The Bavarian composer Johann Nepomuk von Poissl was regarded by many in the second decade of the nineteenth century as German opera’s greatest hope. Though neglected by later musicology, in his day Poissl was a central figure in the aesthetic discourses surrounding opera, being prominent as a composer, librettist, translator, journalist and director of the Munich Court Theatre. He was also a profoundly ideological artist, expressing in his operas a distinctive vision of Bavarian nationhood and of the wider German identity. This thesis represents the first substantial study of Poissl’s operatic oeuvre. It is based on a detailed reading of his thirteen surviving operas, all unpublished. It uses many previously untranscribed and untranslated sources. It shows how Poissl, in his prose writings as well as his operas, addressed what he and his contemporaries saw as the fundamental aesthetic values of opera. It also shows that several of Poissl’s works were a response to specific political, ideological and cultural issues. These include the Franco-Bavarian alliance, the post-Napoleonic settlement and the Catholic restoration of Bavaria under King Ludwig I. These threads are drawn together in a case study of Poissl’s opera Athalia (1814). This considers not only the literary and musical form of this piece but also its ideological content. It shows how Poissl’s particular vision of nationhood and faith was embedded not only in Athalia’s text but also in its music. It clarifies the dialogue-based form in which the opera was originally performed. It suggests that Poissl’s later addition of recitatives to Athalia not only obscured the dramatic and musical strengths of this particular work, but also gave rise to musicological misconceptions which have distorted and restricted our view of Poissl’s oeuvre as a whole.

The operas of Johann Adolf Hasse, and the type of poetic drama created by Metastasio and copied by Hasse's other librettists, are argued to be dramatically viable because of their derivation from Italian popular comedy, because of their classicism which makes them formally and stylistically conservative and perpetuates the clear distinction of recitative and aria, and because of the meticulous respect for the text shown by the composer. Contemporary writers are the basis for criticism. Marpurg's essay on simple recitative forms the basis for a discussion of this medium, which is found to be subtly expressive in its harmony and vocal intervals: recitative can be "historic" or "pathetic", the latter type characterized especially by the interval and chord of the diminished seventh. Musical phrases may be echoed or heard in sequence, always to make some dramatic point; note values are chosen to hurry or slow the pace of delivery; aria themes often grow out of phrases in the recitative. The principal development in recitativo stromentato is in its dramatic purpose.

This thesis is primarily concerned with how London West End revue engaged in the construction and representation of national and racial identities. The central research question is: what do these representations of national and racial identities in West End revue tell us about wider British culture and society in this period? In answering this question, I explore and develop a number of understandings of how national and racial identity operated in mainstream popular culture. How important was the influence of national and racial politics to revue’s success? Why was identity so compelling a theme in these shows? How did other dimensions of difference, such as gender, sexuality and class, interact within these representations of race and nation? What does revue tell us about the changing state and status of Britain under the influence of new technologies, migration and early globalisation? How does this particular focus on national and racial identities change or challenge our wider understanding of revue and its significance in British culture across this period? My thesis proposes that London West End revue was a topical, satirical popular theatre that engaged in national identity discourse and reconstituted identity formations through music, dance and wordplay. Through contextual and textual analysis, I highlight the attitudes, assumptions and beliefs that informed revue performance and narratives and reflected provocative new lifestyles, values and politics. Often politically conservative, protective of the status quo and concerned with appealing to a mainstream audience, revue was highly sensitive to the status and position of both Britain and London and cultivated a sense of itself as the defender of a colonial empire and, at the same time, the centre of a cosmopolitan culture that competed with other metropolitan centres such as Paris, Berlin and New York.

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The main part of the thesis comprises a two-volume reconstruction of the full score of the 1904 premiere version of Janacek's opera Jenufa (volumes II/1, II/2 and II/3). Jenufa was the work that belatedly brought Janacek first to national and then to international attention as an opera composer of the first rank, yet the version heard at the Brno premiere in 1904 had until recently been unheard since 1906. This is also the first completely newly-set edition of the full score in any version for nearly four decades. The companion volume (volume I) consists of a commentary including an introduction to the background history of the opera's composition, a detailed survey of the manuscript and printed sources used in the preparation of the edition, and a description of the methods used in identifying and reconstructing the 1904 version. It also includes a detailed overview of the revision process of which the 1904 version is a part, and which ultimately led to the more widely known 1908 and 1916 versions of the opera, as well as a consideration of some of the wider contextual issues to which the opera can be related, such as Janacek's broader stylistic development and contemporary operatic trends. A series of appendices includes relevant contemporary documents, a series of tables detailing cuts and other aspects of the sources, a discussion of the nature and role of the xylophone that plays a prominent part in Act 1 of Jenufa, and transcriptions of passages from the earliest, pre-1903 version of the Act 1 finale. NB For copyright reasons, the form of this thesis uploaded to http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk does NOT include volumes II/1, 2 and 3. See volume I, p. xvii.

This thesis examines the author’s practice of the chordal realisation of recitative by the cello in Handel opera. The realisation of recitative has a long pedagogical history from 1774–1877; it is, however, rarely part of current practice. The decline of realisation in the nineteenth century and its consequences for current practice is considered. The realisation of recitative first appears in cello pedagogy as a fully formed practice. Its origins are unclear. The first chapter demonstrates that the development of cello technique at the turn of the eighteenth century provided Italian émigré composer-cellists with the techniques to realise recitative. The use of the cello as a harmonising instrument is traced through its repertoire from the late seventeenth century to the unexpected pedagogical source of Geminiani’s The Art of Playing the Guitar. An analysis of this important and neglected source for the cello is offered. Opera manuscripts that appear to reveal traces of realisation by the cello are examined. Initially promising Handel sources are debunked. Handel harpsichord scores suggest that the continuo group was more homogeneous than in current recorded practice. This is considered alongside the poor acoustics of eighteenth-century theatres, suggesting a motive for the realisation of recitative by the cello. Cello methods from 1741–1877 are analysed. They reveal an increasingly elaborate practice of realisation of recitative by the cello in the early nineteenth century. Tensions emerge in the methods between Affekt, technique, and stagecraft. The author’s own practice is described. Common techniques between chordal realisation and current practice are examined. A method for acquiring a vocabulary of chords is offered that improves on those in the historical methods. Transcriptions of the author’s realisations together with a report from rehearsals and performances of Handel’s Agrippina at the Vlaamse Opera illustrate the author’s practice. The thesis concludes with a response to critical reception to the author’s practice.

Studies of Italian opera in London during the first half of the eighteenth century have focussed on George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). As the most prolific composer of this genre in the English capital, this is unsurprising, but it has meant that other composers, contemporaneously active in this field, have been relatively neglected. This is especially true of the period 1733 – 1737, during which time two Italian opera companies attempted to co-exist in the city. Leading one of the companies was Handel, with the Neapolitan, Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), recruited to compose the works for the rival opera company, the so-called ‘Opera of the Nobility’. This study therefore discusses Porpora’s contribution of five operas to the London operatic stage during his three year residency between 1733 and 1736, in opposition to Handel’s company. This has required an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the formation of the rival opera company, its operation in terms of repertoire and the influence of its librettists on Porpora’s works. Detailed analysis of the music has been undertaken to consider Porpora’s style, establish how he adapted this in London for an English, rather than Italian audience, and determine the efficacy of his communication of the drama through his music. This thesis is the first large-scale detailed study of Porpora and his operas. Although the primary focus of this work is his London operas, the necessity of providing a context for these has resulted in a contribution to greater knowledge of Porpora’s overall style. There is still much work to be done on a full study of all of Porpora’s 44 operas and other compositions. This study also significantly adds to the current knowledge of operatic rivalry in London between 1733 and 1736, for the first time evaluating the fabric and importance of Porpora’s operas within this period.

The techniques which I developed for my work between 2009-12 are a consequence of my own unique mix of synaesthetic sensibilities. I have sought to investigate these innate impulses in order to formulate a deeper understanding of my compositional process and define technical strategies that I have termed generative transcriptions. In this thesis I focus on CANTO MORPH, ‘an opera of the self’, a project in multiple parts exploring processes of embodiment, association and dissociation. It is realised through the media of recorded improvisation, a 45-minute scored composition, a virtual architecture, a media installation, a video installation and a sculptural libretto. This project as ‘an opera of the self’ is located in an experiential process comprising several stages: 1/ I perform a series of improvisations in a trance-like state using various instruments and my own voice to create multi-layered recordings – trance improvisation mix. 2/ These recordings are subjected to analytical transcription which I understand as a process of reverse engineering akin to the process that architects employ whereby complex 3-dimensional structures of buildings are analysed and explored diagrammatically in order to discover what kind of essence might be contained in the blueprint of its built form. I cite Xenakis’ Philips Pavilion and the dual nature of composition/architecture that is embodied within this design. This process inspires my own methodology, where mimetic scripts are created from the trance improvised mix and then refined and further manipulated into a score that can be performed. 3/ The improvisation-analysis-composition process which can broadly be conceived as an ‘embodiment of self’ is subjected to another stage in which I create a new body – a re-embodiment in which to site the work architecturally. In exploring the multi-modal approach that is represented by the CANTO MORPH, I have underpinned a novel and multi-facetted way to approach a compositional practice, where through synaesthetic empowerment, a myriad of forces enable an emergent compositional method of generative transcriptions.

Comment penser aujourd’hui le grand oeuvre de Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), datée de plus de deux siècles, aux couleurs ambivalentes, partagée, voire profondément double, sujet de tant de débats esthétiques ? Afin de tenter de percer à jour les enjeux musicaux, littéraires, philosophiques, graphiques et même cinématographiques que soulèvent le « discours rossinien » polymorphe, il convient d’indiquer les nombreuses ramifications de l’OEuvre rossinienne.La figure du miroir ou celle du prisme, entités tournées dans un premier temps vers l’intérieur et cependant éminemment ouvertes sur l’extérieur, vers d’autres horizons artistiques, permettent une approche renouvelée de la production rossinienne et de ses enjeux. En prenant appui sur les liens que tissent ensemble musiques, textes et mise en scènes, puis en mettant en lumière les nombreux échos des opéras rossiniens dans l’art et la pensée moderne, notamment la psychanalyse, il est possible de mieux comprendre le langage et le génie de cet « éternel incompris » qu’est Gioacchino Rossini.Il est opportun de commencer par situer l’artiste de Pesaro dans son temps avant d’aborder ses particularités stylistiques, en insistant sur le rôle de son orchestre en lien avec l’action scénique et sur les nombreux « auto-emprunts » présents dans sa musique, sorte de « galerie des miroirs » de son OEuvre. Par ailleurs, les approches philosophiques, psychanalytiques balisées notamment par Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) et Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), permettent de mieux comprendre l’articulation des différents arts au sein des opéras en questionnant la place du « mot », du « signifié » et du « son ».Enfin, un parallèle avec les peintures de Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), et René Magritte (1898-1967), offrent un questionnement possible du « cadre » del’oeuvre susceptible de déployer la pluridisciplinarité foisonnante du matériau rossinien. Le cinéma de Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), amorce une voie d’accès au « regard » que le spectateur pose sur l’oeuvre et sur lui à travers elle, en mesurant toujours son rapport avec l’opéra rossinien, révélant ainsi sa profonde modernité, miroir du XXIe siècle. / Not available / Come pensare oggi l’Opera di Giacchino Rossini (1792-1868), vecchia di più di due secoli, dai colori ambivalenti, “divisa” anzi profondamente doppia, oggetto di numerosi dibatti estetici ? Per tentare di svelare le problematiche musicali, letterarie, filosofiche, grafiche e anche cinematografiche, suscitate dal suo discorso polimorfo, è opportuno definire le numerose ramificazioni dell’opera rossiniana.Le figure dello specchio o del prisma, forme rivolte dapprima verso l’interno e in un secondo tempo aperte principalmente verso l’esterno, verso altri orizzonti artistici, permettono un approccio nuovo alla produzione rossiniana e alle sue problematiche. Basandosi sui legami che tessono assieme le musiche, i testi e le messe in scena, e ponendo ascolto ai numerosi echi suscitati dalle opere rossiniane , perfino nell’arte e nel pensiero moderno –in particolare la psicoanalisi – è possibile capire meglio il linguaggio e il genio dell’ « eterno incompreso » che è Gioacchino Rossini.E’ opportuno anzitutto situare Rossini nel suo tempo prima di affrontare le questioni del suo stile particolare, insistendo sul ruolo della sua orchestra in legame costante con l’azione scenica e suoi con i numerosi “autoprestiti” presenti nella sua musica, sorta di « galleria di specchi » della sua opera. Inoltre, le teorie filosofiche e psicoanalitiche di Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) e Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), ci aiutano a capire meglio l’articolazione delle diversi arti in seno alle opere di Gioacchino Rossini, portando a interrogarci sulla posizione della « parola », del « significato » e del « suono ».Inoltre, un parallelo con i quadri di e Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) e di René Magritte (1898-1967) consente di porre la questione del «quadro» dell’opera e di definirene la pluridisciplinarità. Infine, il cinema di Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) offre la possibilità di lavorare sullo « sguardo » che lo spettatore pone sull’opera e per suo tramite su se stesso, misurando sempre il suo rapporto con l’opera rossiniana, che rivela cosi la sua intensa modernità, specchio della modernità del ventunesimo secolo.

Antonio Lotti (1667 – 1740) gehörte zu den angesehensten Musikern seiner Zeit und wurde deshalb vom sächsischen Kurprinzen mit Einverständnis seines Vaters für drei Jahre nach Dresden verpflichtet. Lotti hatte den Auftrag, mit einem italienischen Ensemble italienische Opern in Dresden aufzuführen. August der Starke erteilte am 23. August 1718 von Warschau aus die schriftliche Ordre an den Grafen Wackerbarth, ein neues Opernhaus am Taschenberg zu errichten. Es wurde am 3. September 1719 mit „Giove in Argo“ eröffnet.