„A work so truly English in its story and its music“. Arthur Sullivans Ivanhoe und die Suche nach einer englischen Nationaloper

Stollberg, Arne (2011) „A work so truly English in its story and its music“. Arthur Sullivans Ivanhoe und die Suche nach einer englischen Nationaloper. Studia Musicologica, 52 (1-4). pp. 457-484. ISSN 1788-6244

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Abstract

In order to overcome the persistent cliché of a “land without music,” considerable efforts were made in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century to establish what is now labelled the English Musical Renaissance. One of the movement’s main concerns was to establish both institutionally and artistically a National Opera for the production of English works. In this context, the opening of a newly built opera house, the Royal English Opera, by the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte in 1891 created a great stir. The Royal English Opera was inaugurated with Arthur Sullivan’s “Romantic Opera” Ivanhoe. Sullivan tried to give his score an especially English flavour without using folksongs or other overtly national musical characteristics. His composition can be seen as a synthesis of German, French and Italian influences, which intentionally mirrors the fusion of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman elements to form the English nation under King Richard the Lionheart as presented in the opera’s plot. Unfortunately the story of D’Oyly Carte’s enterprise was a short one and Sullivan’s opera quickly passed into oblivion.

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