The Knot Garden
Encyclopedia
The Knot Garden is the third opera
by composer Michael Tippett
for which he wrote the original English libretto
. The work had its first performance at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden, on 2 December 1970 conducted by Sir Colin Davis
and produced by Sir Peter Hall. There is a recording with the original cast.
, and the first German performance in 1987 at the Musiktheater im Revier
in Gelsenkirchen. In 1984 Tippett created a reduced orchestration for a revival with the London Sinfonietta
at the Wilde Theatre. The reduced version has been revived six times, with productions in Britain, America, Australia, and Austria. There was a revival at the Royal Opera House in 1988, directed by Nicholas Hytner
and, in 2005, Scottish Opera
produced the opera for the Tippett centenary.
Mel and Dov enter dressed up as Ariel and Caliban from The Tempest
. They are lovers, but Mel flirts with Thea, and out of jealousy Dov makes a play for Faber. This tense foursome is disrupted when Flora again rushes in screaming: Thea's sister Denise has arrived for a visit, and she is disfigured by torture. Denise introduces herself in a dramatic aria about her struggle for universal justice. This becomes an ensemble, and the act closes on Mel's soft rejoinder, "Sure, baby."
The first pair to appear are Thea and Denise, who speak in parallel, unable to meet. Thea is replaced by Faber, who does make some contact with the touchy Denise, but she is then replaced by Flora, who again reacts to Faber with screams. She is whirled offstage and Denise reappears with a horsewhip, followed by Dov, who continues his earlier flirtation. Faber is responsive, but is spun offstage and replaced by Mel, and the lovers share a duet acknowledging that their affair is ending. Dov now disappears to be replaced by Denise, who sees Mel as representing the oppressed of the earth (the tune to "We Shall Overcome
" appears in the orchestra). Characters appear and disappear in quick succession until the sequence ends with Flora alone with Dov.
Dov comforts Flora by encouraging her to sing, and she performs "Die liebe Farbe" from Schubert
's Die schöne Müllerin
. Dov responds with the song that would later form the first part of the Songs for Dov cycle. The act ends on Mel's re-entry.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
by composer Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
for which he wrote the original English 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...
. The work had its first performance at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden, on 2 December 1970 conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
and produced by Sir Peter Hall. There is a recording with the original cast.
Performance history
The first American performance was in 1974 at Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, and the first German performance in 1987 at the Musiktheater im Revier
Musiktheater im Revier
Musiktheater im Revier is the venue for performing opera, operetta, musical theatre and ballet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany...
in Gelsenkirchen. In 1984 Tippett created a reduced orchestration for a revival with the London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
at the Wilde Theatre. The reduced version has been revived six times, with productions in Britain, America, Australia, and Austria. There was a revival at the Royal Opera House in 1988, directed by Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
and, in 2005, Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
produced the opera for the Tippett centenary.
Roles
| Role | Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types... |
Premiere cast, 2 December 1970 (Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Sir Colin Davis Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett.... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Faber, a civil engineer | robust 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... |
Raimund Herincx Raimund Herincx Raimund Frederick Herincx is a British operatic bass baritone. Throughout a varied international career, Herincx performed in most of the world's great opera houses and with many of the world's leading symphony orchestras, having been in demand in international opera and in the choral and... |
| Thea, his wife, a gardener | dramatic 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... |
Yvonne Minton Yvonne Minton Yvonne Fay Minton CBE is an Australian opera singer. She is variously billed as a soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto.Yvonne Minton was born in Sydney, New South Wales. She studied voice on a scholarship at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. She won the National Eisteddfod in Canberra,... |
| Flora, their ward, an adolescent girl | light high 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... |
Jill Gomez Jill Gomez Jill Gomez is a Trinidadian and British soprano of Hispanic origin.She was born in Guyana to a Trinidadian father and British mother; was raised in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and has made her career primarily in the United Kingdom. After studying briefly at St... |
| Denise, Thea's sister, a freedom fighter | dramatic soprano | Josephine Barstow Josephine Barstow Dame Josephine Clare Barstow DBE is an English soprano.-Education and early career:Josephine Barstow was born in Sheffield and educated at the University of Birmingham. She made her professional debut with the touring company Opera for All in 1964... |
| Mel, a black writer | lyric bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... |
Thomas Carey Thomas Carey (baritone) Thomas Carey was an American operatic baritone. Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, he served in the United States military during the Korean War. After leaving the service he studied singing at the Henry Street Settlement and at City College of New York... |
| Dov, his white lover, a musician | lyric 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... |
Robert Tear Robert Tear Robert Tear, CBE was a Welsh tenor and conductor.Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the son of Thomas and Edith Tear. He attended Barry Boys' Grammar School and during this period sang in the chorus of the first Welsh National Opera's production of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' in April 1946... |
| Mangus, a psycho-analyst | high tenor baritone | Thomas Hemsley Thomas Hemsley Thomas Jeffrey Hemsley, CBE is an English baritone. He made his debut in 1951 as Purcell's Aeneas at the Mermaid Theatre, London, and debuted at Glyndebourne in 1953.... |
Act 1
The psychiatrist Mangus introduces the action. Thea enters, soon followed by the hysterical girl Flora, who rushes screaming into Thea's arms. Faber enters, and Thea sends Flora off with Mangus, then scolds Faber for (as she imagines) playing the lecher with Flora. Faber protests "I do not flirt with Flora; Flora screams before I...impossible!"Mel and Dov enter dressed up as Ariel and Caliban from The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
. They are lovers, but Mel flirts with Thea, and out of jealousy Dov makes a play for Faber. This tense foursome is disrupted when Flora again rushes in screaming: Thea's sister Denise has arrived for a visit, and she is disfigured by torture. Denise introduces herself in a dramatic aria about her struggle for universal justice. This becomes an ensemble, and the act closes on Mel's soft rejoinder, "Sure, baby."
Act 2
The second act is a dreamlike series of dialogues. In the score, the composer described his vision of the staging: "It appears as if the centre of the stage had the power to 'suck in' a character at the back of the stage, say, and 'eject' him at the front. During their passage through the maze, characters meet and play out their scenes. But always one of the characters in these scenes is about to be ejected while a fresh character has been sucked in and is whirled to the meeting point."The first pair to appear are Thea and Denise, who speak in parallel, unable to meet. Thea is replaced by Faber, who does make some contact with the touchy Denise, but she is then replaced by Flora, who again reacts to Faber with screams. She is whirled offstage and Denise reappears with a horsewhip, followed by Dov, who continues his earlier flirtation. Faber is responsive, but is spun offstage and replaced by Mel, and the lovers share a duet acknowledging that their affair is ending. Dov now disappears to be replaced by Denise, who sees Mel as representing the oppressed of the earth (the tune to "We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
" appears in the orchestra). Characters appear and disappear in quick succession until the sequence ends with Flora alone with Dov.
Dov comforts Flora by encouraging her to sing, and she performs "Die liebe Farbe" from Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin , is a song cycle by Franz Schubert on poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the earliest extended song cycle to be widely performed. The work is considered one of Schubert's most important, and it is widely performed and recorded....
. Dov responds with the song that would later form the first part of the Songs for Dov cycle. The act ends on Mel's re-entry.
Act 3
Mangus declares that his production of The Tempest has begun: "This garden is now an island," and the characters obligingly play out the roles Mangus assigns them. In addition to Mel and Dov as Caliban and Ariel, Faber becomes Ferdinand, Flora becomes Miranda, and Mangus is Prospero. Thea and Denise remain themselves and comment on the action, critical of Mangus's controlling and voyeuristic role as impresario of the drama. At the conclusion of the charade Mel and Denise leave together, followed by Dov, who is not yet able to let go. Flora goes off alone. Thea and Faber are reconciled.Recordings
- Philips 412 707 1: Raimund Herincx, Yvonne Minton, Jill GomezJill GomezJill Gomez is a Trinidadian and British soprano of Hispanic origin.She was born in Guyana to a Trinidadian father and British mother; was raised in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and has made her career primarily in the United Kingdom. After studying briefly at St...
, Josephine BarstowJosephine BarstowDame Josephine Clare Barstow DBE is an English soprano.-Education and early career:Josephine Barstow was born in Sheffield and educated at the University of Birmingham. She made her professional debut with the touring company Opera for All in 1964...
, Thomas CareyThomas Carey (baritone)Thomas Carey was an American operatic baritone. Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, he served in the United States military during the Korean War. After leaving the service he studied singing at the Henry Street Settlement and at City College of New York...
, Robert TearRobert TearRobert Tear, CBE was a Welsh tenor and conductor.Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the son of Thomas and Edith Tear. He attended Barry Boys' Grammar School and during this period sang in the chorus of the first Welsh National Opera's production of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' in April 1946...
, Thomas Hemsley; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Sir Colin DavisColin DavisSir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
, conductor
External links
- Meirion Bowen, "An introduction to Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden, 2003, from michael-tippett.com
- Information about the opera
- Raymond Monelle, "Opera: The Knot Garden, Theatre Royal Glasgow", The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
(London), 27 January 2005, Review and analysis of the opera - Tim Ashley, The Knot Garden, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(London), 3 May 2005, Review of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden revival