The English Operetta and the Musical Comedy As a Reflection of The

260 Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts

Rückführung deswagnerschen Sprachgesangeszum Primat desgesprochenen,deklamier- tenWortes, wobei der genuin musikalische Konnex natürlichbestehenbleibt, aber eben nurals subkutaneWirkung erwünschtist.Auchdiese speziﬁsche Wagner-Rezeptionist nichtaus WagnersDenkenoderaus sich selbst heraus zu erklären, sondern, ebenso wie dieDeklamationen desJosef Kainz, vor allem alsSpielartder zeitgenössischen Ambivalenz zwischen uneingeschränktemSprachvertrauenund Sprachskepsis erklärbar.

Jana Polianovskaia (Leipzig) The English Operetta and the Musical Comedy as aReflection of the Russian Anglomania at the End of the 19th Century

Beginningwiththe epoch of Peterthe Great, Russia took thepathofactiveinteraction with Western Europe, thepathofwestern influence on life style, industry,educationand certainlyculture.Thousands of foreignpeoplecametoRussia andsettled there forever having foundtheir nicheinlocal life. ThespreadingofFrenchand German languages wasveryhigh notonlyamong thenativespeakersbut also amongthe nobleand educated Russiancircles.»Процесс этот зашелстоль далеко, что›естественное‹и›искусственное‹ (›свое‹и›чужое‹) моглименятьсяместами […] столичныедворяне вынужденыбылиобу- чаться русскому языкукак чужому.«1 Englishinfluencewas notasoverwhelming as that of Frenchand German,but itsexampleswere to be foundinall thespheres of life:land- scapearchitecture andChippendale style, Wedgwood porcelainsand factories, pianos and tailors,watches andhorses, tutors anddogs, educationand sport. The›Englishstyle of life‹becameamodel fornoblesand rich merchants. GreatBritain wassurroundedbythe halo of asparklingwit andarefinedtaste.English clubswere pop- ular despiteofveryhighmembershipprices. To be thememberofthe Englishclubmeant to have ahigh societystatus. From theverybeginning of the19thcentury Englishlan- guageand educationcameintofashion andintouse amongthe high circles. »Нынчеунас распространяетсяизучение Английскогоязыка.Причинаэтому очевидна:Английская литературатеперьсамая богатаяоригинальными сочинениями,почти по всем родам

1 »Thisprocess went so far, that ›natural‹and ›artiﬁcial‹(›home‹ and›foreign‹) couldexchangeplaces. […] Metropolitan nobleshad to learnRussianasaforeign language«. SeeYurij Lotman, Беседы орус- ской культуре: Бытитрадиции русскогодворянства(XVIII–начало XIX века) (Talks on theRussian Culture: Everyday life of RussianNobles(XVIII–Beginning of XIXcenturies)),St. Petersburg 1997, p. 188. AlltranslationsofRussiansources were made by theauthor of this paper. Polianovskaia: The English Operetta and the Musical Comedy 261

наук ипредметов общежития«, wrotethe Northern Bee in 18372.English educationalin- stitutions invitedyoung Russians to come andstudy.Asfar back as 1803 theGrammar school (Boston, Lincolnshire)put in the St.PetersburgischeZeitung an advertisementin- viting young Russians to studyinBoston, where »T he Englishlanguageisspokenwitha greatPurityand Correctness;and thoseyoung Gentlemenwho come forthe Purposeof attaining it,find theirProgress verymuchfacilitated by dailyOpportunities of hearing, andconversing with good speakers«3. Butmostofthe rich families preferredsomething else:theyinvited native speakers to teach theirchildren. Russianaristocrats andmerchantspaidgenerously,and plenty of sub- jectsofGreat Britain –realscientists, former students,impoverished nobles,old spinsters andsimplyadventurers –cametoRussia in thehopeofearningtheir living.Theyand theirchildrenconstituted theEnglish communityinRussia. Many of them strictly pre- served theirstyle of life andhabits, butsomenot only spokeRussianfluently, butalso adopted typicalmanners of thecommonpeople. TheEnglish communityof18thcentury St.Petersburgwas big andimportant.Inthe 19th and20thcenturies thequota of theEnglish-speakingpopulation in Petersburg stead- ilydecreased andreached 0,12 %by1910–approximately 2000 persons. Thesepeoplewere to be entertained.Asfar as in 1770 theEnglish troupeofFishercame, whichintroduced thegenre of earlyEnglish comicopera of Bickerstaffe with themusic of Thomas Arne, Samuel Arnoldand CharlesDibdintothe Russianaudience. Butitwas rather an exception. ›British‹entertainment wasassociated mostly with farces,clowns, circus,dance troupes and–veryseldom–drama companiesorfamouspeoplefromthe musicalworld such as the composer Michael Balfe(1853). Thelastquarter of the19thcentury in Russia wasatimeof thegreat ›British fashion‹,the time of ›Anglomania‹,the time when ›the British‹ fullysep- arated from the›all-European‹. This process wasinspiredand beganinthe high society, in theRoyal family andcourt.The ›typical Englishmen‹ CharlesHeath foralongtime occupied thepostofthe children’s tutorfor Tsar Alexander III.Hehad abig influenceon theirfuturetastesand understanding of finearts.The greatRussianpainterofthe new generation,Alexander Benoit,described skeptically howHeath couldproduceadozen pre- tentious landscapes in onehour:

Царскиедети […] именно на такомвздоре(илиеще на сентиментальныхкар- тинках в Graphics’е ивIllustrated London News) учились ›пониматьизящное‹. Немудрено, если вних такине[…] выработалось какое–либосерьезное отно- шение кискусству.Они были склонны на всехудожественное творчество глядеть черезочкидоброго дяди Чарльза,для нихискусство осталось невинным ипус- тяковымбаловством4.

2 »Now it becomesfashionable to studyEnglish language.The reason is evident: Englishliterature is now themostrichwithoriginalworksinall kindsofsciencesand social life«. See»Смесь«(Miscel- laneous),in: Северная Пчела (NorthernBee)88(1837), p. 349–350. 3 »EducationinEngland«, in: St.PetersburgischeZeitung 10,3rd February 1803,p.163–164. 4 »The Tsar’s children […] were broughtuponsuchnonsense(or also on sentimentalpicturesin Graphics and Illustrated London News)[…] It is no surprise that they didnot cultivate aserious attitude 262 Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts

ThefutureRussianEmperor Nicholas II,who came to thethronein1894, spokeEnglish so well that he couldeasilypretendtobeanEnglishman. Betweenhim andhis bride Alexandra, granddaughterofQueen Victoria,English wasadopted as an intercourselan- guage. He andhis EnglishcousinGeorge V were very much alikeintheir appearance, charactersand tastes. RobertMassie, theAmericanwriterand Russianhistorian believes that themain injusticeofdestiny forNicholas II lies in thefactthathe, atypical educated Englishmonarch,had to be theEmperorofthe wholegiganticRussia,which wasonthe brinkofarevolution.5 DuringNicholas’ British-oriented reignthe Englishcommunity flourished.In1902 they celebrated thecoronationday of Edward VIII andQueen Alexandrawithasplendid banquet in thehotel Hermitage. There were alot of consequences of this ›official Anglo- mania‹: in industry,commerciallife, science, sportand art. Theculturaland especially theatrelifewas also influenced.However,the most impressivefor theRussianpublic became not theserious plays, whichwere knownbefore, butthe lightmusic theatre: theSavoy OperaofGilbert andSullivanand themusical comedy.Morethan20ofthemwere staged in Russia at this time.Theywereinthe repertoireofthe plenty of operetta,opera and even dramacompanies,wereplayedinthe Imperial Theatres,infamoustheatricalenter- prises andonprivate miniaturestages. Thewholequantityofperformancesreached over a thousand,and thewavesoonswept over theMoscowand Russianprovinces. ThoseEnglish productionsperfectly reflected theimpetuous process of thedevelopmentofRussianoper- etta theatre, whichplayedone of themostimportant rolesinthe formationofthe metropolitan (St. Petersburg/Moscow) andprovincial entertainment industry.Itwas alongway from thefirstadaptations andtraditional theatreofthe the1880s to thestage director’s innovationsofthe 20th century. Theplace of theEnglish operetta in therepertoirestreamchanged everyseason. In the endofthe 1880s–middleofthe 1890sthe quotadidn’treach even onepercentofthe titles. From theend of the1890s TheGeisha by Sidney Jonescreated afurore andwentintothe repertoireofall theoperetta theatres in thecapitalsand provinces. On thediagram,which presentsthe dynamics of theEnglish operetta’s popularity an unprecedented flightright in theyear1898can be seen. TheGeisha wasfollowedbyalongseriesofBritish operettasand musicalcomedies. Ihavefound informationabout more than 20 worksand 200productionsbyWilliam SchwenckGilbert andArthurSeymour Sullivan, Sidney Jones, Ivan Caryll,LionelMonck- ton, Osmond Carr,PaulRubensand Howard Talbot. From theverybeginning theRussianoperetta theatrebenefited from foreignworks imported from Vienna, Berlin andParis.The Russianstage-directors only transferredthe foreignnoveltieswithevery kind of energyand luxury.The main business of theoperetta producersand stage-directorswas travellingabroad in thesearchofnovelties. Afteralong towardsart.Theywereprone to look at all creative work throughthe glasses of uncleCharles; all artfor them remained to be an indulgence –harmless andtrifling«.AlexanderBenoit, Моивоспоминания (My recollections),vol. I,Moscow1990,p.585. 5 SeeRobertK.Massie, Peterthe Great: HisLifeand World,London1982; ibid, Nicholasand Alexandra, London1985; andibid, TheRomanovs: TheFinal Chapter,New York 1995. Polianovskaia: The English Operetta and the Musical Comedy 263

Diagram 1: Dynamic of the English operetta’spopularity.This diagram shows how many Savoy Operas and British musical comedies were played per annum (1888 –1916) monopoly of Vienna, Berlin andParis,LondonbecameaMeccafor theRussianoperetta people. TravellingtoLondoninthe search of novelties became fashionableand efﬁcient. As aconsequencethe professionalEnglish translatorsappeared, whowere able to make the Russianversionsdirectlyfromthe original.There were plenty of such versions–translations andadaptations,professionaland amateur, of excellentorpoorquality.For example, in the period of 15 pre-Sovietyears seven (!)versionsofTheGeisha werewritten,and eleven diffe- rentvocal scoresand tens of separate numbersfromthismusical comedy were published. At last,in1899, theSt. Petersburg spectators were able to see the›original‹, theLondon productionsofthe Gaiety Theatre, thetheatre in whichthe genreofmusical comedy was created. FormanyofthemGaiety-tour wasn’t theﬁrstacquaintancewiththe Britishop- erettaperformance style6.By1899plentyofpeoplehad an opportunity to travel abroad, see theoriginalstars andcomparethemtohome-produced ones.»Москва любитг-жу Милютину; ей многоаплодировалиизаставлялиповторять номера.Нокак далеко ей до Ms.M.Tempest!« –wrote thereporterofTheatre andArt.7

6 It is curiousthatthe brother-in-law of AlexanderBenoit, Mathew Edwardes, whowas so sceptical about CharlesHeath’s »understandingofﬁne arts«, wasabrother of thefamousGeorgeEdwardes, who ownedinLondonseveral theatres includingthe Gaiety.GeorgeEdwardes(1852 –1915) wasabusiness manageratthe SavoyTheatre from 1881 before takingoverthe old Gaiety theatrein1885withJohn Hollingshead.In1886hebecamesole managerofthe Gaiety andbegan to replace theburlesque shows with work in thenew genreofmusical comedy.In1893EdwardesopenedDaly’sTheatre,Londonand made it anotherhomefor musicalcomedy. Tenyears laterheopenedhis ownnew Gaiety theatre, his greatest success therebeing OurMissGibbs,which hadits premierein1909and ranfor 636perform- ances. 7 »Moscowlikes Miss Milyutina; shereceivedagreat applause andrepeatedalot.But how farisshe from Miss Mary Tempest! [The Geisha in Shelaputin Theatre]«, in: ТеатриИскусство (Theatre and Art) 51 (1897), p. 952. 264 Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts

ThefamousAmerican›peripatetic‹ primadonna Mary Halton,whose activities were evaluatedasa»multilingual triumph«8,cametoRussia several timeswiththe Viennese Carltheateratthe turn of thecentury andperformed in TheGeisha.She became fortheatre- goersthe model of an Englishactress –atthattimenodifferencewas made betweenthe Englishand theAmerican. Despitegreat publicityand expectations,the performing artofGaietyactorswas not properly understood andseemedtobealien.Russiantheatre-goers were used to »sense playing«.»Удивительная страна!Непонятнаястрана! Уних плачут воперетке!«9 –wrote FrenchwriterArmandSilvestre.The ›imperturbable coldness‹ofGaiety-actors wasstrange to them.One of thereviewers noted: »Английский юморвсоединении склоунадой так же тяжел, какэль,ростбиф ивиски.«10 Only later, in the1910s,the Russianoperetta actors triedtoadopt theBritish eccentricalperformance style, with thepurposeofsatisfy- ingthe repertoirerequirements:»Есть еще,впрочем,английская оперетка, органически примыкающая кизлюбленномуанглийскомуискусству эксцентриков итанцующихкло- унов.Ирусские опереточныеСаши, Даши иСидоры, растянув себе сухожилия, стано- вятсяэксцентриками.«11 We see theparadox:the Englishoperetta andmusical comedy productions, andespecial- ly thefamous›geishamania‹ became aclear consequenceof›Englishexpansion‹atthe end of the19thcentury andwere widelyrepresented on theRussianstage.However,Iought to stress theimportant differencebetween theRussianexistenceofthe continentaland Britishkinds of genre. It is evidentthatany musicalortheatricalworkbeing transferred into thealien culturalcontext graduallybecomes apartofanew culture.But if forthe Russianaudiencethe Frenchoperetta always was›apartofParis‹, andthe Viennese one personified the›spirit of Vienna‹, theEnglish operetta wasnever perceivedasapartofthe Englishculture. Moreover:inthe beginningitwas perceivedasaGermanphenomenon. There areseveral reasonsfor this situation. Firstly, theSavoyOpera,the first represent- ativeofthe Englishoperetta,cametothe Russianstage much laterthanothers, within adap- tations’ stream,inthe contextofoperettasbyStrauss,Millöcker andSuppè. Librettoswere oftentranslatedfromGermanversions. Many productionsusedVienna, Berlin or Paris productionsasamodel. Itsmusical stylewas eclecticand didn’t carryasstronglypronoun- cednationalcolour as Offenbach’sorStrauss’tunes.The specifically›British‹ genres of SavoyOperasinthe Russianaudience’sperceptionweremixed with thefamiliargenres from Frenchand Viennese operettas. Themusical styleofEdwardian musicalcomedyis vernacular,popularand couldn’t promoteits identificationasaBritish phenomenon.

8 Kurt Gänzl, TheEncyclopediaofMusical Theatre,New York 1994,Vol.2,p.1272. 9 »Astonishing country! Incomprehensible country! They cryinthe operetta!« SeeElizaveta Uvarova, Какразвлекались вроссийских столицах (How People Entertained Themselves in theRussianCapitals), St.Petersburg2004, p. 100. 10 »English humour in thecombination with clownery is as heavyasale,roast beef andwhisky«,in: Theatreand Art (ТеатриИскусство)19(1899). 11 »There arethe Englishoperettas, borderedwiththe favourite Englishart of eccentrics anddancing clowns.Sothe Russianoperetta Sasha’s, Dasha’sand Sidor’s, strainingtheir tendons,becomeeccentric.«. »Notes«, in: Theatreand Art (ТеатриИскусство)1(1911), p. 17 –19. Rathey: Entstehung und Funktion eines ›deutschen‹ Geschichtsmythos 265

Secondly,due to unprecedented unityoftextand music, whichwas yet atopicfor many musicologicalanalyses, theSavoy Operalostmuchmoreintranslation than other kindsofoperetta.The interest in Savoy Operaand Edwardianmusical comedy exactlyas aBritish culturalphenomenonwas displayedjustatthe endof20thcentury in thecontext of heightenedinterest in interculturalrelations andthe assimilation of theworks belong- ingtodifferentnations on Russianterritory.

Markus Rathey (New Haven, CT) »… überhaupt ist mit dem Choral nicht zu spaßen« Entstehung und Funktion eines ›deutschen‹ Geschichtsmythos

Identitätskonstruktionenberufen sich aufGeschichte. Jedoch vermagdie Vergangenheit niemalsals einobjektivierbares Faktum zu überdauern, sondernkannimmer nurimKon- text einerkulturellen Gegenwartrekonstruiert werden.Inihrer Konstruiertheitist dieVer- gangenheit damitauchimmer anfällig fürFunktionalisierungen, dieInbesitznahme durch Ideologien,ästhetischeParadigmen, wieauchfür interessengeleiteteGeschichtsbilder. Beider Fragenachden Konstitutiva deutscherIdentität im 19.Jahrhundert wares–in Anbetracht der Nichtexistenz einerpolitischen Entität›Deutschland‹ –vor allem der Rück- griffauf dieGeschichte, der zurIdentitätsbildung genutztwurde. EinFixpunktindiesem Diskurswar das16. Jahrhundert. Martin Luther konnteals Schöpferder deutschenHoch- spracheheraufbeschworen werden,und schließlich konnteauchdie Musikinder Reforma- tion den ›Anfang‹ einesdeutschen Idioms ausmachen, wennsie im Kirchenlied,dem ›Choral‹,den deutschenBeitrag zurMusikgeschichte sah. ZurHilfe kamdieserSichtweise der ästhetischeDiskurs desspäten18. Jahrhunderts,der mitdem Postulat der ›Simplizität‹ einerseits undder ästhetischen Aufwertung desvierstimmigen Choralsatzes (als der mehr- stimmigenGestalt desChorals)andererseits, einenGrundstein legte. Letzteresgeschah überdiesinsomusikästhetisch unterschiedlichenAnsätzenwie dem Kirnbergersund Abbé Voglers, so dass der Choral auch alsüberkonfessioneller Kompromissfungieren konnte.