Stage music in eighteenth-century London: Handel's 'Giulio Cesare' and Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera'. |
By: Roger Hansford |
Superficially, it may appear that Giulio Cesare (1724) and The Beggar’s Opera (1728) are completely different forms of stage entertainment. This would be supported by the respective circumstances and aims of their composition. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) wrote some thirty-five works for the London stage [1], using his talent to continue the established tradition of opera seria [2]. Through a set of conventions - castrati, exit patterns, aria and recitative, mythological settings and exotic machinery [3] - this aimed to provide a vehicle for Italian-style virtuoso singers [4], creating sensual delight for the aristocracy [5]. John Gay (1685-1732), although an experienced poet [6], was instead pioneering the genre of ballad-opera: as new to him as to 1720s audiences [7]. Using a work rooted in the intellectual English dramatic tradition [8], he aimed to voice his disenchantment with the aristocracy [9], satirising their vices and hypocrisy [10]. Despite these differences in the conception of the works, examination of the musical and dramatic effects reveals several similarities between them. This is not surprising: Gay’s additional aim, to burlesque the dramatic limitations of opera seria [11], would require him to include in his own work many of the elements he set out to ridicule, linking the operas inextricably.
An examination of the plots and characters of the works at first suggests very wide differences between them. Giulio Cesare centres around the struggle for the throne of Egypt - a setting far removed from London audiences - featuring battles, a beheading, attempted suicides, threats of revenge, and a romance between the legendary characters Cleopatra and Caesar.[12] Although E. D. Mackerness dates the action to ‘Caesar’s campaign in Egypt during A.D. 48’ [13], Roger Fiske argues that typical opera seria librettos ‘often bore no relation’ to historical fact.[14] The same could not be said of The Beggar’s Opera where, ‘for the mythological or courtly setting of opera, Gay substitutes Newgate Prison and a group of thieves and prostitutes’, characters based on real figures in 1720s London. Macheath, for example, was modelled on the criminal Jack Shepherd, while Peachum was inspired by the famous gangleader Jonathan Wild, both executed around 1725.[15] However, although this realism would appear to set The Beggar’s Opera apart, the ‘stock dramatic revenge theme’ and ‘the standard stage conflict of love and duty’ are, according to Maynard Mack, transferred directly into The Beggar’s Opera from works like Giulio Cesare.[16] Even aspects such as poison and prison scenes are to be found in both types of work.[17] This idea of similarity yet difference is mirrored by Gay’s use of performers. Unbound by rules concerning the balance of male and female voices [18], he was free to omit the castrati and include the Beggar and the Player to turn the end of the opera on itself [19]. However, he provides conventional prima donna roles in the form of Polly and Lucy [20], who mock the rivalry between celebrity sopranos Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni in their air ‘Why How Now Madam Flirt’ [21]. So similarity and difference together exist in the relationship between the plots, settings, characters and the use of performers within the works.
Aspects of similarity and difference can also be seen in the way each work is structured. The Beggar’s Opera is similar to Giulio Cesare in respect of its three acts, and instead of a prologue, both works have an original overture as their first musical item.[22] In Giulio Cesare [Figure 1] this is in the French style: an opening section of slow dotted chords with tirades (bar 8), followed by an allegro section where the theme beginning at bar 15 is taken up in a fugal manner at bars 18 and 27, with a hint of the dotted chords returning towards the end; Pepusch’s overture to The Beggar’s Opera [Figure 2] emulates this style [23], although it breaks new ground by pre-empting one of the song melodies during its second, quasi-imitative section. Both Gay and Handel employ airs or arias to ‘denote the states of mind experienced by the contending parties’.[24] Gay’s placement of these - inserted intermittently throughout - is similar to Handel’s, mirroring the unrealistic effect of ‘sudden switching’ into song [25], such as Caesar’s aria ‘Empio Dirò’, the introduction separated from the preceding recitative by just two chords [Figure 3]. But Gay’s purpose in adopting this structure, to mock rather than follow the conventions of opera seria [26], sets his work apart. Also, while Handel advances the action between arias with sung Italian recitative, Gay uses spoken English dialogue, or, as he has the Beggar say, ‘I have not made my Opera throughout unnatural, like those in vogue; for I have no Recitative’.[27] So, with different purposes in mind, the two composers employ different individual features within a common structure.
There are also similarities and differences in the orchestration of the airs and other music. Both composers arrange their airs for solo, duet, trio and chorus.[28] However, each deploys their instruments in a different way. Handel’s instrumentation, in the words of Mackerness, ‘makes up a grand concert in which the variety is provided by eight solo voices, a chorus and a sizeable orchestra . . .’.[29] Winton Dean agrees, saying that the orchestral arrangement in Giulio Cesare is ‘nearly a century in advance of its time’; he cites the four horns playing in four different keys at once, and the double orchestra of up to eighteen parts, including viola da gamba, theorbo, and harps, giving the enchantment scenes ‘a sensuous, voluptuous quality seldom rivalled even by the romantics’.[30] For The Beggar’s Opera, however, few introductions or bass parts survive, suggesting that airs may have been accompanied simply by continuo. Strings, harps, trumpets and kettle drums have been variously recorded, but there is uncertainty over important performance issues such as tonality, tempo and range.[31] This is due to the lack of existing arrangements for music in The Beggar’s Opera, leaving modern conductors like Benjamin Britten to write their own.[32] But even Giulio Cesare is, according to Dean, equally lacking in a useful performance score [33], perhaps because, with little integrity given to individual works at the time, an opera would ‘never be repeated unaltered’ [34]. So, although Handel seems to have orchestrated differently than Pepusch, there is no existing definitive record of either work.
This mix of similarity and difference in the relationship between the operas is exemplified by the form of the airs themselves. In Giulio Cesare the composition of arias, as per the opera seria tradition, was bound by rules ‘so severely formal that the composer was not permitted to use his own discretion’. The composition had to fit one of the five pre-determined classes of aria, and follow the ABA structure of da capo form [35]. This is demonstrated by Cleopatra’s aria ‘Non Disperar’ [Figure 4]. Within the A section there are five smaller sections: an orchestral prelude (bars 1-9), a voice episode (bars 10-20), an orchestral interlude (bars 21-22), another voice episode (bars 23-42) and an orchestral postlude (bars 43-46). Modulation occurs from the tonic E major (bar 1) through the dominant B major (a-sharp introduced in bar 12; cadence in the dominant at bar 19) and back to the tonic by the end. The short B section (bars 47-58) then presents contrasting melodic and rhythmic material in a minor key, ending with the da capo instruction to send the performer back through A, this time adding ornamentation to swell her virtuoso status. This is most noticeable where complex decoration is added to the existing melisma at bars 14-15 and 38-40, and at bar 20 where the sustained b is sung up the octave. Other examples of this structure, with different length sections, can be found in arias like ‘Piangerò’, ‘Se Pietà’ and ‘Da Tempeste’.
The airs in The Beggar’s Opera are written in a completely different way. Instead of a complex structure, most have simple binary form, as shown by ‘Tis Woman That Seduces All Mankind’ [Figure 5]. Also simpler are the texture, the melodic and rhythmic ideas, and the quasi-modal harmony implied by the f-sharp and e-natural in bars 6 and 7. The biggest difference between the airs in the two works, though, is that Gay’s are not original compositions but borrowings from pre-existing works [36]. Peter Elfed Lewis describes how most of the sixty-nine airs were taken from Thomas D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy [37], and Yvonne Noble suggests that, as well as dances, drinking songs and folk tunes, the sources included excerpts from the operas of Handel and Purcell, and reworkings of compositions from Gay’s previous works.[38] This could be said to present a similarity with Handel’s style of composition as, according to Mackerness, his Rinaldo was ‘a pasticcio . . . made up from music that Handel had already composed’.[39] However, John Brewer suggests that, unlike Handel, Gay ‘deliberately drew attention’ to his sources as part of the ‘arch knowingness’ of the work.[40] Patricia Meyer Sparks calls this a ‘cross-commentary’, saying that whenever a familiar piece of music appeared, the audience would synthesise the original lyrics of the tune with Gay’s new lyrics, preventing them from ‘having a simple view of the situation’.[41] For example, Air XLVII ‘One Evening, Having Lost My Way’, had been printed in 1719 as ‘Walpole, or the Happy Clown’[42], perhaps suggesting, as part of the satire, that Walpole had been misguided in his actions as Prime Minister. So although both composers used airs with similar frequency and positioning, the musical details of the composition and the effect on the audience are entirely different.
This idea of similarity yet difference can be expanded to inform our view of a much wider question: whether one work places greater importance on music than the other, and whether the musically inferior work has greater emphasis on dramatic development. Although Lewis Melville believes that The Beggar’s Opera has ‘no great claims’ as a literary work [43], Lewis suggests that ‘opera’ is the wrong title as the sections of spoken dialogue are so meaningful it is ‘easy to forget’ the work was written for musical theatre.[44] Sparks even claims that we could ‘ignore’ the music, such is the depth of allusion and imagery to be found in the language.[45] The same could not be said of Giulio Cesare, in which the recitative in Italian would not even have been understood by many of the audience.[46] This may suggest that, in The Beggar’s Opera, the drama is more important, while in Giulio Cesare, the music takes pride of place. After all, we attribute Giulio Cesare to its composer, but The Beggar’s Opera to its librettist, and early editions of ballad-operas usually banished the music to an appendix at the end.[47]
Although the use of borrowing does add meaning to The Beggar’s Opera, this meaning is textual, achieved through ‘the very language’ [48]. In Giulio Cesare, the impact of the arias is primarily musical. The pathos of Cornelia’s ‘Priva son d’ogni conforto’ [Figure 6], expressing her wish to die because of her grief-laden heart, is achieved through specific musical elements such as the slow tempo, chromaticism (bars 17-18), and the cumulative effect of the descending motives (bars 6, 8, 14, 18-19) and falling intervals (bars 24-5). Handel also writes purely instrumental sections, such as the technically difficult ‘Sinfonia’ in the final scene [Figure 7], something not found in The Beggar’s Opera. That musical quality is paramount in Giulio Cesare is supported by the many criticisms of opera seria’s failure as intellectual dramatic work. Samuel Johnson dismissed it as ‘exotic and irrational entertainment’, while Thomas Addison accused it of permitting ‘indolent attention’ from the audience [49]. Modern commentators like Dean suggest that the structure and exit conventions of the da capo aria - geared for an audience who ‘wanted virtuoso singing, first, last and all the time’ - made Handel’s characters into ‘puppets and casual vehicles instead of living dramatic agents’.[50] This would suggest that the two works differ as drama is more important in The Beggar’s Opera, and music more important in Giulio Cesare.
However, although Handel’s music may be more complex than Gay’s, his reputation is for writing aimed ‘at the service of the drama, never the glory of the gullet’ [51]. Cleopatra’s eight arias, for example, demonstrate ‘a wide emotional spectrum, each exhibiting a different facet of her personality and contributing to a fully fashioned developing character’ [52], and some tone colours, such as the doubling of flute and violin in Cleopatra’s ‘Piangero’, are geared towards specific dramatic ends [53]. Gay also used music to serve the dramatic development; the disjointed collection of melodies in Act III.xii, each in a different key, [Figure 8] might not please a musical aesthetician, but they effectively demonstrate Macheath’s drunken mood swings. This similarity is underlined by the fact that Handel, although working within opera seria rather than against it, also tried to go beyond its conventions. Dean describes how Handel has an offstage chorus break into the final ritornello of an imperial aria, and begins with a dramatic overture rather than ‘the creaking of machinery’.[54] David Bowman provides another example, showing how the aria ‘Aure, deh, per Pietà’ incorporates an accompanied recitative.[55] So, although we might question the dramatic unity of opera seria, we cannot criticise the dramatic meaning of Giulio Cesare. Nor would the music of The Beggar’s Opera necessarily have been less pleasing than that of Giulio Cesare; many listeners would have appreciated the simple popular tunes [56], secure in the knowledge that their native dramatic and musical traditions were not being driven out of the opera house [57]. The popularity of both works - then and now - might be explained by the fact that both composers used music to defy the conventions of opera seria, although the complexity of the music they used, the extent to which they broke conventions, and their reasons for doing so, were different.
So whichever aspect of the two operas is being discussed, similarity and difference are simultaneous in the relationship between them. The works share themes, types of performer, and structure, and both have music written to suit the dramatic ends. But while one is set in Ancient Egypt, the other takes characters from contemporary London; one has Italian recitative, the other English dialogue; one has richly-orchestrated original arias governed by complex structural rules, the other fashions simple binary airs from borrowed folk ballads. One aimed to delight the senses, the other, using simpler music and comedy, aimed to provoke serious thought. But as Giulio cesare was written four years before and without knowledge of The Beggar’s Opera, the best comparison between opera seria and ballad-opera is that deliberately provided within The Beggar’s Opera itself. Just as, according to Lewis, satire and burlesque are ‘inextricably fused’ in the work [58]; so to are the worn conventions of opera seria and the novel features designed to convey Gay’s original message. As Noble puts it:
‘The Beggar . . . naturalises the Italian opera into his own community, keeping what seems familiar (prisons, poison, the turmoil of rival loves), abandoning what seems incomprehensible (the artful music, the Italian language, the recitative, the castrati), and making the rest out of the material of his world . . .’ [59]
NOTES
[1] Matthew Boyden, The Rough Guide to Opera, 2nd Ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1999), p.40.
[2] Winton Dean, Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp.24, 28.
[3] Christopher Hogwood, Handel (London: Thames and Hudson, 1984), pp.51-2, 63-4.
[4] Dean (1959), pp.27, 28.
[5] Peter Elfed Lewis, John Gay, ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, Studies in English Literature No.61 (London: Edward Arnold, 1976), p.10.
[6] John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, ed. Peter Elfed Lewis (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1973), p.4.
[7] Yvonne Noble, ‘The Beggar’s Opera in Its Own Time’ in Twentieth Century Interpretations of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Yvonne Noble (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975), p.1.
[8] Lewis, p.10.
[9] Roger Fiske, English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), p.95.
[10] Lewis, ed., p.10.
[11] ibid., pp.3-4.
[12] Boyden, p.62.
[13] E. D. Mackerness, A Social History of English Music, Studies in Social History, ed. Harold Perkin (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964), p.96.
[14] Fiske, p.62.
[15] Lewis, ed., pp.9, 13-14.
[16] Maynard Mack, from ‘The Augustans’ in Noble, ed., p.41.
[17] Noble, pp.9-10.
[18] Eric Blom, ed., Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th Ed., Vol.VI (London: Macmillan and Co., 1954) p.206.
[19] Lewis, ed., p.20.
[20] Lewis, p.13.
[21] Jeremy Barlow, The Beggar’s Opera, The Broadside Band (Hyperion, 1991), p.8.
[22] Lewis, pp.11-12.
[23] Barlow, p.6.
[24] Mackerness, p.95.
[25] Lewis, p.12.
[26] ibid., p.16.
[27] Lewis, ed., p.50.
[28] Lewis, p.12.
[29] Mackerness, pp.97-98.
[30] Dean (1959), pp.74-5, 78, 451, 492-3.
[31] Fiske, pp.114-120.
[32] Boyden, p.72.
[33] Winton Dean, ‘Handel’s “Giulio Cesare”’, Musical Times No.1444 Vol.104,(1963), p.404.
[34] Reinhard Strohm, ‘Towards an Understanding of Opera Seria’ in Essays on Handel and Italian Opera (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p.96.
[35] Blom, ed., p.206.
[36] Lewis, p.11.
[37] Lewis, ed., pp.8-9.
[38] Noble, p.11.
[39] Mackerness, p.95.
[40] John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997), pp.428-431.
[41] Patricia Meyer Sparks, John Gay (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1965) pp.158-9.
[42] Lewis Melville, Life and Letters of John Gay (1685-1732) Author of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ (London: Daniel O’Connor, 1921) p.154.
[43] ibid, p.81.
[44] Lewis, pp.11, 23.
[45] Sparks, p.145-157.
[46] Hogwood, p.52.
[47] Fiske, p.115.
[48] Sparks, pp.158-9.
[49] Mackerness, pp.93-4, 98.
[50] Dean (1959), pp.27, 32.
[51] Hogwood, p.80.
[52] René Jacobs, Giulio Cesare. Concerto Köln (Harmonia Mundi, 1991), p.22.
[53] Dean (1959), p.78.
[54] ibid, pp.29-30.
[55] Bowman, p.29.
[56] Melville, p.81.
[57] Lewis, ed., p.7.
[58] ibid, p.5.
[59] Noble, pp.9-10.
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