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If you have chosen this option, you do not need to complete the next section and can proceed to the signature line. JL' I/we choose to retain the copyright to the thesis for a period of _h_Q years, or until my/our death/s, whichever is the earlier, at which time the copyright shall be assigned to Williams College without need of further action by me/us or by my/our heirs, successors, or representatives of my/our estate/s. Selecting this option allows the author/s the flexibility of retaining his/her/their copyright for a period of years or for life. Signature Redacted Signature Redacted Signature Redacted Death and Purity as Prominent Themes in Benjamin Britten’s Phaedra, Op. 93 By Elaina Pullano W. Anthony Sheppard, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Music WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts May 5, 2015 Intimations of Death Benjamin Britten’s health decline had been a gradual process, but no one could have predicted that he would suffer a minor stroke during his heart surgery on May 7, 1973. The stroke left him with impaired function to his right arm and hand and, as a result, his days at the piano were over.1 Britten had a hard time coping with his loss of function, and as a result he was unable to write pieces for Peter Pears, his longtime partner and renowned tenor, that featured a piano accompaniment because he was unable to accompany Pears himself and was unwilling to let another pianist take over that role. The only pieces that Britten wrote for Pears after the stroke were Canticle V: The Death of Saint Narcissus (Op. 89) and A Birthday Hansel, featuring Pears and harpist Osian Ellis.2 A theme that became prevalent in Britten’s last compositions (Opus 89 through 95) is that of death and morbidity. Canticle V is an example of this trend, as are the final song in Sacred and Profane (Op. 91) and the cantata for mezzo-soprano and orchestra Phaedra (Op. 93).3 This theme was also present in Death in Venice, the last opera he completed before he underwent the surgical procedure. The morbidity in Phaedra, as well as in Britten’s last works as a whole, was noted by David Matthews: For Britten on the other hand death was something willingly to be accepted, almost welcomed. "Death will give me freedom; oh it’s nothing not to live; death to the unhappy’s no catastrophe!" as Phaedra 1 Neil Powell, Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music (London: Hutchinson, 2013), 446. 2 Patricia Howard, "Reviewed Work: A Birthday Hansel Op. 92; Harp Suite Op. 83; Canticle V; Second Lute Song from Gloriana'; Two Scottish Folk Songs by Britten, Pears, Ellis," The Musical Times 117/1604 (1976): 831, accessed April 6, 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/960191. 3 Peter Evans, The Music of Benjamin Britten (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979), 416-418, 448-449. sings… words that (as evident from the orchestral music that follows them) echoed Britten’s own mental state.4 This morbidity served to compound his ever-present passion for the battles between good and evil, as well as between purity and corruption, topics with which, as Pears had mentioned, “Britten was constantly concerned.”5 This concern for morality intensified further as Britten’s life went on, reaching its peak during the late 1950s when he wrote the church parables and later operas. Phaedra represents the culmination of an entire life’s worth of compositional experience, combined with the composer's well-refined views on morality and a touch of melancholy from losing the use of his hand. A solo cantata for mezzo-soprano, strings, harpsichord and percussion, it was described by Britten himself as drawing from the Baroque style, especially in that the recitative sections are accompanied only by a harpsichord and cello: a recreation of the continuo unit.6 It is also the only solo vocal piece he wrote after his stroke that was not intended for Peter Pears; it was written for Janet Baker. Britten’s decision to set Phaedra, of all narratives, for Baker is likely due to a compilation of factors. He had heard Baker perform Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été at the 1975 Aldeburgh Festival, and decided to write a piece for her to perform at the following year’s festival. Baker gave the world premiere performance at the 1976 Aldeburgh Festival on June 16, 1976. As a singer, she was known for her skill in performing Baroque operas, such as Handel’s Giulio Cesare and, importantly, Britten’s own The Rape of Lucretia. Baker took over the role of Lucretia after 4 David Matthews, "Britten's Third Quartet," Tempo 125 (1978): 23, accessed April 2, 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/944932. 5 Graham Elliott, "The Operas of Benjamin Britten: A Spiritual View," The Opera Quarterly 4/3 (1986): 43, accessed November 23, 2014, http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/. 6 Peter Evans, The Music of Benjamin Britten (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979), 395. Kathleen Ferrier passed away and proved her adeptness at performing Britten’s “chamber operas,” a genre label he utilized for a number of his works starting with The Rape of Lucretia, meant for a chamber ensemble and vocalist instead of a full orchestra.7 Additionally, the American poet Robert Lowell had just released his English rhyming-couplet translation of Jean Racine’s drama Phédre in 1960, allowing the play to come to Britten’s attention in English, the language in which he preferred to set the majority of his vocal works.8 Given that Britten knew Baker had been able to adeptly handle the role of Lucretia, it is not surprising that Phaedra shares many traits with The Rape of Lucretia, the key one being the shared themes of death as a means to restore purity, and inappropriate romantic thoughts/actions as the cause of the female character’s loss of original purity. Both works also end in C-major, with its unblemished key signature serving as a signifier of Lucretia and Phaedra finally achieving redemption and innocence through death. Additionally, it is possible that Britten drew ideas from The Rape of Lucretia when composing Phaedra because he was in a weakened state. He composed Phaedra directly into full score, a choice that was unusual for him, but that was presumably made because writing into full score meant less writing overall and thus less physical effort.9 Given this, it is highly possible that he took thematic 7 Kenneth Chalmers. "chamber opera," The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed April 3, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e1272. 8 Robert Lowell and Saskia Hamilton, The Letters of Robert Lowell (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 369-370. 9 Benjamin Britten and Donald Mitchell, Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976, Vol. 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 686. ideas such as finishing in C major from The Rape of Lucretia and used them in Phaedra in order to reduce his physical exertion during the composition process. In addition to the similarities between Phaedra and The Rape of Lucretia, there are striking similarities between the former work and Death in Venice. The unifying factor between these two works is that of unrequited love, where Aschenbach’s pedophilic and homosexual love for Tadzio is much like Phaedra’s seemingly incestuous love for Hippolytus. Neither of these characters is able to attain the human object of their desires, though Phaedra does admit her passions to Hippolytus within the work. Aschenbach never even makes a move on Tadzio, and instead observes him from afar and lets his thoughts drive him into despair.