LOUIS GRABU AND HIS OPERA ALBION AND ALBANIUS Bryan Douglas White Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Wales, Bangor November 1999 Two Volumes: Volume I I'W DDEFNYDDIO (M V LLYFRCELL '(N UNG TO BE CO3U1TED IN THE LRARYP.LV Summary Albion and Albanius and its composer, Louis Grabu, have been unjustly dismissed by musical scholars. This thesis seeks to redress that injustice. A documentary biography of Grabu is provided, and a discussion of the inception of Albion and Albanius, detailing the role of each of its creators. The opera is subjected to a thorough examination, including a discussion of: 1) the relationship between the 1685 libretto and the 1687 score; 2) its large- scale structure and tonal plan; 3) and its vocal and instrumental writing. These studies reveal that Grabu, in composing the music, Dryden, in writing the libretto, and Betterton, in designing staging, drew upon specific models from Lully's Phaêton (1683). Furthermore, it is shown that Grabu drew upon a thorough knowledge of Lully's other operas: not only the general compositional features and structures, but also specific movements. There is, in addition, evidence suggesting that Grabu borrowed musical ideas and techniques from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Information regarding the opera's performance is gathered from the score and developed through comparison with contemporary practices. In particular, the similarities between Grabu's score and those of Lully printed by Ballard suggest that Grabu wrote for an ensemble modelled on that of the Paris Opéra. The dance and staging elements of the opera are examined in the light of information about, and illustrations from, English and especially French productions (particularly the drawings of Berain). Grabu's influence on Purcell, and Dioclesian in particular, is demonstrated. The reception history of Albion and Albanius is explored, and the assertion that Grabu was an incompetent composer and the opera an artistic failure is shown to be unfounded. A modern edition of Albion and Albanius with critical commentary is provided. II LOUIS GRABU AND HIS OPERA ALBIONI4ND ALBANIUS VOLUME I TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Author's Declaration v Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Louis Grabu: A Biography 9 Chapter 3 The Genesis of Albion andAlbanius 29 Chapter 4 Dryden's Libretto and the Score of Albion andAlbanius 44 Chapter 5 Large-scale Structure inAlbion andAlbanius 63 Chapter 6 The style and Structure of Constituent Movements 6.1 Recitative 77 6.2 Songs, Choruses and Ensembles 98 6.3 Instrumental Music 120 Chapter 7 Grabu's Borrowings from Lully 140 Chapter 8 PerformingAlbion andAlbanius 158 Chapter 9 Stage Design and Dance inAlbion andAlbanius 192 Chapter 10 The Legacy of Albion and Albanius 221 Chapter 11 Reception History 248 Chapter 12 Conclusion 267 Appendices A. Manuscript and Printed Sources of Grabu's Music 272 B. Documents on the Early Reception History of Albion and Albanius 277 i. TheRaree Show ii. Extracts from the dedicatory essay to Miscellanea: or Various Discourses Written Originally by the Sieur de Saint Evremont And made English by Ferrand Spence iii. An excerpt from English D ramatick Poets by Gerald Langbaine C. Extracts of lyrics from the musical sections of Brutus ofAlba, or Augusta's Triumphs 285 Bibliography 291 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Bruce Wood, whose lectures on the dramatic operas of Henry Purcell first ignited my interest in English Restoration music. His support and guidance have been invaluable throughout my research. I should also like to thank Chris Collins for the many hours spent talking through our respective research pursuits and for his help in proof reading. Thanks are also due to Nina Platts for help in proof reading. The support of my wife, Caroline, and my family, friends and colleagues throughout the course of my research has been greatly appreciated. Thanks are also due to Musica Britannica for a Louis Dyer Award which helped to support this research. I would like to thank Anthony Rooley, and all of the cast and orchestra who gave the first complete modern performance of Albion and Albanius at Dartington International Summer School, on 7 August 1997. I wish to offer my final and most sincere thanks to my grandparents, J. P. and Florine White, without whose support this research could not have been undertaken. V Chapter 1 Introduction Music and theatre in the English Restoration united in a hybrid plant that bore several different and, to modern eyes, strange fruits. Such has been the victory of all-sung opera over any other type of musical theatre, that, even for the English, a return to the exciting and changeable musical theatre landscape of London during the last forty years of the seventeenth century is a voyage to a foreign and recalcitrant land. It is therefore interesting to observe that one of the few works from the period that conforms closely to the modern notion of opera, Dryden's and Grabu's Albion and Albanius, should today be one of that era's most neglected entertainments. Not only that, but for those intent on exploring the context of the period in an attempt to shed light on the life and works of Henry Purcell, the overlooking of Albion and Albanius as a repository of information on the contemporary theatre and its music has left a sizeable gap. The reopening of the public theatres at the restoration of Charles II initiated an important process of change in the relationship between music and drama in England. Whereas prior to the interregnum, narrative drama had flourished separately from the non-narrative concoction of scenic design, music, dance and poetry of the Caroline court masque, the Restoration theatre encouraged a merging of these previously divergent strands. Patents for two theatrical companies were granted by Charles in the summer of 1660. Thomas Killigrew, patentee of the King's Company, and in particular, William Davenant patentee of the Duke's Company, took the opportunity offered by the closure of the theatres and the subsequent break in dramatic tradition to introduce both changeable scenery and a much greater amount of dance and music into dramatic representations. These innovations seem to have been thoroughly welcomed by the audiences of the day, judging from the diary entries of such men as Pepys 1 and Evelyn, and from the increasing prominence given to music, scenic design and dance in the productions of the first fifteen years of the Restoration. Through-composed opera, on the other hand, failed to find a home on the Restoration stage. During the Commonwealth sung drama had, on occasion, been staged as an apparently acceptable substitute for spoken drama. At least one of these productions, The Siege of Rhodes, seems to have been sung throughout. From the title, which states that the story was sung in 'Recitative Musick', it is clear that The Siege of Rhodes was composed after the Italian declamatory style, though the music unfortunately does not survive. 1 With the reopening of the theatres, however, even this production was stripped of most of its music and presented as a straight play. After enduring some twenty years' hiatus in spoken drama, London audiences, and the nascent theatre companies, seemed more than satisfied with a diet free of opera. This is not to say that the same audiences were happy to forgo the pleasures of music in the playhouse; as has been noted above, music was allowed to take an increasingly prominent role in theatrical productions. Almost every play of the period would have been graced by music before the play began, and act tunes which were played between each of the acts. Other songs and instrumental music might be included in the body of the play.2 The extent to which spectacle and music were integrated within the drama, and the amounts of each that were included, varied greatly. In the 1670s, several important works explored the integration of music and drama, and expanded the amount of music included in a given play. Elkannah Settle's The Empress of Morocco, with music by Matthew Locke, 1 See E. Dent, Foundations of English Opera (Cambridge, 1928), PP. 43-61. 2 A thorough discussion of the use of music within Restoration plays can be found in C. Price, Music in the Restoration Theatre (With a Catalogue of Instrumental Music in the Plays 1665-1 713) (Ann Arbor, 1979). 2 suggests one of the directions which the relationship between music and drama was taking. The play, which was staged in 1673, contains a masque in the fourth act in which the action of the main drama is carried forward in a musical episode. This masque is in fact a masque within the play and thus, while several of the actors who normally speak in the play sing in this passage, they do so as characters in the masque and not as themsehcs While The Empress of Morocco is notable for the ay in hkh a musical passage is used to advance the dramatic action, The Ternpet, produced in the following year, shows another branch of the path along which the rather awkward pairing of music and drama was advancing. The work, which had already been revived in an adaptation by Dr den and Davenant in 1667, was now altered once again, but instead of providing the music with a dramatic function, there is simply a much greater quantity of it. Little thought is given to the dramatic role of the music, and those characters who sing are entirely separate from those who speak. Such a situation is not entirely surprising.