Margherita de L'Épine News
soprano of the Baroque era in London
- soprano
- Republic of Venice
- opera singer
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2024-04-25
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2020-07-20 06:55:45
The Invention of English Opera: part two, the brief flowering of English opera, the rise of Italian opera and the development of ballad opera
The Old Palace of Whitehall by Hendrick Danckerts, c. 1675The Palace is probably where John Blow's Venus and Adonis premiered Considering that the country went through two revolutions, including an interregnum when music was ostensibly banned, there was a surprising amount of music theatre in England in the 17th century, and like other countries artists, performers and aristocrats eagerly experimented music and drama, sometimes creating something which we would recognise as opera, and sometimes coming up with hybrid forms. The vigour and ubiquity of Italian opera in England in the 18th century should not blind us to the importance of the tradition of the 17th century English opera. In the first part of my article, we looked at how the first operas, and the distinctive English genre of semi-opera, developed out of the masque tradition. Beaufort House, […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2015-11-30 05:50:55
Polyphemus and Company Revive Excellent Handel
As if to top off the days of Thanksgiving indulgence before the inevitable return to such serious pursuits as work, school, and shopping, the Boston Early Music Festival offered a delicious bit of cerebral escapism in its production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea on Saturday at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. A revival of the 2009 production by Gilbert Blin and Melinda Sullivan, with costumes by Anna Watkins, the opera came to us again in the guise of a rehearsal in the picture room at Cannons, the country estate of Handel’s patrons, Lord and Lady Chandos. In this imaginary reenactment, Handel himself (tenor Jason McStoots) participated in the ensemble both as the shepherd Damon, and as the composer anxiously fretting over details of interpretation; the poet and librettist John Gay was the shepherd Coridon (tenor Mark Williams), and dancer Melinda Sullivan performed in a silent role as the Italian teacher […]
2012-06-02 01:03:00
The Prince of the Pagodas - The Music - Act 1
The ballet opens with a fiery prelude in F major. Brass fanfares are answered by distant woodwind calls. This is the music of pomp and pageantry. But rather than heralding one audacious burst, the response is murky and indistinct. Overlapping voices build to a coarse baroque cadence. Much as with Tchaikovsky's juxtaposition of the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty, there are clearly nefarious forces at work in The Prince of the Pagodas. The main action opens with a flourish. A fool prepares for the arrival of the court, but his efforts are constantly undermined (described by sliding trombones). Shifting through various harmonic centres, the fool's music reflects chaos rather than order. The Emperor, announced by a deafening tuba and a trilling alto saxophone (his instrument within the makeup of the piece), hardly offers a suitable authority figure. Little wonder that the entrance of the court, while […]
2012-06-02 01:02:00
The Prince of the Pagodas - The Music - Act 2
Having concluded Act 1 in Princess Rose's nominal key of G minor, Britten begins Act 2 in that same tonality. Here, it is peppered with sideways chromatic swipes. This is a threatening landscape, indistinct in its harmonic motivation and constantly switching between time signatures. Skidding through the clouds, a waltz begins to brew (à la Ravel's La Valse). While the tonality of B flat major seems clear the alternation between a clean 3/4 and quadruplet crotchets (forcing four into the bar) compounds the pervading uncertainty. For Cranko and Britten, this penumbrous environment indicated a battle between clouds (trombones), moon (a clarinet solo with hints of Rose and the Prince's duet in Act 1) and stars (skittering woodwind). For MacMillan it is the springboard to a frightening journey through Rose's subconscious. Here, as in The Turn of the Screw, the music of South East Asia indicates something 'other' - erotic […]
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