; Chris and John for their unwavering support and childcare; and of course my parents, Margaret and David, for endless childcare, proof-reading, technical support, and sustenance, physical and emotional. Finally I would like to thank my daughters, Carys and Eos, both of whom arrived during the course of this study, and whose presence has shaped my understanding, my focus and the direction of my academic journey for the better. 4 Abstract This thesis explores the role of Opera North as the publicly funded opera company for the north of England, addressing the ways in which the company embodies, mediates and fulfils an agenda for access, education and innovation. A broadly ethnographic approach is taken, through case studies of three productions and the work surrounding them: the commissioned ‘operetta’ Skin Deep by David Sawer and Armando Iannucci (2009), the commissioned ‘family opera’ Swanhunter by Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton (2009 and 15), and the ‘staged concert’ version of Wagner’s Ring cycle for Leeds Town Hall and touring concert venues (2011-14). The nature and origins of the access agenda are explored, including the legacy of Opera North’s parent company English National Opera, and the post-war imperative of John Maynard Keynes, and his Arts Council, to fund decentralised and geographically dispersed ‘high’ cultural forms. Recent political agendas are also pertinent, particularly the developing aim of the UK’s ‘New Labour’ government (1997-2010) for cultural instrumentalism to address social issues. This is explored particularly in relation to the commission, by Opera North’s Education and Projects departments, of Swanhunter, in 2009. The access agenda and the works explored in the case studies are situated in their historical, political and artistic contexts, to give a cohesive account of Opera North’s cultural work in and for the north of England and beyond. 5 Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ 7 List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................ 7 List of Musical Examples ............................................................................................................. 7 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 8 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 10 2 Methodology and Overarching Literature Review ............................................................. 17 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 17 2.2 Origins......................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Interdisciplinary ‘Opera as Adaptation’ project .......................................................... 20 2.4 Beginning with the opera company: an ethnographic approach to interdisciplinary opera studies............................................................................................................................ 21 2.5 Literature reviews and methodology: ethnographies of musical ‘high culture’ .......... 25 2.6 Other over-arching sources ......................................................................................... 37 3 Case Studies of New Commissions: Skin Deep and Swanhunter ...................................... 44 3.1 Introduction, methodology and literature review ........................................................ 44 3.1.1 Skin Deep ............................................................................................................ 44 3.1.2 Swanhunter ......................................................................................................... 47 3.2 Background ................................................................................................................. 50 3.2.1 The company ....................................................................................................... 50 3.2.2 The importance of development and of new work .............................................. 53 3.3 Skin Deep .................................................................................................................... 55 3.3.1 Background and introduction .............................................................................. 55 3.3.2 Skin Deep as operetta .......................................................................................... 58 3.3.3 Issues in construction, dramaturgy, and musical influence ................................. 67 3.3.4 Opening numbers ................................................................................................ 74 3.3.5 Issues in vocal aesthetics ..................................................................................... 79 3.3.6 An economical score of ‘moments’ .................................................................... 85 3.3.7 Potential and problems in dramatic character and choral writing ....................... 88 3.3.8 Conclusions: dramaturgical issues and mismatched expectations of a genre ..... 97 3.4 Swanhunter ............................................................................................................... 104 3.4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 104 3.4.2 Preconditions ..................................................................................................... 105 6 3.4.3 Story-telling, source selection and the self-reference of song ........................... 122 3.4.4 Target audience - preparation and reception ..................................................... 129 3.4.5 Swanhunter 2015 ............................................................................................... 135 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 140 4 Wagner’s Ring: The fear, the threshold, and the crossing ................................................. 144 4.1 Introduction and literature review ............................................................................. 144 4.1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 144 4.1.2 Literature review................................................................................................ 146 4.2 Wagner reception today: barriers and the problem of perspective ............................ 149 4.2.1 Literary and scholarly obstacles and issues of biography: Wagner - the ‘subject without end’ ....................................................................................................................... 149 4.2.2 Opera North’s engagement with