Four recent productions of Dido and Aeneas

457 Pages·2016·10.25 MB·English

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
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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.
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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

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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.

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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
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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 .................................................................................................... 87
2.4.3 Performers .......................................................................................................... 89
2.5 The Chelsea Production ............................................................................................ 92
2.5.1 Cast and Creative Team ..................................................................................... 92
2.5.2 Movement .......................................................................................................... 95
2.6 The 1700 and 1704 Productions ................................................................................ 96
2.6.1 Structure ............................................................................................................. 97
2.6.2 Casting ............................................................................................................... 98
2.7 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 99
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3 The Prologue ................................................................................................................. 102
3.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 102
3.3 The Waltz Production.............................................................................................. 103
3.3.1 Waltz’s staging of the Prologue ....................................................................... 106
3.3.2 Cremonesi’s reconstructed Prologue ............................................................... 112
3.4 The LAF Production................................................................................................ 129
3.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 136
4 Dido’s Dilemma............................................................................................................. 138
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 138
4.1.1 The Operatic text and Dido's Dilemma ............................................................ 139
4.2 The Waltz production .............................................................................................. 156
4.3 The LAF production ................................................................................................ 169
4.4 The ROH production ............................................................................................... 177
4.5 The OA production.................................................................................................. 184
4.6 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 191
5 Power Relations ............................................................................................................ 194
5.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 194
5.3 Class ........................................................................................................................ 195
5.4 Witchcraft and power .............................................................................................. 196
5.5 The Waltz production .............................................................................................. 199
5.5.1 Dido and the Court ........................................................................................... 200
5.5.2 The Sorcerer and the Witches .......................................................................... 209
5.6 The LAF production ................................................................................................ 212
5.6.1 Dido and the Court ........................................................................................... 212
5.6.2 The Sorceress and the Witches ........................................................................ 214
5.7 The ROH production ............................................................................................... 223
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5.7.1 Dido and the Court ........................................................................................... 224
5.7.2 The Sorceress and the Witches ........................................................................ 228
5.8 The OA production.................................................................................................. 236
5.8.1 Dido and the Court ........................................................................................... 237
5.8.2 The Sorcerer and the Witches .......................................................................... 237
5.8.3 The Sailors ....................................................................................................... 245
5.9 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 248
6 Gender, Sex and Sexuality ........................................................................................... 251
6.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 251
6.3 Gender Performance in the Restoration and Today ................................................ 255
6.4 The Sorcerer/ess ...................................................................................................... 257
6.5 The Spirit ................................................................................................................. 258
6.6 The Waltz production .............................................................................................. 260
6.6.1 The Sorcerer and Witches ................................................................................ 261
6.6.2 The Spirit ......................................................................................................... 264
6.7 The LAF production ................................................................................................ 264
6.7.1 The Lovers and the Court ................................................................................ 265
6.7.2 The Sorceress and Witches .............................................................................. 270
6.7.3 The Spirit ......................................................................................................... 274
6.8 The ROH production ............................................................................................... 276
6.8.1 The Lovers and the Court ................................................................................ 276
6.8.2 The Sorceress ................................................................................................... 279
6.8.3 The Spirit ......................................................................................................... 280
6.9 The OA production.................................................................................................. 281
6.9.1 The Lovers and the Court ................................................................................ 281
6.9.2 The Spirit ......................................................................................................... 281
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6.9.3 The Sorcerer/ess and Witches .......................................................................... 282
6.10 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 290
7 The Supernatural .......................................................................................................... 292
7.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 292
7.3 Fate and Roman Gods ............................................................................................. 293
7.4 Magic and Religion ................................................................................................. 303
7.5 The Waltz Production.............................................................................................. 308
7.6 The LAF Production................................................................................................ 317
7.7 The ROH production ............................................................................................... 323
7.8 The OA production.................................................................................................. 326
7.9 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 329
8 Dido's Death .................................................................................................................. 331
8.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 331
8.3 Self-directed Death in History................................................................................. 332
8.4 Dido's Desire for Death ........................................................................................... 336
8.5 The Waltz Production.............................................................................................. 343
8.6 The LAF Production................................................................................................ 347
8.7 The ROH Production ............................................................................................... 351
8.8 The OA Production ................................................................................................. 356
8.9 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 358
Ω. General Conclusions .................................................................................................... 361
Ω.1 Sources of Interpretative Possibilities ......................................................................... 364
Ω.1.1 Non-narrative possibilities/themes ....................................................................... 364
Ω.1.2 Narrative-based possibilities/themes (ambiguities) .............................................. 366
Ω.1.3 Diffuse narrative-based possibilities/themes ........................................................ 371
Ω.2 Methodology and the discipline .................................................................................. 377
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Ω.3 Subjective assessment of effectiveness ....................................................................... 379
Ω.4 Limitations and future research ................................................................................... 384
Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 388
The Chelsea Libretto's Prologue ........................................................................................ 388
The Text of the LAF Prologue ........................................................................................... 392
"Echo and Narcissus" from Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes ........................................ 392
Extract from "A Game of Chess" from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot ......................... 394
"Aedh Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven" from The Wind Among The Reeds by W. B.
Yeats ............................................................................................................................... 396
Glossary of Key Terms ...................................................................................................... 397
Opera .............................................................................................................................. 397
Postdramatic theatre (PDT) ............................................................................................ 398
Regietheater (and Regieoper) ......................................................................................... 398
Werktreue ........................................................................................................................ 399
Historically Informed Performance (HIP) ...................................................................... 400
Fidelity Dichotomy (FD) ................................................................................................ 401
Director ........................................................................................................................... 402
Conductor ....................................................................................................................... 402
The Operatic Text ........................................................................................................... 403
The Production vs. the Performance ............................................................................... 403
Presence and materiality ................................................................................................. 405
Standard-era opera .......................................................................................................... 406
Early opera and music .................................................................................................... 406
Canonic performance (music) ........................................................................................ 407
Canonic performance (opera) ......................................................................................... 409
"Tradition" ...................................................................................................................... 409
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