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Middlebrow Modernism: Britten's Operas and the Great Divide CHOWRIMOOTOO | MIDDLEBROW MODERNISM Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and rein- vigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org The publication of this book was made possible by generous subventions, awards, and grants from the Institute of Scholarship in the Liberal Arts in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters; the University of California Press; and the AMS 75 PAYS Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Middlebrow Modernism CALIFORNIA STUDIES IN 20th-CENTURY MUSIC Richard Taruskin, General Editor 1. Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater, by W. Anthony Sheppard 2. Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement, by Simon Morrison 3. German Modernism: Music and the Arts, by Walter Frisch 4. New Music, New Allies: American Experimental Music in West Germany from the Zero Hour to Reunification, by Amy Beal 5. Bartók, Hungary, and the Renewal of Tradition: Case Studies in the Intersection of Modernity and Nationality, by David E. Schneider 6. Classic Chic: Music, Fashion, and Modernism, by Mary E. Davis 7. Music Divided: Bartók’s Legacy in Cold War Culture, by Danielle Fosler-Lussier 8. Jewish Identities: Nationalism, Racism, and Utopianism in Twentieth-Century Art Music, by Klára Móricz 9. Brecht at the Opera, by Joy H. Calico 10. Beautiful Monsters: Imagining the Classic in Musical Media, by Michael Long 11. Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits, by Benjamin Piekut 12. Music and the Elusive Revolution: Cultural Politics and Political Culture in France, 1968–1981, by Eric Drott 13. Music and Politics in San Francisco: From the 1906 Quake to the Second World War, by Leta E. Miller 14. Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West, by Beth E. Levy 15. In Search of a Concrete Music, by Pierre Schaeffer, translated by Christine North and John Dack 16. The Musical Legacy of Wartime France, by Leslie A. Sprout 17. Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw in Postwar Europe, by Joy H. Calico 18. Music in America’s Cold War Diplomacy, by Danielle Fosler-Lussier 19. Making New Music in Cold War Poland: The Warsaw Autumn Festival, 1956–1968, by Lisa Jakelski 20. Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay across Disciplines, by Pierre Schaeffer, translated by Christine North and John Dack 21. Nostalgia for the Future: Luigi Nono’s Selected Writings and Interviews, by Luigi Nono, edited by Angela Ida De Benedictis and Veniero Rizzardi 22. The Doctor Faustus Dossier: Arnold Schoenberg, Thomas Mann, and Their Contemporaries, 1930–1951, edited by E. Randol Schoenberg, with an introduction by Adrian Daub 23. Stravinsky in the Americas: Transatlantic Tours and Domestic Excursions from Wartime Los Angeles (1925–1945), by H. Colin Slim, with a foreword by Richard Taruskin 24. Middlebrow Modernism: Britten’s Operas and the Great Divide, by Christopher Chowrimootoo Middlebrow Modernism Britten’s Operas and the Great Divide Christopher Chowrimootoo UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advanc- ing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2018 by Christopher Chowrimootoo Suggested citation: Chowrimootoo, C. Middlebrow Modernism: Britten’s Operas and the Great Divide. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.57 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Chapter 3 was originally published as “The Timely Traditions of Albert Herring” in Opera Quarterly 27, no. 4 (2011). Chapter 6 appeared as “Bourgeois Opera: Death in Venice and the Aesthetics of Sublimation” in Cambridge Opera Journal 22, no. 2 (2010). Both articles are reproduced here with kind permission of the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chowrimootoo, Christopher, 1985- author. Title: Middlebrow modernism : Britten’s operas and the great divide / Christopher Chowrimootoo. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Chowrimootoo, Christopher 2019 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018021983 (print) | LCCN 2018025344 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520970700 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520298651 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Britten, Benjamin, 1913–1976. Operas. | Opera—20th century. | Modernism (Music)—History—20th century. | Music—20th century—Philosophy and esthetics. Classification: LCC ML410.B853 (ebook) | LCC ML410.B853 C47 2019 (print) | DDC 782.1092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021983 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix 1. Middlebrow Modernism 1 2. Sentimentality under Erasure in Peter Grimes 30 3. The Timely Traditions of Albert Herring 63 4. The Turn of the Screw, or: The Gothic Melodrama of Modernism 88 5. The Burning Fiery Furnace and the Redemption of Religious Kitsch 117 6. Death in Venice and the Aesthetics of Sublimation 147 Notes 177 Bibliography 215 Index 221 Illustrations FIGURES 1. Peter Grimes, Original Set Design for the Borough Street Scene 35 2. Peter Grimes, Ellen Orford and the Apprentice 37 3. Albert Herring, Lady Billows’ Breakfast Room 69 4. Albert Herring, Portraits on the Wall 70 5. The Turn of the Screw, 1954: Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2 95 6. The Turn of the Screw, 1954: Act 2, Scenes 4 and 5 96 7. The Turn of the Screw, 1954: Act 1, Scene 5 97 8. The Turn of the Screw, 1954: Act 2, Scene 5 99 9. The Turn of the Screw, 1954: Act 2, Scene 8 100 10. The Burning Fiery Furnace, “We Come to Perform a Mystery” 127 11. The Burning Fiery Furnace, The Three Israelites 135 12. The Burning Fiery Furnace, Nebuchadnezzar and His Golden Mask and Vestments 136 13. The Burning Fiery Furnace, Nebuchadnezzar’s Golden Idol 137 14. Death in Venice, Act I, Scene 1 154 15. Death in Venice, Act I, Scene 7 159 16. Death in Venice, Act II, Scene 13 160 MUSIC EXAMPLES 1. Peter Grimes (Prologue)—“Take the Oath” 47 2. and Ex. 2 (cont.)—Peter Grimes (Prologue)—Love Duet 52 3. Peter Grimes (Act I, Scene 1)—“We Plunged into the Waves” 54 vii viii list of illustrations 4. Peter Grimes (Act I, Scene 1)—“What Harbour Shelters Peace” 54 5. Peter Grimes (Act I, Scene 1)—“With Her There’ll Be No Quarrels” 55 6. Peter Grimes (Final Scene)—“Peter, We’ve Come to Take You Home” 58 7. Albert Herring (Act I, Scene 1)—“Rejoice, My Friends” 79 8. Albert Herring (Act II, Scene 2)—“Albert the Good” 81 9. Albert Herring (Act II, Interlude)—Fugue 81 10. Albert Herring (Act II, Interlude)—“Klangfarbenmelodie” 82 11. Albert Herring (Act II, Scene 2)—Opening of Monologue 83 12. Albert Herring (Act II, Scene 2)—End of Monologue 84 13. The Turn of the Screw (Act I, Scene 7)—“The Dead Sea” 108 14. and Ex. 14 (cont.)—The Turn of the Screw (Act II, Scene 1)—“Colloquy” 110 15. The Turn of the Screw (Act I, Scene 8)—“Miles” 113 16. The Burning Fiery Furnace—“Furnace Music” 128 17. The Burning Fiery Furnace—“Israelites Trio” 130 18. The Burning Fiery Furnace—Benedicite 131 19. and Ex. 19 (cont.)—The Burning Fiery Furnace—Hymn to Merodak 140 20. and Ex. 20 (cont.)—The Burning Fiery Furnace—Babylonian Procession 142 21. and Ex. 21 (cont.)—Death in Venice (Prologue)—“My Mind Beats On” 166 22. and Ex. 22 (cont.)—Death in Venice (Act I, Scene 7)—“I Love You” 169 Acknowledgments Those who know me well know that beneath my austere, modernist exterior resides a sentimentality as sickly as anything in Peter Grimes. If gushing acknowl- edgments threaten to overwrite a grueling process with a rose-tinted vision, as if this manuscript were penned in the midst of a cocktail party, this might not nec- essarily be a bad thing. After all, it was the conversations in between times—over coffee, lunch, dinner, at conferences and on holidays—that sustained me through the most difficult moments of writing. Even those teachers, colleagues, friends, and family who have little interest in its contents have helped to bring the book about in many different ways. It is a pleasure to thank some of them here. Although I am generally skeptical of origin stories, this project has a specific one: a trip to Aldeburgh with Alastair Nichol, my school music teacher, fifteen years ago. I am grateful to Alastair for setting me on an unlikely career path and introducing me to the Britten myths against which I would productively recoil. Another East Anglian, Nicholas Mathew, helped this process along when I arrived in Oxford. Tutorials with Nick in the King’s Arms—on Albert Herring and the Philosophy of New Music—are among the fondest memories of my undergraduate days. He has remained my methodological guru, consistently encouraging me to push my conclusions to their farthest points. Thanks are also due to Peter Franklin and Emanuele Senici for the kind of thought-provoking courses that set up a young scholar for life, and for supervising my undergraduate and master’s theses respec- tively.
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