Investigating New Models for Opera Development
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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details 1 INVESTIGATING NEW MODELS FOR OPERA DEVELOPMENT JULIAN MONTAGU PHILIPS DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN MUSICAL COMPOSITION UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX SEPTEMBER 2010 (incorporating minor corrections as of April 2012) 2 PREFACE Since this doctoral submission accounts for a Composer-in-Residence scheme within the context of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2006-9, the bulk of this submission has grown out of collaborative relationships with writers, directors, performers and conductors. The most important collaborative partners include writers Simon Christmas, Edward Kemp and Nicky Singer; the directors Olivia Fuchs, Clare Whistler, Freddie Wake-Walker and John Fulljames, and the conductors Leo McFall and Nicholas Collon. In addition a host of young singers have contributed to this project’s final performance outputs; I am greatly indebted to all of them for their imagination, generosity and commitment. Aside from bibliographical sources detailed below (bibliography, page 360), other source material that has been fed into this submission includes interviews with Glyndebourne’s General Director, David Pickard, and an archiving of the extensive email development exchange out of which the chamber opera, The Yellow Sofa emerged (Appendix 13, p. 251). Full permission has been sought for the use of this material. I would also like acknowledge the substantial help and support from my two supervisors: my academic supervisor at Sussex University, Dr Nicholas Till and my non-academic supervisor, Katie Tearle, Head of Education at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Alan Grieve is also greatly to be thanked for his generous financial support for this Glyndebourne Composer-in-Residence scheme. DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis and portfolio of compositions, has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Julian Philips, September 30th 2010/30th April 2012 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Summary 4 Chapter One Introduction 5 Chapter Two Case Study One: Followers 14 Chapter Three Case Study Two: Love and Other Demons 48 Chapter Four Case Study Three: The Yellow Sofa 96 Chapter Five Case Study Four: Knight Crew 171 Chapter Six Conclusion 199 ‘Sketch for a New Operatic Aesthetic’ 208 Appendices: Appendices 1-3 New Opera in Britain, 2006-9 209 Appendix 4 Followers 215 Appendix 5-10 Love and Other Demons 218 Appendices 11-13 The Yellow Sofa 236 including ‘Initial ideas for The Yellow Sofa’ 256 Appendix 14 Knight Crew 355 Appendix 15 Discrepancies between DVDs and scores 359 Bibliography 360 4 SUMMARY UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX JULIAN MONTAGU PHILIPS INVESTIGATING MODELS FOR NEW OPERA DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY This thesis is a culmination of an AHRC funded collaborative doctoral award between the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre at Sussex University and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The research took the form of a Composer in Residence scheme in 2006-9 and the submission consists of three new operatic projects, Followers, The Yellow Sofa and Knight Crew. The thesis takes the form of a series of four case studies which explore the creative and aesthetic resonances of the above works in addition to a study of Péter Eötvös’s new opera Love and Other Demons, commissioned by Glyndebourne for the 2008 Festival. The exploration of all four case studies is intended to offer a range of possible models for the future development of the operatic art form. The central creative research questions of this project relate broadly to questions of context and the reanimation of tradition. In terms of context, each of these four operatic case studies considers the perspective of the commissioning opera company, of the creative team, of singers and instrumentalists and of audiences. In terms of the reanimation of tradition, this research considers ideas around narrativity in opera and the centrality of the operatic voice and operatic lyricism. The polystylistic nature of opera is just one of several other themes that emerge as a consequence of this research. The thesis lays out each case study in chronological order beginning with an introductory chapter that describes the terms of the residency. Chapter Two considers the site-specific promenade opera Followers, Chapter Three examines the gestation of Péter Eötvös’s new opera Love and Other Demons, Chapter Four details the chamber opera The Yellow Sofa developed as part of Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Chorus Development Scheme, while Chapter Five projects the central themes of this research onto a larger-scale, grand operatic canvas in a community-specific context. A final Chapter Six concludes with a sketch for a new operatic aesthetic, which attempts to synthesise the creative and research experience of this composer residency. 5 Chapter One Introduction This creative research has grown out of an unique and groundbreaking initiative: the first ever Composer-in-Residence scheme established by a British Opera Company, set up by the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre at Sussex University in partnership with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as a collaborative doctoral award. For most composers, it is a rare privilege to be able to focus exclusively on a single art form over a prolonged period; so often, creative projects have the feel of the ‘one-off’, continuity having to be imagined or even imposed on sometimes disparate creative assignments. This fragmentary pattern is hardly conducive to operatic composition, an art form where so much has to be assimilated, and so many factors impinge on the composition process: collaboration with writers, realisation with directors, negotiation with singers and performers, engagement with an audience. Over the past three years every aspect of the operatic process has been scrutinised and experienced, resulting in the composition of three substantial operatic projects, each of which explores a different model for the development of the art form. Followers, a site-specific, promenade opera explores the idea of ‘residency’ itself; a chamber opera The Yellow Sofa, inhabits an operatic ‘in between’ of shifting musical registers and structural approaches; a youth opera, Knight Crew, investigates the potential of grand opera within a community- specific context. In addition a fourth opera, Péter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, commissioned for Glyndebourne’s 2008 Festival, offers a valuable opportunity to step back and observe, scrutinising the development process of new main-scale opera from first conception to first night. Taken together, these four operas are treated as a series of case studies in Chapters Three to Six with a set of fourteen supporting appendices, evidencing not only the details of libretto development but also each opera’s complete process, from conception to first performance. These four case studies detail exploration and reflection around a set of creative research questions intended to generate new models for future opera development, relating two broad areas of concern: context and the reanimation of tradition. 6 Context With such a powerfully social and collaborative art form as opera, this residency was bound to sharpen an awareness of context, not just creative and performing contexts, but also the context of Glyndebourne Festival Opera itself. Rarely are composers allowed access to the inner workings of an opera company, more typically kept at arm’s length for fear of what might be demanded. As a result, a heightened sense of opera’s many potential contexts remains a consistent concern at the heart of this residency: the commissioning context for a given new work, the creative context for that work, the social context of a particular space and audience, and the performing context of a work’s vocal and instrumental resources. Within the terms of this residency, ‘context’ has informed the research in three important ways – the Glyndebourne Festival, Glyndebourne Education and the Jerwood Chorus Development Scheme. These three contexts will be considered briefly before a detailing of the broader British Opera context for this creative residency itself. Glyndebourne Festival Opera This 2006-9 period of this research incorporates three Glyndebourne Festival seasons; taken as a whole, this constitutes eighteen productions on the Glyndebourne main stage, which have provided the backdrop for this residency’s creative activity. All eighteen works have been observed in rehearsal and performance to a greater or lesser degree, some operas – such as Verdi’s Macbeth (2006, directed by Richard Jones) - more directly influencing the research itself (Chapter Six). More generally, the residency has allowed for a full assimilation of how an opera company functions, and all the social, creative, musical and theatrical issues in play, when an opera is staged. Glyndebourne Education With Glyndebourne’s Head of Education, Katie Tearle,