Wuthering Heights (Herrmann)
Encyclopedia
Wuthering Heights is the sole opera written by Bernard Herrmann
. He worked on it from 1943 to 1951. It is cast in a prologue, 4 acts, and an epilogue that repeats the music of the prologue. The opera was recorded in full by the composer in 1966, but it had to wait until April 2011, the centenary of the composer's birth, for a complete theatrical performance (there was an abridged stage production in 1982 and a concert version in 2010).
The libretto was by Herrmann's first wife, Lucille Fletcher
, based on the first part of Emily Brontë
's novel of the same name
. Fletcher also interpolated some text from the second part of the novel, and from some unrelated poems by Emily Brontë (such as "I have been wandering through the Green Woods"). By the time the work was finished, Fletcher and Herrmann had divorced and he had married her cousin Lucy.
Although the work is largely unknown, Lucille Fletcher said it was "perhaps the closest to his talent and heart".
(an adaptation of Jane Eyre
by Emily Brontë's sister Charlotte Brontë
). It received a boost in 1946, when Herrmann and Fletcher made a visit to the moor country near Manchester
, while he was fulfilling conducting engagements with the Hallé Orchestra
. There, they visited the Brontë home at Haworth
.
He completed the composition in Minneapolis. On the score, Herrmann wrote that he finished the work at 3:45 pm on 30 June 1951.
, but either because Rudel insisted on cuts and a different, up-beat ending, which the composer refused to permit, or because of scheduling challengessources differ on the detailsthe production did not eventuate. It had earlier been under consideration by Sir John Barbirolli
, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, but a perusal of the enormous score caused him to reconsider. It was also briefly considered by the San Francisco Opera
, as a project for Leopold Stokowski
to conduct, but he was unavailable so the idea was dropped. In 1957, the Heidelberg
Opera considered staging it, and Herrmann was convinced it was going ahead, even believing that the contracts had been signed for an April 1958 performance - but it too was dropped.
Its official world stage premiere was on 6 November 1982, almost seven years after Herrmann's death, by the Portland Opera
in Portland, Oregon
. However, that performance omitted 30 to 40 minutes of the music, and the ending was changed to the one Julius Rudel had proposed many years earlier. Orson Welles
was offered the opportunity of directing the production, but declined. The production was to have been videotaped for later broadcast on PBS, but this was not done due to the high cost of videotape. Most reviews of the performance were unenthusiastic.
A concert version under the title Les Hauts de Hurlevent was presented on 14 July 2010 at the Radio France and Montpellier Languedoc-Rousillon Festival, conducted by Alain Altinoglu
.
Minnesota Opera
presented the opera in April 2011, under Michael Christie
, to mark the centenary of Bernard Herrmann's birth. The production was filmed in HD
for worldwide release.
. The recording was made 11–13 May 1966. The singers included Morag Beaton
as Cathy (soprano), Donald Bell
as Heathcliff (baritone), Joseph Ward
(as Edgar Linton), Elizabeth Bainbridge
(as Isabel Linton), John Kitchiner, Pamela Bowden, David Kelly, and Michael Rippon. The project was principally funded by the composer. The recording, on 4 LPs, received a very limited release (Pye CCL 30173). It was re-released in 1972 (Unicorn UNB 400) and received very positive critical attention. It has since been transferred to CD (Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD 2050).
various themes from Herrmann's earlier film scores:
Some themes from the opera were used in Herrmann's later scores:
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
. He worked on it from 1943 to 1951. It is cast in a prologue, 4 acts, and an epilogue that repeats the music of the prologue. The opera was recorded in full by the composer in 1966, but it had to wait until April 2011, the centenary of the composer's birth, for a complete theatrical performance (there was an abridged stage production in 1982 and a concert version in 2010).
The libretto was by Herrmann's first wife, Lucille Fletcher
Lucille Fletcher
Lucille Fletcher was an American screenwriter of film, radio and television. Her full name was Violet Lucille Fletcher...
, based on the first part of Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
's novel of the same name
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
. Fletcher also interpolated some text from the second part of the novel, and from some unrelated poems by Emily Brontë (such as "I have been wandering through the Green Woods"). By the time the work was finished, Fletcher and Herrmann had divorced and he had married her cousin Lucy.
Although the work is largely unknown, Lucille Fletcher said it was "perhaps the closest to his talent and heart".
Genesis
Herrmann started work on the opera in April 1943, while composing the film score for Jane EyreJane Eyre (1944 film)
Jane Eyre is a classic film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name, made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by William Goetz, Kenneth Macgowan, and Orson Welles . The screenplay was by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley, Henry Koster, and Robert...
(an adaptation of Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
by Emily Brontë's sister Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
). It received a boost in 1946, when Herrmann and Fletcher made a visit to the moor country near Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, while he was fulfilling conducting engagements with the Hallé Orchestra
The Hallé
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...
. There, they visited the Brontë home at Haworth
Haworth
Haworth is a rural village in the City of Bradford metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is located amongst the Pennines, southwest of Keighley and west of Bradford. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope...
.
He completed the composition in Minneapolis. On the score, Herrmann wrote that he finished the work at 3:45 pm on 30 June 1951.
Performances
Wuthering Heights was never staged in Herrmann's lifetime, despite a number of attempts on his part. One of the few opportunities to mount a staged production during Herrmann's lifetime was one offered by Julius RudelJulius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
, but either because Rudel insisted on cuts and a different, up-beat ending, which the composer refused to permit, or because of scheduling challengessources differ on the detailsthe production did not eventuate. It had earlier been under consideration by Sir John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, but a perusal of the enormous score caused him to reconsider. It was also briefly considered by the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, as a project for Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
to conduct, but he was unavailable so the idea was dropped. In 1957, the Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
Opera considered staging it, and Herrmann was convinced it was going ahead, even believing that the contracts had been signed for an April 1958 performance - but it too was dropped.
Its official world stage premiere was on 6 November 1982, almost seven years after Herrmann's death, by the Portland Opera
Portland Opera
Portland Opera is an American opera company based at The Hampton Opera Center in Portland, Oregon. Its mainstage performances take place in the Keller Auditorium, while the Portland Opera Studio Theater at the Hampton center is used for performances of chamber operas...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. However, that performance omitted 30 to 40 minutes of the music, and the ending was changed to the one Julius Rudel had proposed many years earlier. Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
was offered the opportunity of directing the production, but declined. The production was to have been videotaped for later broadcast on PBS, but this was not done due to the high cost of videotape. Most reviews of the performance were unenthusiastic.
A concert version under the title Les Hauts de Hurlevent was presented on 14 July 2010 at the Radio France and Montpellier Languedoc-Rousillon Festival, conducted by Alain Altinoglu
Alain Altinoglu
Alain Altinoglu is a French conductor.His association with the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier has led to premiere performances, and premiere recordings, of operas including Pascal Dusapin's Perelà uomo di fumo, Lalo's Fiesque and the French premiere of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering...
.
Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera
The Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Frankenstein by Libby Larsen...
presented the opera in April 2011, under Michael Christie
Michael Christie (conductor)
Michael Christie is an American conductor. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance...
, to mark the centenary of Bernard Herrmann's birth. The production was filmed in HD
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
for worldwide release.
Recording
Wuthering Heights was recorded, in full, by Pye Records in 1966, under the direction of the composer, who conducted the Pro Arte OrchestraPro Arte Orchestra
-Background:The Pro Arte Orchestra was founded as a limited company chaired by the double-bass player Eugene Cruft; directors also included Archie Camden and Antony English. The initial aim was to perform "the finest of the lighter classics in orchestral music"...
. The recording was made 11–13 May 1966. The singers included Morag Beaton
Morag Beaton
Morag Beaton was a Scottish-Australian dramatic soprano who established her reputation as Turandot, a role she sang in Australia more than any other soprano to date. She also sang Tatiana , Venus , Abigaille , Eboli Santuzza and many other roles...
as Cathy (soprano), Donald Bell
Donald Bell
Donald Bell is a Canadian bass-baritone and vocal pedagogue. For over four decades he actively performed in concerts and operas internationally. He retired from performance in 1994. As a vocal pedagogue he has researched and published studies on vocal acoustics and laryngeal function...
as Heathcliff (baritone), Joseph Ward
Joseph Ward (singer)
Joseph Ward is an English tenor, formerly a baritone, who created roles in operas by Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. He has also made a career as a singing teacher – his pupils include Jane Eaglen – and opera producer....
(as Edgar Linton), Elizabeth Bainbridge
Elizabeth Bainbridge
Elizabeth Bainbridge is a retired opera singer from West Sussex, England. Her career in singing spans several decades, the majority of her successes being achieved whilst being a member of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London...
(as Isabel Linton), John Kitchiner, Pamela Bowden, David Kelly, and Michael Rippon. The project was principally funded by the composer. The recording, on 4 LPs, received a very limited release (Pye CCL 30173). It was re-released in 1972 (Unicorn UNB 400) and received very positive critical attention. It has since been transferred to CD (Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD 2050).
Quotations
Wuthering Heights quotesMusical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
various themes from Herrmann's earlier film scores:
- Citizen KaneCitizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(1941) - The Magnificent AmbersonsThe Magnificent Ambersons (film)The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American drama film written and directed by Orson Welles. His second feature film, it is based on the 1918 novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington and stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins...
(1942; the "Second Nocturne", which was cut from the film, was re-used in the opera) - Jane EyreJane Eyre (1944 film)Jane Eyre is a classic film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name, made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by William Goetz, Kenneth Macgowan, and Orson Welles . The screenplay was by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley, Henry Koster, and Robert...
(1944; the melody representing the Jane-Rochester relationship recurs as Cathy's Act III aria "I am Burning") - The Ghost and Mrs. MuirThe Ghost and Mrs. MuirThe Ghost and Mrs. Muir romantic fantasy film starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. It is based on a 1945 novel written by Josephine Leslie under the pseudonym of R. A. Dick...
(1947) (music from the beginning of the film was used in Act I; the sea music recurs in Act II; and the Andante Cantabile appears in Act III).
Some themes from the opera were used in Herrmann's later scores:
- Beneath the 12-Mile ReefBeneath the 12-Mile ReefBeneath the 12-Mile Reef is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Robert D. Webb. The screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides was inspired by Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare...
(1953) - VertigoVertigo (film)Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958) - Journey to the Center of the EarthJourney to the Center of the Earth (1959 film)Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 1959 adventure film adapted by Charles Brackett from the novel by Jules Verne. It stars Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Peter Ronson, Diane Baker, Thayer David and Alan Napier...
(1959) - North by NorthwestNorth by NorthwestNorth by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
(1959) - MarnieMarnie (film)Marnie is a 1964 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on the novel of the same name by Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. The original film score was composed by Bernard Herrmann.-Plot:...
(1964).