Opera Outside the Box: Notions of Opera in Nineteenth-century Britain

189 Pages·19.09 MB·English

by  Roberta Montemorra Marvin

“This fascinating collection offers a new and unfamiliar view of (mostly)
nineteenth-century operas we thought we knew, focusing on their general spread
through British culture by means of what the editor calls ‘operatic experiences
outside the opera house,’ and ‘operatically flavored activities.’ Edited flawlessly
by pre-eminent Verdi scholar Roberta Marvin, the volume includes contributions
by leading scholars of opera and of Georgian and Victorian musical life, as well
as by a few new voices of compelling interest.”
Ruth Solie, Professor Emerita, Smith College

Opera Outside the Box: Notions of Opera
in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Opera Outside the Box: Notions of Opera in Nineteenth-Century Britain addresses
operatic “experiences” outside the opera houses of Britain during the nineteenth
century. The essays adopt a variety of perspectives exploring the processes
through which opera and ideas about opera were cultivated and disseminated, by
examining opera-related matters in publication and performance, in both musical
and non-musical genres, outside the traditional approaches to transmission of
operatic works and associated concepts. As a group, they exemplify the broad array
of questions to be grappled with in seeking to identify commonalities that might
shed light in new and imaginative ways on the experiences and manifestations of
opera and notions of opera in Victorian Britain. In unpacking the significance,
relevance, uses, and impacts of opera within British society, the collection seeks
to enhance understanding of a few of the manifold ways in which the population
learned about and experienced opera, how audiences and the broader public
understood the genre and the aesthetics surrounding it, how familiarity with opera
played out in British culture, and how British customs, values, and principles
affected the genre of opera and perceptions of it.
Roberta Montemorra Marvin is a professor emerita of musicology at the
University of Massachusetts (USA), affiliated Professor in International Studies
at the University of Iowa (USA), and associate general editor for The Works
of Giuseppe Verdi. She studies Italian opera of the nineteenth century with an
emphasis on the reception and performance of Verdi’s operas in Victorian Britain.
Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera
Series Editor: Roberta Montemorra Marvin, University of
Massachusetts and 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 reception 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, psychoanalysis, 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.
The Original Portrayal of Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Magnus Tessing Schneider
Claudio Monteverdi’s Venetian Operas
Sources, Performance, Interpretation
Edited by Ellen Rosand and Stefano La Via
Contextualizing Melodrama in the Czech Lands
In Concert and On Stage
Judith A. Mabary
For more information about this series, please visit: www .routledge. com /music /
series /AISO
Opera Outside the Box
Notions of Opera in Nineteenth-Century
Britain
Edited by Roberta Montemorra Marvin
Cover image: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints
and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library.
“Theatre Royal Covent Garden.” New York Public Library Digital Collections
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-f3ce-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
First published 2023
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Roberta Montemorra Marvin;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Roberta Montemorra Marvin to be identified as the author
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
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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: Marvin, Roberta Montemorra, editor.
Title: Opera outside the box: notions of opera in nineteenth-century
Britain / edited by Roberta Montemorra Marvin.
Description: [1.] | New York: Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Ashgate interdisciplinary studies in opera |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022021929 (print) | LCCN 2022021930 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032168869 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032168883 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003250807 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Opera–Great Britain–19th century. | Opera–Social
aspects–Great Britain–History–19th century.
Classification: LCC ML1731.4.O64 2022 (print) | LCC ML1731.4 (ebook) |
DDC 782.10941–dc23/eng/20220505
LC record available at https://lccn. loc .gov /2022021929
LC ebook record available at https://lccn. loc .gov /2022021930
ISBN: 978-1-032-16886-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-16888-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-25080-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003250807
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of figures ix
List of music examples xi
List of contributors xii
Introduction: Opera Outside the Box 1
ROBERTA MONTEMORRA MARVIN
1 Of Shreds and Patches: Operatic Commonplaces in Early
Nineteenth-Century Britain 9
EDWARD JACOBSON
2 Perceptions of Verdi in Victorian Britain 30
ROBERTA MONTEMORRA MARVIN
3 Opera and British Choral Culture: Verdi’s Requiem in London 55
CHLOE VALENTI
4 “A Carnival or a Sacrament, a Fair or a Funeral”:
The Prima Donna at the British Musical Festival, 1810–1834 76
CHARLES EDWARD MCGUIRE
5 Adelaide Kemble and Opera Arias in Concert and
Drawing Rooms 96
MATILDIE WIUM
6 Marie Wilton, La! Sonnambula!, and the Opening
of the Prince of Wales’s Theatre in 1865 116
VALERIA DE LUCCA
viii Contents
7 Friends and Visitors: Chamber Music, Concert Aesthetics, and
the Conundrum of Operatic Song 133
CHRISTINA BASHFORD
Epilogue 164
ROGER PARKER
Index 169
Figures
2.1 Cover for sheet music from the English version of “Il balen del
suo sorriso” / “The Tempest of the Heart” from Il trovatore;
London: Charles Jefferys [1856?] 36
2.2 Scene from Nino (Nabucco), Act II, at Her Majesty’s Theatre;
Illustrated London News, 14 March 1846 39
2.3 Scene from I masnadieri, Act I, at Her Majesty’s Theatre,
showing Jenny Lind as Amalia and Luigi Lablache as
Massimiliano; Illustrated London News, 31 July 1847 40
2.4 Scene from La traviata, Act II, at Her Majesty’s Theatre;
Illustrated London News, 25 May 1856 41
2.5 Portrait of Verdi; Illustrated London News, 30 May 1846 44
2.6 Portrait of Verdi; Graphic, 8 March 1873 47
2.7 Portrait of Verdi; Illustrated London News, 19 February 1887 48
2.8 Portrait of Verdi; Graphic, 11 February 1893 49
2.9 Portrait of Verdi; Graphic, 18 February 1893 50
4.1 Robert Isaac Cruikshank, The Cambridge Musical Squeeze!!
– or – Double Bass Entré to the Orcestra [sic] (London: John
Fairburn, 1824). Hand-colored etching taken from the Henry
Beard Print Collection, Copyright © Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. 84
6.1 Gabriel De Rumine, sepia photograph of Marie Wilton as Pippo
in Henry J. Byron’s The Maid and the Magpie, or the Fatal
Spoon! at the Strand Theatre in 1858. Carte de visite, Guy Little
Collection, copyright © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 119
7.1 Anthony and Three Friends Playing a String Quartet, 1842–1845.
Watercolor by Mary Ellen Best (1809–1891) 136
7.2 Programming for Dulcken’s Soirée Musicale, 27 January 1847 139
7.3 Programming for the Classical Chamber Concerts, 3 February 1836 141
7.4 Programming for the Quartett Concerts, 7 March 1839 142
7.5 Programming for William Sterndale Bennett’s Classical Chamber
Concerts, 9 January 1843 142