The Duenna
Encyclopedia
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England, and became known as the "English Mozart".-Early life:Linley's abilities were apparent from a...
, to an English-language libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
. At the time, it was considered one of the most successful operas ever staged in England., and its admirers included Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...
and Lord George Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
(Byron called it "the best opera ever written").
First performed in the Covent Garden Theatre on 21 November 1775, The Duenna was performed seventy-five times in its first season, and was frequently revived in Britain until the 1840s. In total, 256 performances of the opera had been held in London from its opening in 1775 to the end of the 18th century. Another 194 performances occurred in the capital during the nineteenth century, with the last known London representation happening in January 1851 (there were some subsequent Dublin performances in 1853). The opera was first performed in Jamaica in 1779, and subsequently spread round the English-speaking world. Soon after its first London performance, representations sprang up in British provincial theatres, though these often used invented dialogue (Sheridan's original text was not published until 1794) to link the published songs and musical numbers. In Autumn 2010, English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom. From 1979 to 1992 it was known as Opera 80.- About the company :Opera 80 was founded in 1979 by the Arts Council of Great Britain as the successor to Opera For All; in 1992 the company changed its name to English Touring Opera...
performed the complete opera in venues around the UK, beginning in the Linbury Studio Theatre within the Royal Opera House as part of ROH2's Autumn season - bringing the opera back to its Covent Garden home. Two modern operas based on Sheridan's libretto have been performed: Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Betrothal in a Monastery (composed 1940-1), and Roberto Gerhard
Roberto Gerhard
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder was a Catalan Spanish composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Robert Gerhard.-Life:...
's version of 1945-7.
Background
The Rivals
The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...
, and having effectively chosen the life of a playwright over that of a lawyer, Sheridan needed a commercial success to cement his position economically and culturally. To do this he skillfully used to his advantage the resources available to him at the time. He judged correctly the popular trend in the last quarter of the 18th century theater towards operas, pantomime and music.
The Duenna was considered a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
opera, though not by choice but as a result of the "extraordinary circumstances in which it was cobbled together." In 1772-73, Sheridan and Elizabeth Linley had a courtship, eventually eloping due to the opposition of their parents towards the relationship. This incident was to later become a major theme in the opera, in the form of Louisa's elopement so she could marry Antonio. After his marriage to Elizabeth Linley in April 1773, their parents eventually relented their opposition to the couple.
Using the musical experience of Elizabeth's father, Thomas Linley the elder, Sheridan asked him to provide music for The Duenna; whilst refraining from telling him about the true nature of the opera nor giving him all of the lyrics to it. The remaining lyrics in the opera were written to fit melodies from the Italian opera
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
s of that time, as well as some Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
tunes, such as Michael Arne
Michael Arne
Michael Arne was an English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer, and actor. He was the son of composer Thomas Arne and lauded soprano Cecilia Young, the latter of which belonged to the famous Young family of musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...
's The Highland Laddie, made popular in ballad opera
Ballad opera
The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...
s. The Scottish tunes were later sent to Linley as they needed harmonizing
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
. Linley gave these tunes to his son, Thomas Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England, and became known as the "English Mozart".-Early life:Linley's abilities were apparent from a...
, to harmonize. Linley the younger had proved to be a source of inspiration for his father when creating music for the opera. Illustrating his disdain for Sheridan's decision to incorporate parts of other operas in The Duenna, Thomas Linley the elder wrote to David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
:
Influence of the plot and characters
The basics of the plot of The Duenna originate in the tradition of Spanish honour dramas and the play includes many features of the genre. Its nearest predecessors are John Fletcher'sJohn Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
The Chances
The Chances
The Chances is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher. It was one of Fletcher's great popular successes, "frequently performed and reprinted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."...
and Sir Samuel Tuke
Samuel Tuke (playwright)
Sir Samuel Tuke , first baronet was an English officer in the Royalist army during the English Civil War and a notable playwright...
's The Adventure of Five Hours. However, for the benefit of the polite 18th-century audience, Sheridan left out the risqué situations of the previous honour dramas, so that when Louisa escapes from her father's house, the street is not the dangerous place her father has threatened her with. It is, in fact, very safe.
Sheridan's personal life also provided models for the plot and characters, as was also the case in The Rivals
The Rivals
The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...
. Louisa is a sketch of Elizabeth Linley/Sheridan
Elizabeth Ann Linley
Elizabeth Ann Sheridan was the second daughter of the composer Thomas Linley and his wife Mary Johnson, and was herself the wife of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.-Life:Of the 7 Linley children destined for musical careers, it is said that Elizabeth had the greatest talent and beauty...
; both have beautiful voices, both are forced by their fathers into marrying wealthy men whom they detest, and both flee to convents to avoid those marriages. The quarreling of Ferdinand and Antonio can also be traced to the brotherly quarreling of Richard and Charles Sheridan contemporary to the writing of The Duenna.
The songs
The songs in The Duenna were among the fundamental reasons for its success. While it does owe its heritage to the Ballad operaBallad opera
The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...
of the 1720s (John Gay
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
's The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
being the most famous example) the songs in The Duenna were more technically complex and required trained singers in the lead roles. The musical score was a combination of successful works by other composers, traditional ballads and new compositions. About half of the pieces are new, composed by Linley the elder and (mainly) by Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger
Thomas Linley the younger was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England, and became known as the "English Mozart".-Early life:Linley's abilities were apparent from a...
. Editions of the vocal score were published but a complete orchestral score was never printed. Neverthless, about half the numbers survive in manuscript full score (numbers 1, 3, 5, 11, 16, 21-26, 28-29), printed parts (the overture, by Linley the younger) and published full score (the borrowed numbers 6, 18, 24). The original scoring of the remaining numbers in this most popular opera may never be heard again, though they were orchestrated for the English Touring Opera performances in 2010.
Act 1
1. Song (Antonio): Tell me, my lute, can thy soft strain
2. Trio (Antonio, Louisa, Don Jerome): The breath of morn bids hence the night
3. Air (Ferdinand): Could I her faults remember
4. Air (Antonio): I ne'er could any lustre see
5. Air (Antonio): Friendship is the bond of reason
6. Air (Ferdinand): Tho' cause for suspicion appears
7. Air (Louisa): Thou canst not boast of fortune's store
8. Air (Don Jerome): If a daughter you have, she's the plague of your life
9. Air (Clara): When sable night, each drooping plant restoring
10. Air (Carlos): Had I a heart for falsehood fram'd
11. Trio (Isaac, Louisa and Carlos): My mistress expects me
Act 2
12. Song (Isaac): Give Isaac the nymph who no beauty can boast
13. Song (Don Jerome): When the maid whom we love
14. Song (Duenna): When a tender maid is first essay'd
15. Song (Carlos): Ah! sure a pair was never seen
16. Duet (Isaac, Don Jerome): Believe me, good sir
17. Glee (Jerome, Ferdinand and Isaac): A bumper of good liquor
18. Air (Louisa): What Bard, O Time, discover
19. Song (Carlos): O, had my love ne'er smil'd on me
20. Trio (Antonio, Carlos, Louisa): Soft pity never leaves the gentle breast
Act 3
21. Song (Don Jerome): O, the days when I was young
22. Air (Ferdinand): Ah! Cruel maid, how hast thou chang'd
23. Recit. Accomp. & Air (Ferdinand): Shall not my soul?/Sharp is the woe
24. Air (Clara): By him we love offended
25. Song (Antonio): How oft, Louisa, hast thou told
26. Air (Clara): Adieu, thou dreary pile
27. Glee and Chorus (Father Paul, Francis, Augustine, and Friars): This bottle's the sun of our table
28. Duet (Louisa and Clara): Turn thee round, I pray thee
29. Chorus: Oft does Hymen smile to hear
30. Final ensemble (Jerome, Louisa, Ferdinand, Antonio, Clara): Come now for jest and smiling
Writing for the talent
Sheridan wrote many of the roles in The Duenna to match a specific performer's ability, tailoring the text to the capacities of the singer. For example, the tenor Michael Leoni was cast for the role of Don Carlos, but his heavy German-Jewish accent meant that he could not deliver long lines of dialogue. To counter this problem Don Carlos's speeches were cut and his dialogues turned into duetsDuet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
and trios
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
. John Quick
John Quick (actor)
-Life:The son of a brewer, he was born in Whitechapel, London. At age 13 he left his home and joined a theatrical company at Fulham, where he played Altamont in the Fair Penitent, receiving three shillings as a share in the profits...
, who had proved himself as a great actor of Sheridan's comic characters as Bob Acres
Bob Acres
Bob Acres is a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals.Acres was a coward, whose “courage always oozed out at his finger ends”. He was popularly played in the 19th century by American actor Joseph Jefferson....
in The Rivals
The Rivals
The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...
and Doctor Rosy in St. Patrick's Day, was given the part of the equally ridiculous Isaac Mendoza; Mrs. Green, the original Mrs Malaprop, was given the role of the duenna.
Textual corruption
In his Reminiscences, Michael Kelly tells the story that in 1807 he was appearing in The Duenna at Drury Lane, as Ferdinand. One morning he went out for a ride, and returned home to find Sheridan with pen and ink correcting his printed copy of the dialogue. 'Do you act the part of Ferdinand from this printed copy?' asked Sheridan. Kelly replied that he had done so for 20 years. 'Then you have been acting great nonsense,' came the reply, and Sheridan went through correcting every sentence. Kelly adds, 'What could prove his negligence more than correcting an opera which he had written in 1775 in the year 1807; and then, for the first time, examining it and abusing the manner in which it was printed?'Roles
The scene is Seville.
| Premiere 21 November 1775 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Don Jerome | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Mr. Wilson |
| Donna Louisa, his daughter | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Mrs. Mattocks |
| Don Ferdinand, his son | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Mr. Mattocks |
| Isaac Mendoza, a rich Jewish merchant | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
John Quick |
| Don Carlos | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Michael Leoni Myer Lyon Myer Lyon , better known by his stage name Michael Leoni, was a hazzan at the Great Synagogue of London who achieved fame as a tenor opera singer in London and Dublin, and as the mentor of the singer John Braham.-Origins and early career:Myer Lyon was appointed meshorrer to Isaac Polack, hazzan... |
| Lady Margaret, Louisa's duenna | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Mrs Green |
| Donna Clara | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Mrs. Cargill Ann Cargill Ann Cargill was a British opera diva and celebrated beauty whose life and death were a sensation in London at the close of the 18th century.-Life:... (nee Brown) |
| Don Antonio | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Mr. Dubellamy |
| Father Paul | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Mr. Mahon |
| Father Francis | Mr. Fox | |
| Father Augustine | Mr. Baker | |
| Lopez, Ferdinand's manservant | Mr. Wewitzer | |
| Maids, servants, friars and masqueraders | ||
Stage history
The Duenna was first performed on 21 November 1775 at Covent Garden Theatre, LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The play catered to the reputation of the Covent Garden Theatre as the home of low comedy, the comedy of the jape, the leer and the pratfall.. However this was also the traditional home of opera and musical entertainment, beginning with Gay's
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
(Covent Garden Theatre is now called the Royal Opera House). The opera was an immediate hit, with 75 performances in its first season and a total of 254 performances in the 25 years between its opening and the end of the Eighteenth Century.
Modern reworkings
The Duenna has two modern reworkings that use the storyline of the opera but not the original music. The first is by the Spanish Catalan exile Roberto GerhardRoberto Gerhard
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder was a Catalan Spanish composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Robert Gerhard.-Life:...
in 1947-49. The second is by Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
in 1940 (first performed in 1946 owing to the Second World War) - Prokofiev changes the name of the play to Betrothal in a Monastery.