OPERA

Thomas Arne

While Handel (d.1759) was alive Thomas Arne (1710-1778) refrained from writing opera.

In 1762 Arne wrote Artaxerses, an English-language opera seria. The text was based on a libretto that had been written Pietro Metastasio, the era's leading seria poet. Its inaugural performance was at The Theatre Royal Covent Garden. The opera proved to be durable.

In 1808 The Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire. The recits and finale of Artaxerses were lost. However, Henry Bishop, the composer of Home, Sweet Home, rewrote the missing passages in his own style and the opera continued to be performed.

Location: 31 King Street, WC2E 8JD (blue, black)

The Coliseum Theatre

The Coliseum Theatre (1904) is one of London's largest theatres. In its earliest years, the music hall venue offered four shows a day, six days a week. The performers who appeared there included Sarah Bernhardt, Lily Langtry, Diaghilev's Ballet Russe, and W.C. Fields, who was a world-renowned juggler before he became a comedian.

Stephen Arlen was the force behind E.N.O.'s move to The Coliseum in 1968. Arlen's death in 1942 was unexpected. The 7^th Earl of Harewood (1923-2011) took over the direction of the house. He operated under the maxim Remember that everything matters - but nothing matters as much as all that .

Since 1968 the English National Opera has resided at the theatre. The company was largely the creation of the 7^th Earl of Harewood, who was its managing director from 1972 to 1985 and the president of its board from 1986 to 1995.

In 1977, with the assistance of Jack Phipps (1925-2010), the Head of Touring at the Arts Council, E.N.O. established English National Opera North in The Grand Theatre in Leeds. In 1980 the satellite became an independent entity under the name Opera North. Lord Harewood's country seat, Harewood House, was to the north of Leeds.

Location: 33-35 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES (purple, brown)

Website: https://londoncoliseum.org www.eno.org

Handel's Operas

For his later operas the composer George Frederic Handel employed the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni and the mezzo Faustina Bordoni. The two singers were rivals. Their mutual antagonism came to a head in summer 1726 during a performance of Giovanni Bononcini's Astianatte that was attended by Caroline the Princess of Wales. London society became riven by support for either one singer or the other.

Location: 25 Brook Street, W1K 4HB (purple, red)

See Also: MUSIC Handel

Charles Jennens

The librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773) was the son of a wealthy Birmingham ironmaster who had bought an estate in Leicestershire. The younger Jennens was a non-juror, a person who believed that the Stuarts should be the rightful monarchs of Britain and who therefore refused to swear any oaths of loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty. Despite holding such political views, he and Handel proved able to form a productive creative partnership. In part, this derived from the way in which Jennens wished to protect Protestantism from the attacks of deism. Therefore, he sought to underscore that Christ possessed a divine aspect. He penned the libretto for The Messiah independently and sent Handel the completed work. The composer wrote the music to the text within three weeks.

Location: Great Ormond Street, WC1N 3JB. Jennens's townhouse. (orange, pink)

Hiawatha

The composer Samuel Taylor-Coleridge (1875-1912) wrote the opera The Song of Hiawatha (1900). It was extremely successful. However, he had agreed to a fixed fee and so did not benefit financially from the length of the run. This caused a scandal. In part, it led to the establishment of the Performing Rights Society in 1914.

Location: The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP. The venue where the full work was performed for the first time. (red, brown)

Holland Park Opera

Location: Holland Park, Ilchester Place, W8 6LU (red, turquoise)

Website: https://operahollandpark.com

The National Opera Studio

The National Opera Studio provides intensive training for young opera singers. It was established by the Arts Council in 1978.

Location: The Clore Building, 2 Chapel Yard, SW18 4HZ

Website: www.nationaloperastudio.org.uk

Performance

Dodgy Knees

Many opera singers suffer from bad knees. This derives in large part from the amount of standing that they have to do during both rehearsals and performances. For some, the problem is compounded by the raked stages.

Parking and Barking

In the past, some opera singers were notorious for not acting when delivering a performance. This practice became known as parking and barking .

The Royal Opera House

An opera house was established in Covent Garden in 1847. It burned down almost a decade later. The impresario Frederick Gye raised the money to build the present Royal Opera House (1858). Its manager, Augustus Harris, turned the building into one of Europe s foremost opera venues.

The House has had quiet periods. Between 1924 and 1931 opera performances were only put on for a few weeks each summer. During the Second World War the building was used as a dance hall.

After the Second World War the Covent Garden Opera Trust was set up at the instigation of the economist Lord Keynes. David Webster and the music director Karl Rankl established the Covent Garden Opera Company. The theatre became a national home for opera and ballet.

In 1947 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf made her debut at Covent Garden as Donna Elvira with the Vienna State Opera. The following year she joined the Company. In 1959 she appeared as Strauss's Marschallin, having made a notable recording of the role with the conductor Herbert von Karajan. The reception for the performance was not supportive. She declared she would never appear upon the London stage again. The same year Joan Sutherland became a star through singing the role of Lucia in Lucia di Lammamor at the House. The production was both directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. The conductor Richard Bonning had an unconventional conducting technique but was respected by orchestra members for his musicianship. He shaped Joan Sutherland's career at Covent Garden. He believed that she did not have perfect pitch; by stealth he manipulated her into singing higher. She was edged from being a dramatic mezzo into being a coloratura soprano, which made her a rarer performer and enabled the House to debut numerous works.

During the 1950s and 1960s the Italian tenor Gianni Raimondi (1923-2008) declined to perform at Covent because of the lack of suitable late-night restaurants nearby. In 1963 the tenor Luciano Pavarotti made his Covent Garden debut. He deputised for Giuseppe di Stefano as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boh me. This led to the Italian sang on the major television variety entertainment show Sunday Night At The Palladium. Three years later he appeared as Tonio in La Fille du r giment opposite Sutherland. The appearance helped to make him a star; in his first aria he sang nine high Cs in full voice even though Donizetti had written them for the head voice. This achievement led him to focus his work on the bel canto repertoire of Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi's lighter roles, and Puccini's Rodolfo.

Location: Bow Street, WC2E 9DD¹ (purple, brown)

See Also: MURDERS Martha Ray

Website: www.roh.org.uk

¹. In taxi slang the Royal Opera House is known as The Uproar.

David Backhouse 2024