I wanted to share this video and information I found about Ralph Vaughan Williams' opera
Riders to the Sea. Though he actually composed the opera after the Victorian era, there is an interesting similarity between Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Irish playwright, John Millington Synge that spills over from our class discussions. Synge held a deep pride for Ireland and wished to write plays that appealed to the people of his homeland and was true to his country. As a young man, he returned home from living in Paris to write about his own country and countrymen. This struck me as very similar to Vaughan Williams as he traveled around England to collect folk songs. He wanted Great Britain to have its own musical sound and for the people to be proud of it. Many critics believe this commonality between composer and playwright is what has made
Riders of the Sea so beautiful and Vaughan Williams' most successful opera.
In
program notes of a recent performance in Boston of the one act opera, I found this excerpt that I would like to share. Thoughts anyone?
Hugh Ottaway, in writing about Riders to the Sea, imagines it as a metaphor for Vaughan Williams’s life:
"If struggle is called for, then so is resignation: beneath the outward cataclysm of their lives is a strange repose, a tragic faith in a merciful and benevolent God. It is easy to see how this would appeal to Vaughan Williams the Christian humanist; indeed, at bottom, it is a situation in which he, too, has found himself. If, for a moment, the composer be substituted for Synge’s islanders and the sea taken as a symbol of the overwhelming forces in the modern world, then the work will assume its true proportions as a remarkably complete expression of Vaughan William’s character and outlook."
In this video, the mother, Maurya, laments the loss of her only surviving son to the sea- following in the footsteps of her husband, father in law and five other sons. Talk about tragic.
These are depictions of the mudlarks on the Thames river that Henry Mayhew came to research and share in his book series London Labour and London Poor. I found these on this website. Check it out- there are many more illustrations of different kinds of people Mayhew came across in his social research and surveys of the poor in London.
This picture is actually a poster advertisement for the world renowned soprano, Dame Nellie Melba. As an Australian soprano she traveled to London in 1886 only to be turned down for work from Sir Arthur Sullivan. She then began to study with the famous pedagogue, Mathilde Marchesi. After making her debut in 1887 in Covent Garden in the role of Oscar she returned in 1888 to star as Lucia. Melba has been credited with actually being the first to sing the famous Lucia cadenza with flute. She was also one of the first women to be granted a dame-hood for her accomplishments in her career. This poster is advertising the new recording achievements that now make it possible to enjoy this incredible singer in your own home. Again, we see the movement of enjoying your life with the nuclear family in the home.
These beautiful opera glasses were being offered for sale on the website: vintagesparkles.net. They feature a detachable lorgnette handle. Opera glasses were supposed to be compact and convenient for use. These particular glasses actually offer adjustable lenses to focus the picture. Of course it seems like these glasses may have been used to check out the "fresh meat" on display courtesy of the newly debuted women of the rising middle class.
Good luck trying to sing well in that corset. I often wonder about the particular vocal quality of woman during this time period. There are not many recordings from the Victorian era, but there are from just afterwards when woman still wore this tight corseted clothing. How could they ever have any real depth to their voice when a low breath was virtually impossible? I'm thinking of the fluttery voice of Adrianna Caselotti, aka the voice of Disney's Snow White. Although that was filmed in 1937, tight undergarments were still worn. It seems probable that the light, fluttery voices of females during the early part of the century were related to the corsets that were popular during this time.
I was in the library today, printing off our article for Thursday, when I saw this album cover by the Record Sales table. I just thought it was funny that we mentioned in class today that Borodin was among Russian composers we don't really hear about any more, and then there's a recording of one of his operas sitting in the library! Hilarious, Universe.
