Masque and opera in England, 1656-1688

376 Pages·2017·5.988 MB·English

by  Walkling, Andrew R.

Masque and Opera in England,
1656–1688
Masque and Opera in England, 1656–1688 presents a comprehensive study of
the development of court masque and through-composed opera in England from
the mid-1650s to the Revolution of 1688–89. In seeking to address the problem
of generic categorization within a highly fragmentary corpus for which a limited
amount of documentation survives, Andrew Walkling argues that our under-
standing of the distinctions between masque and opera must be premised upon a
thorough knowledge of theatrical context and performance circumstances. Using
extensive archival and literary evidence, detailed textual readings, rigorous tabu-
lar analysis, and meticulous collation of bibliographical and musical sources, this
interdisciplinary study offers a host of new insights into a body of work that has
long been of interest to musicologists, theatre historians, literary scholars, and
historians of Restoration court and political culture, but which has hitherto been
imperfectly understood.
A companion volume will explore the phenomenon of “dramatick opera” and
its precursors on London’s public stages between the early 1660s and the first
decade of the eighteenth century.
Andrew R. Walkling is Associate Professor of Art History, English, and Theatre
at Binghamton University (State University of New York, USA). He received
his Ph.D. in British History from Cornell University, and has published widely on
court culture and cultural production in Restoration England, and on the music of
Henry Purcell.
Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera
Series Editor
Roberta Montemorra Marvin, Institute for Italian Opera Studies,
University of Iowa, USA
The Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera series provides a centralized and prominent
forum for the presentation of cutting-edge scholarship that draws on numerous disciplinary
approaches to a wide range of subjects associated with the creation, performance, and recep-
tion of opera (and related genres) in various historical and social contexts. There is great need
for a broader approach to scholarship about opera. In recent years, the course of study has
developed significantly, going beyond traditional musicological approaches to reflect new
perspectives from literary criticism and comparative literature, cultural history, philosophy,
art history, theatre history, gender studies, film studies, political science, philology, psycho-
analysis, and medicine. The new brands of scholarship have allowed a more comprehensive
interrogation of the complex nexus of means of artistic expression operative in opera, one
that has meaningfully challenged prevalent historicist and formalist musical approaches.
This series continues to move this important trend forward by including essay collections
and monographs that reflect the ever-increasing interest in opera in non-musical contexts.
Books in the series are linked by their emphasis on the study of a single genre—opera—yet
are distinguished by their individualized and novel approaches by scholars from various
disciplines/fields of inquiry. The remit of the series welcomes studies of seventeenth-century
to contemporary opera from all geographical locations, including non-Western topics.
Recent titles in the series:
Opera as Soundtrack
Jeongwon Joe
Musicality in Theatre: Music as Model, Method and Metaphor in Theatre-Making
David Roesner
Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body
Jelena Novak
The Business of Opera
Anastasia Belina-Johnson and Derek B. Scott
Grétry’s Operas and the French Public: From the Old Regime to Restoration
R.J. Arnold
Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven
Martin Nedbal
Masque and Opera in England,
1656–1688
Andrew R. Walkling
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Andrew R. Walkling
The right of Andrew R. Walkling to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Walkling, Andrew R.
Title: Masque and opera in England, 1656–1688 / Andrew R. Walkling.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Ashgate interdisciplinary studies in opera | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016011107 | ISBN 9781472446534
(hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315594217 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Opera—England—17th century. | Masques with
music—17th century—History and criticism. | Masques, English—History
and criticism |
Classification: LCC ML1731.2 .W35 2017 | DDC 782.10942/09032—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016011107
ISBN: 9781472446534 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315594217 (ebk)
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contents
List of figures, diagrams, and music examples ix
List of tables x
Acknowledgments xi
Series editor’s preface xiv
Notes to the reader xv
Introduction: Comparing apples and tomatoes:
The problematics of Restoration masque and opera 1
PART I
“Their greatest gallantry imaginable”: Masques, balls, and
“recreational” acting at court 25
1 Balls and the growth of Shrovetide entertainments 27
2 Youthful “recreational” theatrics, 1668–75 71
3 Masques and plays at court after 1675 112
PART II
“For such uses as the King shall direct”: Through-composed
opera, foreign musicians, and the Royall Academy of Musick 141
4 Operatic experiments of the 1650s 143
5 Foreign musicians at the Restoration court, 1660–73 193
6 The Royall Academy of Musick, 1673–75 219
7 French musicians at court, 1675–89 264
8 Through-composed drama in the 1680s 291
viii Contents
Appendix A: T ranscription of National Archives, London,
AO1/2053/28, ff. 4v–5r (costumes for
1667 court ball) 309
Appendix B: Letters relating to Lord Sunderland’s
court ballet, 1686 311
Appendix C: Instrumental music associated with early
operas and masques found in contemporary
printed collections, 1662–c.1725 315
Select bibliography 319
Name index 333
Subject index 349
Works index 351
Figures, diagrams, and music examples
Figures
1.1 John Webb, design for Cockpit-in-Court Theatre, Whitehall Palace
(originally constructed 1629–30), as remodeled in November 1660
(The Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford
[Harris and Tait 4, detail]) 37
4.1 Comparison of views of Rhodes from (a) von Breydenbach,
Peregrinationes in Terram Sanctam (1486) (Wikimedia Commons
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breydenbach_Rodis_
1486.jpg]); (b) Camocio, Isole famose porti (1571–72) (By
permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library [G1015 .C3 1574
Cage, pl. 69]); (c) Rosaccio, Viaggio da Venetia, a Costantinopoli
(1598) (Houghton Library, Harvard University [Asia 9215.98*]);
(d) Meisner/Kieser, Thesaurus Philo-politicus (1623/1638)
(Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Rodis_in_Orient_1638.jpg]); and (e) Webb, design for first scene
from The Siege of Rhodes (1656) (© Devonshire Collection,
Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement
Trustees) 169
4.2 Comparative details: Rhodes city wall, the coastline, and
Mount Filerimos in three of John Webb’s designs for The Siege of
Rhodes (© Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by
permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees) 171
6.1 Anonymous engraved fold-out frontispiece from the Ariane/Ariadne
programme libretti, showing a scene from the Prologue with Thames,
Tiber, and Seine singing (Houghton Library, Harvard University
[38576.42]) 249
Diagrams
4.1 Stage configuration and coordination of scene changes in
The Siege of Rhodes 174
Music examples
4.1 “Iantha,” from The Dancing Master, ?1662 191