OPERATIC ENTERPRISE IN ENGLAND.
Subsidized opera—Opera an educative factor—Objection
to subsidies—Advantages—English opera—Opera
companies—Covent Garden—The Royal Opera Syndicate
—History of opera in this country—Travelling
companies—The Carl Rosa Company—The Moody-Manners
Company—The outlook.
[Sidenote: =Subsidized Opera=]
In England we stand, so far as operatic enterprise is concerned, on
a different footing to most of the Continental nations, in so far as
there is no Government support nor State aid to Opera. It is a care in
the economy of most of the European Governments that an annual grant
should be made towards the expenses of the Opera House. The subsidies
so granted vary in different countries and in different towns, but the
main idea in all cases is the same, to provide a certain amount of
money so that there may be an opera-house more or less always open,
to which the people may go on payment of quite small sums and witness
really good performances.
[Sidenote: =Opera an Educative Quantity=]
In such countries as these, Opera is looked upon not so much as a
luxurious amusement as an educational factor, capable of instilling
artistic ideas into the plebeian mind, and in common with picture
galleries, public statues, and beautifully kept gardens, inculcating an
appreciation of the beautiful in art.
In Paris, for example, a sum of £32,000 is given annually for the
support of the Grand Opera House, while a further sum of £12,000 is
granted for the Opera Comique, the deficit arising from the numerous
expenses incurred for singers, orchestra, stage hands, etc., being
met by these grants. As a _quid pro quo_ the Government demands the
distribution of free seats to certain persons and societies to a
very large proportion of its subsidy. This may or may not represent
a hardship to the management, for whereas the seats thus given might
possibly have been all sold, it is more than probable that on the
majority of occasions there would have been much spare room which is
thus filled.
[Sidenote: =Objections to Subsidized Opera=]
Besides the objections that returns in the shape of gratuitous
entrances must be allowed there is the further and more serious one,
that the reins of power sometimes fall into the hands of inartistic
and unmusical persons. This is less likely to happen in a city of
culture, such as Paris, than in some of the smaller German towns, when
the control of such matters is left to the Intendant of the place, who
holds despotic sway and works matters according to his own sweet will.
So that it often happens that a certain class of opera, or a certain
little particular clique of singers, obtains a hearing to the exclusion
of almost all else.
[Sidenote: =Advantages=]
But these possible dangers can hardly be said to counteract the
benefits which are conferred by the regularly paid subsidy: the
money paid assures a large portion of the working expenses, and the
management of the Opera House knows that the doors will not have to
be closed for lack of the sinews of war, but that all the year round
performances may be given, if not daily, at least at very frequent
intervals. Such vexed questions as control of the repertoire and of
the choice of singers, of course, may and do occur; but so far as
the man in the street is concerned, there is always the opportunity
presented of hearing opera, of hearing it well done, and of extending
his knowledge and critical power, to say nothing of the addition to the
artistic pleasures of his life.
[Sidenote: =English Opera=]
In England we have no State aid, with the result that we are not in
a position to be able to hear opera all the year round. During the
three months of the “Grand” season the prices are high and the hours
somewhat prohibitive. The desirability of some Governmental subsidy
has been warmly advocated by Sir Charles Stanford and others, and were
such an amount as that granted by the French for their Opera House
given to Covent Garden, there is little doubt that we should be able to
hear Grand Opera whenever we liked to go, at moderate prices.
This undoubtedly would be a great advantage to the general musician,
and to some members of the public, but it has yet to be shown that
there is a public willing to gather in sufficient numbers to fill a
large house for the greater number of the nights of the year: it would
be quite possible to have the money and the house opened, and yet
no audience sufficient to justify a performance. It seems a little
doubtful whether, at present, the English lay mind is quite ready for
the scheme: indeed it is to be feared that an appreciation of opera is
not sufficiently wide-spread through the rank and file of the English
people to justify any such scheme for the time being. Free tickets
to students, and the like, in return for a grant, might do something
towards filling the house, but unless the general public would evince
sufficient interest in the scheme to come nightly in large numbers,
the purpose in view would be defeated. We do not appear to have the
natural inborn love of opera so common amongst continental peoples,
and until our national education is more advanced it is not very likely
that a State grant would be of ultimate practical value.
[Sidenote: =Opera Companies=]
Operatic enterprise in England, then, depends upon private initiative:
this means, of course, that there are different bids for fortune made
from time to time by various companies and syndicates. This has been
so for many years, even so long ago as the days when Handel made a
venture on his own account, in opposition to the band of wealthy titled
folk who set up Buononcini to oppose him: and in so far as rivalry is
provocative of effort, the existence of different companies makes for
good. One body in England is, however, almost unique in being able to
spend freely on singers, orchestra, and accessories.
[Sidenote: =Covent Garden Opera=]
This body is the Royal Opera Syndicate, formerly generally known as the
Royal Italian Opera, the scene of whose labours is Covent Garden. Here
another point, in which we differ from the Continental nations, must be
noticed, and that is, that we have in England no Opera House. The Grand
Opera of our London season is held at Covent Garden, which is nothing
but an ordinary theatre, although a very large one; whereas in France
and Germany the Opera House is practically sacred to the performance
of opera. We have no building of a similar nature. Covent Garden, for
instance, is the scene of musical festivals, sometimes of promenade
concerts, of fancy dress balls, and various other functions, it being
devoted to opera only at certain seasons of the year. The Royal Opera
Syndicate runs a season of Grand Opera from the end of April until the
end of July—a three months’ season, performances being given nightly.
[Sidenote: =The Royal Opera Syndicate=]
For financial support the syndicate depends upon subscribers, who
take boxes and stalls for the whole of the season: the boxes, prices
for which are very high, are taken by the King and Court, wealthy
and titled people, and also wealthy and untitled people; in short,
subscribers to the opera are fashionable, and members of “society”
rather than musical. Seeing, however, that they provide the backbone of
the enterprise, it is only natural that the syndicate should feel bound
to consult their tastes; it thus happens that we rarely get opera in
the vernacular, society preferring the words in either French, German,
or Italian. To much the same cause is due the somewhat lamentable fact
that opera by English composers rarely obtains a hearing. Besides the
subscribers for boxes, etc., ordinary members of the public can obtain
entrance at prices that are somewhat high: stalls cost a guinea each
per performance (on special occasions twenty-five or thirty shillings),
and the topmost gallery—from which, however, one can see well and
hear better—is priced at half-a-crown; there are, of course, various
intermediate prices.
Admission is expensive, but a good performance is now almost a
certainty, and much thanks is due to the Royal Opera Syndicate for
this. In years gone by the chief centre of interest used to be the
_prima donna_ or principal tenor, all else being relegated to a
slipshod background; but of late years the Syndicate has laid out
much money in altering and improving the stage and stage machinery;
new scenery has been painted, and the operas newly dressed; the
best singers available are engaged, and a good orchestra, with good
conductors, adds no little to the performances. Reliance is placed, in
the main, upon certain attractive operas, but interesting novelties and
_quasi_-novelties are from time to time introduced, and the whole thing
may be said to be well done.
[Sidenote: =History of Opera in this Country=]
This was not always so, and the fortunes of Grand Opera in England
have fluctuated according to the financial state of the companies
responsible for its production. Opera always appears in this country
to have been largely dependant upon fashionable supporters, from the
times of the old Opera House in the Haymarket up to the present day.
Covent Garden has had its ups and downs; it was really dubbed “Opera
House” in 1847, having formerly been given over to ordinary theatrical
uses, chief of which, so far as opera is concerned, was the production
of Weber’s _Oberon_ in 1826, while Bishop’s operas all saw the light
upon the same boards. Italian opera prevailed from 1846 to 1885, when
the company came to financial grief. Opera was then carried on by Señor
Lago, Sir Augustus Harris taking over the reins from 1888 to 1896.
Since that date it has been in the hands of the present Syndicate.
In addition to the ordinary three months’ season, the Syndicate has
of late preceded their ordinary operatic productions by one or more
presentations of specially prepared and rehearsed performances of
Wagner’s _Ring_. For these special care and detailed work is given, and
higher prices are charged; while the Wagnerian conductor, Richter, is
placed in command. Of late years the Syndicate has experimented with
opera in English: the _Ring_ of Wagner, the _Meistersinger_, _Madama
Butterfly_, and other operas have been performed in English, and, in
the main, by English and American artists, with great success. These
English performances have been held during short seasons given at
different periods of the year to the grand season proper, and the
admission fees have been slightly less. The Syndicate also occasionally
lets the house to the Moody-Manners and other opera companies.
Although not exclusively given over to the purposes of opera, Covent
Garden is, in the main, an “Opera House”; the ambitious title is,
however, also claimed by many a suburban and provincial theatre,
absolutely without meaning or reason, seeing that operas are rarely
heard within their walls. Many attempts have periodically been made
to provide London with an Opera House, a notable instance being the
fine building now known as the Palace Theatre of Varieties; this house
was intended as the home of English national opera, and Sullivan’s
_Ivanhoe_ started the venture in 1891, but neither that work nor any
other could, in all probability, fill a theatre night after night
without some financial support to fall back upon; and although various
plans are in the air, a permanent Opera House does not seem to be a
very quickly realizable possibility.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Travelling Companies=]
[Sidenote: =The Carl Rosa Opera Company=]
[Sidenote: =The Moody-Manners Opera Company=]
After the Royal Opera Syndicate, with the opportunities it affords
for hearing Grand Opera, the Englishman owes most to the various
travelling companies, some of them very good, whose work, although
occasionally heard in the Metropolis, is mostly done in the provinces.
Of these the most famous, in its palmy days, was the company formed
by Mr. Carl Rosa in 1875, and which is still in existence, although
its inceptor died some years ago. Originally, performances given by
Mr. Carl Rosa took place in London, and during the seasons of 1875
and following years the Princess’ Theatre, The Lyceum, The Adelphi,
and Her Majesty’s Theatre were the scenes of many a successful
presentation; among works first brought to light under Mr. Rosa’s
_régime_, or subsequently by the company bearing his name, may be
mentioned Cowen’s _Pauline_ and _Thorgrim_, Thomas’ _Nadeshda_ and
_Esmeralda_, and Hamish MacCunn’s _Jeanie Deans_. Even more important
than the production of these novelties was the work done by Mr. Rosa
in putting before the English public for the first time operas of
such acknowledged excellence as Cherubini’s _Water Carrier_, Wagner’s
_Dutchman_ and _Lohengrin_ (in English), and other works of similar
calibre. Although still doing good work, the company has hardly, since
its founder’s death in 1889, lived up to its earlier achievements,
and the new operas performed are infrequent in appearance. London is
no longer its home, although suburban theatres often welcome one of
its various constituent travelling parties; its work lies more in the
provinces, especially in the larger commercial cities of the North of
England. Perhaps more to the fore, at the present day, is the company
founded in 1897 by Mr. Charles Manners and Madame Fanny Moody. Several
plucky attempts have been made by these artists to provide a really
efficient series of presentations of standard operas at comparatively
low prices in London. This has been achieved by limiting the expenses
incurred upon vocalists. While therefore it can hardly be claimed for
the Moody-Manners company that the exponents of the leading characters
of the operas are singers of the first rank, there are compensating
advantages in the greater artistic unanimity of the chorus-singing and
acting, and of the general stage management. Another feature of the
London performances has been the occasional adoption of a scheme of
short illustrative lectures given before the curtain, as to the plot,
music, and composer of the work about to be rendered.
It is said that Mr. Manners loses money annually in London to gain it
again in the provinces; he has certainly been courageous in taking
Covent Garden and other large houses for long series of performances,
some of _quasi_-novelties, which cannot have been financially
successful. The repertoire contains some works of the first magnitude,
and the main company gives very good performances. Other features of
the scheme to be noticed are the prizes occasionally offered in public
competition for new works, and a “school” attached to the company,
and travelling with it, where young vocalists are trained and given
opportunity for placing their abilities before the public. Besides the
chief company, there are four other branches from the same parent stem
travelling and performing in various parts of the world.
Mr. Manners recently endeavoured to form an “Opera Union,” and some two
thousand persons signed a form agreeing to support and take tickets
for an English opera season in London; when, however, the scheme was
ripe only a few hundred of these actually subscribed, and the idea had
therefore to be relinquished.
Mention must be made of the generous action of the music publishers,
Messrs. Ricordi, who in 1905 offered a prize of £500 for the best
English opera. This was gained by Dr. Edward Naylor of Cambridge for a
work entitled _The Angelus_, staged and performed by the Royal Opera
Syndicate on January 27th, 1909; the work had a poor reception, and was
only played twice.
Other schemes are frequently put before the public, and although in
some cases they are too short-lived, and in others not of sufficiently
high aim to call for special mention, there is no real lack of
opportunity in England in the twentieth century of hearing opera fairly
well done. No comparison with Continental standards can be made in
the provinces, conditions being so different; but the opera season at
Covent Garden can vie with all rivals, and there is a gradual increase
throughout the country, both of persons capable of appreciation of
operatic enterprise and of artistic perception, which will not allow of
slipshod presentations or performances.
[Sidenote: =The Outlook=]
Undoubtedly much remains to be done before we can claim for the English
as a nation an equal amount of that fondness for opera which is so
notable a characteristic of our Continental brethren; that we are
moving somewhat slowly in that direction is perhaps, for the present,
sufficient matter for congratulation. Lovers of opera in the vernacular
have not so very much to encourage them as to the ultimate realization
of the ideas they cherish, but those who are content to be satisfied
with progress that is steady, if still slow, may see in England of
to-day much in the growing appreciation for better music on the part of
the masses upon which to congratulate themselves, and upon which also
to build hopes for the future.