CHAPTER XV.
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.