Part 3: "From despotism to pluralism"
How opera told stories from the modern world
(from 1500 to 2000)
Part 3 is also in 12 chapters. Below are the 12 chapter headings, each with a subheading below. Also included is the table at the start of each chapter. This sets the period of history covered, and lists the main operas mentioned.
‘Napoleon I and his military staff on horseback’ (Horace Vernet 1810; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
Chapter 25
Monarchy (1500-1550)
Victor Hugo and other revolutionary-romantics undermine respect for famous monarchs
| The history |
The operas |
| Spring 1519, France |
King Francis of France begins an affair with Françoise de Foix |
Donizetti Francesca of Foix (1831)Verdi [after Hugo] Rigoletto (1851) |
| June 1519, Aachen |
Charles V is appointed Holy Roman Emperor |
Verdi [after Hugo] Ernani (1844) |
| 24 June 1519, Italy |
Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, dies in Ferrara |
Donizetti [after Hugo] Lucrezia Borgia (1834) |
| 19 May 1536, Tower of London |
King Henry VIII of England has his wife Anne Boleyn executed |
Donizetti Anne Boleyn (1830) |
| January 1537, Notre Dame Paris, France |
King James V of Scotland marries Madeleine of Valois, daughter of Francis I of France |
Rossini The Lady of the Lake (1819) |
Chapter 26
Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth I of England (1550-1600)
Some revolutionary-romantics simply demonised these monarchs, but Schiller tries to understand the challenges they faced as leaders at a time of religious upheaval
| The history |
The operas |
| 21 May 1559, Valladolid, Spain |
King Philip II attends an auto-da-fe, where those who challenged Roman Catholic beliefs were burned alive |
Verdi [after Schiller] Don Carlos (1867)Dallapiccola The Prisoner (1949)
|
| 4 August, 1578, Morocco |
Sebastian I, the young King of Portugal, is killed at the Battle of Alcazar: Philip II takes control of Portugal |
Donizetti Dom Sebastien (1838) |
| 21 September 1578, England |
The Earl of Leicester remarries: Elizabeth I is furious when she finds out |
Rossini Elisabeth, Queen of England (1815) |
| 8 February 1587, England |
By command of Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots is executed |
Donizetti [after Schiller] Mary Stuart (1835) |
| 25 February 1601, London |
By command of Elizabeth I, the Earl of Essex (Robert Devereux) is executed |
Donizetti Robert Devereux (1837) |
Chapter 27
The rise of the creative artist in the western world (1500-1600)
Six manifestos on the role of the artist in society
| The history |
The operas |
| 1516, Nuremberg, Germany |
The poet Hans Sachs moves to Nuremberg, where he becomes a famous mastersinger |
Wagner The Mastersingers of Nuremburg (1868) |
| 1516, Colmar, Germany |
The painter Matthias Grünewald completes the Isenheim Altarpiece |
Hindemith The Painter Matthias (1938) |
| Spring 1545, England |
The composer John Taverner is appointed alderman in Boston, Lincolnshire |
Peter Maxwell Davies Taverner (1972) |
| 27 April 1554, Florence |
The sculptor Benvenuto Cellini unveils his bronze sculpture Perseus with the Head of Medusa |
Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini (1836) |
| 19 June 1565, Rome |
The composer Palestrina’s mass Missa Papae Marcelli is performed before Pope Pius IV |
Pfitzner Palestrina (1917) |
| March 1579, Ferrara Italy |
The poet Torquato Tasso is imprisoned in a lunatic asylum by his patron Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara |
Donizetti Torquato Tasso (1833) |
Chapter 28
War (1618-1648)
Creative artists ask if warfare is inevitable
| The history |
The operas |
| November 15, 1630, Regensburg |
The death of the scientist Johannes Kepler, adviser to Wallenstein, Commander of Catholic Imperial forces in the Thirty Years War |
Hindemith The Harmony of the World (1957) |
| Winter of 1633-34, Pilsen, Bohemia |
Wallenstein’s soldiers are encamped outside Pilsen during the Thirty Years War |
Verdi The Force of Destiny (1862) |
| 24 October 1648, Germany |
Peace is declared on the final day of the Thirty Years War |
Strauss Day of Peace (1938) |
Chapter 29
Russia (1570-1710)
The last absolutists? Rumbling under 19th century operas celebrating the rise of the Romanovs are premonitions of their fall in 1917
| The history |
The operas |
| 1570, Russia |
Ivan the Terrible massacres the entire population of Novgorod |
Rimsky Korsakov The Maid of Pskov (1873), Boyarina Vera Sheloga (1898), The Tsar’s Bride (1899) Tchaikovsky The Oprichnik (1874) |
| 23 April 1605 Moscow |
Boris Godunov dies |
Mussorgsky Boris Godunov (1869, revised 1872) |
| 21 February 1613, Moscow |
The beginning of the Romanov dynasty: a national assembly elects Mikhail Romanov as Tsar of Russia |
Glinka A Life for the Tsar (1836) |
| 7 May 1682, Moscow |
The Romanov Tsar Fyodor III dies aged 21, triggering a succession crisis |
Mussorgsky Khovanschina (first performed in 1886) |
| 27 June 1709, Ukraine |
The Romanov Tsar Peter the Great defeats Sweden at the Battle of Poltava |
Tchaikovsky Mazeppa (1883) |
Chapter 30
Ordinary people (1700-1780)
In tragic stories about love and sex, opera discovers the mass of humanity
| The history |
The operas |
| 1728, France |
Antoine François Prévost had studied with the Jesuits but rejected holy orders in 1716. He became a priest in 1726, but two years later he deserted the church for a second time |
Auber Manon Lescaut (1856), Massenet Manon (1884), Puccini Manon Lescaut (1893) |
| 7 August 1771, Sessenheim Germany |
Eight months into their love affair, the wealthy young lawyer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visits Friederike Brion, a frail parson’s daughter, for the last time |
Berlioz The Damnation of Faust (1846), Gounod Faust (1859) |
| 30 October 1772, Wetzlar, Germany |
Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem shoots himself at the age of 25 after an unhappy love affair |
Massenet Werther (1892) |
Chapter 31
The French Revolution (1780-1800)
Opera asks why the destruction of the ancien régime led to a bloodbath, not liberté, égalité et fraternité
| The history |
The operas |
| 25 May 1793, Jacobin Club, Paris |
Robespierre calls on the people of France to revolt |
Dvořák The Jacobin (1889, revised 1898) |
| Early 1794, Nantes, France |
The extremist French revolutionary Jean-Baptiste Carrier is recalled to Paris |
Beethoven Fidelio (first version 1805, revised 1814) |
| 5 April 1794, Paris |
Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins are guillotined |
von Einem Danton’s Death (1947) |
| 13 April 1794, Paris |
Lucile Desmoulins is guillotined |
Massenet Thérèse (1907) |
| 17 July 1794, Paris |
16 members of the monastery of Compiègne, among them 11 nuns, are guillotined |
Poulenc The Dialogues of the Carmelites (1956) |
| 25 July 1794, Paris |
The poet André Chénier is guillotined |
Giordano Andrea Chénier (1896) |
| 12 May 1797, Nore, England |
British sailors on The Sandwich revolt, triggering the Great Mutiny |
Britten Billy Budd (1951) |
Chapter 32
Napoleon (1800-1815)
In operas about Napoleon, Europe seems to be recovering from the trauma of being bullied
| The history |
The operas |
| 11 November 1806, Italy |
Napoleon’s troops execute the Neapolitan resistance fighter Michele Pezza |
Auber Brother Devil (1830) |
| 20 February 1810, Italy |
Napoleon’s troops execute the Tyrolean resistance fighter Andreas Hofer |
Donizetti The Girl of the Regiment (1840) |
| May 1812, Dresden Germany |
Napoleon’s wife Marie Louise accompanies her husband to Dresden, where she meets her future lover, Count Neipperg, for the first time |
Giordano Madame Carefree (1915), Vaughan Williams Hugh the Drover (1924), Kodály Háry János (1926) |
| 26 August 1812, Russia |
The Battle of Borodino |
Prokofiev War and Peace (1944) |
| 18 June 1815, Belgium |
The Battle of Waterloo |
Britten Owen Wingrave (1971) |
Chapter 33
Nostalgia for absolutism (1793-1918)
Elegies for the lost security and splendour of French, Habsburg and Romanov autocracy
| The history |
The operas and ballets |
| 21 January 1793, Paris |
The execution of Louis XVI heralds the twilight of the French royal dynasty |
Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty (ballet, 1890), Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades (1890), Strauss Capriccio (1942) |
| 28 June 1914, Sarajevo |
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand triggers the end of the Habsburgs |
Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (1911) |
| 17 July 1918, Ekaterinburg |
The assassination of Tsar Nicholas II ends the Romanov dynasty |
Balanchine ballets: Ballet Imperial (1941), Theme and Variations (1947), Allegro Brillante (1956), Diamonds (1967).
MacMillan Anastasia (ballet, 1971)
|
Chapter 34
Building an inclusive liberal democracy (1810-1900)
Opera reaches out to impoverished and disadvantaged communities, the isolated and disenfranchised
| The history |
The operas |
| 1810, London |
George Crabbe publishes The Borough |
Britten Peter Grimes (1945) |
| 3 June 1821, Leipzig |
Johann Wotzek murders his wife |
Berg Wozzeck (1914) |
| 1845, Paris |
Prosper Mérimée publishes a novella about gypsies |
Bizet Carmen (1875), Rachmaninov Aleko (1893) |
| 3 February 1847, Paris |
The courtesan Marie Duplessis dies of tuberculosis |
Verdi La Traviata (1853) |
| 1848, California |
A discovery of gold triggers the California Gold Rush |
Puccini The Girl of the Golden West (1910) |
| 22 December 1849, St Petersburg |
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is sentenced to four years hard labour in a Siberian prison camp |
Janáček From the House of the Dead (1930) |
| 1851, Paris |
Henri Murger publishes Scenes from Bohemian Life, a collection of stories about his friends |
Puccini La bohème (1896) |
| 1858, the Austrian Tyrol |
The young painter Anna Stainer-Knittel ropes herself down a rock face to reach an eagle’s eyrie |
Catalani La Wally (1892) |
| 1861, Catania, Sicily |
Giovanni Verga starts publishing stories about remote Sicilian communities |
Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) |
| 1870, Nagasaki |
Kaga Maki gives birth to a son fathered by a man who had briefly visited Japan |
Puccini Madam Butterfly (1904) |
| 1889, South Carolina |
The birth of Samuel “Goat” Smalls |
Gershwin Porgy and Bess (1935) |
Chapter 35
Authenticity (1900-1945)
Opera seeks the intensity of genuinely-lived experience
| The history |
The operas |
| May 1902 Germany |
Pauline Strauss opens a telegram addressed to her husband and assumes he is having an affair |
Strauss Intermezzo (1924) |
| Summer 1903, Luhacovice |
A conversation with Kamila Urvalkova inspires Leos Janáček to write an autobiographical opera |
Janáček Fate (1907), and other Janáček operas |
| 25 May 1911, Venice |
Thomas Mann is fascinated by a Polish boy staying at the Hotel des Bains |
Britten Death in Venice (1973) |
| 1915, South Africa |
The final issue of Indian Opinion is published, the journal in which Gandhi developed the concept of peaceful resistance |
Glass Satyagraha (1980) |
| 1916, Germany |
Midway through World War One, Strauss composes an opera about composing an opera |
Strauss Prologue to Ariadne on Naxos (1916) |
| 1928, Mödrath/Sirius |
The birth of Karlheinz Stockhausen |
Stockhausen Light (1977-2003) |
| January 1931, Los Angeles |
Einstein, while resident at the California Institute of Technology, plays Mozart and Beethoven with the Zoellner Quartet |
Glass Einstein on the Beach (1976) |
| 1942, Germany |
Midway through World War Two, Strauss composes an opera about composing an opera |
Strauss Capriccio (1942) |
Chapter 36
Hearing ourselves in history (1945-2000)
Opera returns to major political events – now recent ones on the world stage
| The history |
The operas |
| 16 July 1945, USA |
Testing of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico |
Adams Doctor Atomic (2005) |
| 21 February 1972, China |
Chou Enlai welcomes President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat to China |
Adams Nixon in China (1987) |
| 7 October 1985, the coast of Egypt |
Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front hijack the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro |
Adams The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) |
Presumed portrait of Lucile Desmoulins, wife of the French revolutionary Camille Desmoulins (Louis-Léopold Boilly c 1790; Musée Carnavalet, Paris).