Dramaturgical Analysis of Opera Performance: Four recent productions of Dido and Aeneas Holly Champion A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of the Arts and Media Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences February 2016 i Abstract The scholarly analysis of the modern performance of opera is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field, yet so far this body of literature has consisted almost entirely of short- form articles and chapters. This thesis posits and demonstrates a new large-scale methodology for the analysis of the modern performance of opera, drawing from theatre studies, performance studies, musicology, cultural history, and other fields, but primarily from dramaturgy. It focuses on analysing the construction of meaning and signification through modern musical and theatrical performance of opera, elucidating this through analysis of four recent productions of Henry Purcell and Nahum Tate’s c.1683–88 opera Dido and Aeneas; those of Sasha Waltz and Guests (2005), Les Arts Florissants (2008), The Royal Opera / The Royal Ballet (2009) and Opera Australia (2009). This thesis analyses and discusses the opera and the four productions through DVD recordings and live performance, while also integrating a range of primary and secondary sources. Comparing productions enables insights to be made into the interpretative possibilities offered by the operatic text. The thesis argues that these four productions of Dido and Aeneas explore a number of themes that are investigated chapter by chapter: themes of duality and dilemma; power, freedom and oppression; gender, sex and sexuality; the supernatural; and death and suicide. These arise partly from the opera's narrative and its intertextual relationship with Virgil's The Aeneid, and partly from the layers of cultural and artistic history that have accrued around the opera. The thesis shows how the four productions balance the historical and the contemporary, the stylistic and the thematic, the material and the meaningful; and how each production explores the interpretative possibilities offered by the operatic text in different ways. This thesis is unique as a large-scale dramaturgical and comparative analysis of multiple modern productions of a single opera, and as such it makes a significant contribution to a relatively new but exciting and rapidly developing scholarly field. ii Originality Statement 'I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.' Signed Date 20/09/2016 iii Acknowledgements I wish to heartily thank the many people who have assisted me financially, emotionally and intellectually in bringing this challenging project to fruition. These include my friends and colleagues: the fellow postgraduate students in Room 311L, who provided such a warm and supportive environment in which to work—and particularly Dr Myfanwy Hudson, whose practical help and whose own determination in completing her PhD despite incredible odds inspired me to keep going; and also my other friends, especially Dr Andrew Collins for his help with the early stages of the project. I thank the staff and artists at Opera Australia and the other companies involved in the productions studied in this thesis: they were all extremely generous in granting access to their archives, rehearsal rooms and professional insights to a student who could give little in return. Of huge importance have been my intellectual mentors and supervisors Dr Meg Mumford and Mr John McCallum, and especially Prof. Dorottya Fabian. Dorottya's tireless efforts and thorough feedback and advice have seen the project from beginning to end, and her advocacy did much to secure me several years of funding from UNSW, for which I am so grateful. Finally, heartfelt thanks must go to my sister Heather Champion; to my grandparents and extended family; and especially to Patricia and Bruce Champion, William Parry and Jamie Oberg. They have made this research possible through their love and support. iv Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Originality Statement ............................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Table of Figures...................................................................................................................... xii Table of Audiovisual Excerpts .............................................................................................. xx List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... xxii Α. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Α.1 Some Key Terms ............................................................................................................. 4 Α.2 Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 10 Α.2.1 Musicological traditions ......................................................................................... 10 Α.2.2 Opera studies towards the end of the millennium .................................................. 16 Α.2.3 New-millennium Opera Studies: Drastic or Gnostic? ............................................ 19 Α.2.4 The Presence Paradigm........................................................................................... 20 Α.2.5 Live vs. Recorded Performance .............................................................................. 22 Α.2.6 Germanic scholarship ............................................................................................. 23 Α.2.7 Anglophone Scholarship ......................................................................................... 26 Α.2.8.1 Levin's Unsettling Opera .................................................................................... 27 Α.2.8.2 Großmann and Daude: Large-scale German AMPO ........................................... 28 Α.2.9 Summary of Literature Review .............................................................................. 31 Α.3 Main Research Aims ..................................................................................................... 32 Α.4 Rationale ........................................................................................................................ 32 Α.5 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 32 v Α.5.1 Selected Productions ............................................................................................... 34 Α.5.2 Approach to analysis............................................................................................... 37 Α.5.3 Structure: Ambiguities and Themes ....................................................................... 44 Α.6 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 51 1 Applying the Methodology to Dido and Aeneas ............................................................... 52 1.1 Why select this opera and these productions? ................................................................ 52 1.2 The Aeneid ................................................................................................................ 54 1.3 Dido and Aeneas ....................................................................................................... 55 1.3.1 Textual sources for Dido and Aeneas ................................................................ 56 1.3.2 Structure of Dido and Aeneas ............................................................................ 60 1.4 The Four Recent Productions .................................................................................... 64 1.5 Structure of Analysis: These specific material resources.......................................... 65 2 The Genesis of Dido and Aeneas .................................................................................... 69 2.2 Dido and Aeneas as received in the Restoration period ............................................ 71 2.3 Dating Dido and Aeneas ........................................................................................... 80 2.4 The Original Court Production .................................................................................. 85 2.4.1 Structure ............................................................................................................. 86 2.4.2 Mise-en-scène ...................................................................................................