A synthesis of all the arts
Drama and music, dance and stage magic: King Arthur
John Dryden wrote a first version of King Arthur in 1684 in anticipation of the celebrations planned for 1685 for the 25th anniversary of the re-instatement of King Charles II. This marked the end of the reign of terror under the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell who had decreed that all theatres should be closed. From a letter to the Marquess of Halifax we learn that the poet was contemplating a political allegory: the transfiguration of the English kingship of that time with reference to the charisma of the legendary King Arthur. However, the monarch did not live long enough to experience the homage paid to him by his Poet Laureate. Charles II died on 6 February 1685 and King Arthur was shelved for six years until in 1691 Dryden revised the text and, working together with the composer Henry Purcell, staged the piece: a “dramatick opera” incorporating scenes, machines, songs and dances in beautiful harmony. Posterity has labelled this sparkling sythesis of all the arts a “semi-opera”.
At the instigation of Dryden, who recommended studying “the French spirit so as to introduce somewhat more merriment and modernity“, Henry Purcell oriented himself – no matter how very British the subject matter was – on Molière’s comédie ballets and on Jean-Baptiste Lully’s lyric tragedies. The form of the semi-opera presents a dramaturgical problem in that the actual story takes place on the level of drama. This is then illustrated and reflected upon only allegorically in the musical tableaux yet without taking the action forward.
Perhaps it is due to the hybrid form as well as to the performance practice of the time that the work does not exist in a clear and binding edition. The score was not printed during Purcell’s lifetime (1659–1695). It frequently occurred that 17th century works were adapted to the relevant performance conditions and so nowadays performers also have to find their own musical and dramaturgical solutions.
Whereas in most semi-operas the music was compressed into four or five episodes or masques, in King Arthur there are seven:
- Saxon procession and sacrifice
- The battle of the warring parties
- Grimbald’s attempt to lead the Britons astray
- Pastoral scene
- Woodland scene with the phantasmagoria of the frozen people who are to be saved by Cupid
- The temptation of Arthur by naked sirens, nymphs and woodland gods
- The bizarre and fantastic finale of the patriotic masque
Hans Werner Henze, L'Upupa and the Triumph of
Filial Love
The music is an incoherent sequence of contrasting pieces. After a new production in 1736 the poet Thomas Gray commented that the introductory heathen scene of sacrifice has the solemn sound of church music, like an anthem. It is starkly contrasted by the following chorus of Britons with its vivacious and resolute belligerent character. Purcell pays his respects to the Italian vocal tradition, art of coloratura and ornamentation in the virtuoso contralto solo I call you all to Woden’s hall. Unique and full of imagination is the interweaving of music, dialogue and stage action in the scene in which Grimbald and Philadel lead the soldiers astray or rather save them as they are chasing the Saxons. Grimbald’s seductive song is magnificent, “Let not a moonborn elf misled ye”. This scene could almost be a model for 18th century opéra comique.
Lully’s opera Isis (1677) probably inspired the suggestive, onomatopoeic scene of the Cold Genius in the frozen landscape. The passacaglia in the fourth act, integrated into the action, is heard during the dance of the nymphs and may well be a grateful homage by Purcell to his French model Lully.
The action of the final act, the Masque of Britannia is incoherent and lacks a clear meaning. Does it stand for the celebration and transfiguration of the fatherland? Or is the combination of the ridiculous and the solemn, the blasphemous and the sublime, mythology and patriotic jingoism (Ulrich Schreiber) meant ironically or even cynically?
Jürgen Kesting
Henry Purcell
KING ARTHUR
New production
Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Stage director Jürgen Flimm
Stage and video Klaus Kretschmer
Costumes Birgit Hutter
Choreography Catharina Lühr
Chorus master Rupert Huber
Dramaturge Susanne Stähr
King Arthur Michael Maertens
Oswald Dietmar König
Merlin Christoph Bantzer
Osmond Roland Renner
Emmeline Sylvie Rohrer
Matilda Ulli Maier
Philidel Alexandra Henkel
Grimbald Werner Wölbern
Soprano Barbara Bonney · Isabel
Rey
Contralto Birgit Remmert
Tenor Michael Schade
Bass Oliver Widmer
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
Concentus Musicus Wien
Premiere 24 July, 7 p.m.
Further performances
26 and 28 July, 7 p.m.
1, 3 and 5 August, 7 p.m.
7 August, 6 p.m.
22 August, 3 p.m.
23 August, 7 p.m.
25 August, 6 p.m.
Felsenreitschule
Telephone +43 (0) 662 8045-500
Telefax +43 (0) 662 8045-555
E-mail: info@salzburgfestival.at
Production photos © Karl Forster