Reginald de Koven (1859-1920) and American comic opera at the turn of the century.
Item
-
Title
-
Reginald de Koven (1859-1920) and American comic opera at the turn of the century.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9530892
-
identifier
-
9530892
-
Creator
-
Krasner, Orly Leah.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: John Graziano
-
Date
-
1995
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Music | Theater
-
Abstract
-
At the end of the nineteenth century, American musical theater was dominated by imported works, particularly the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, and Continental operettas. Reginald de Koven, educated in England and Vienna, became the first American composer to successfully break this stranglehold.;De Koven's most important librettist was Harry B. Smith. Their earliest efforts, including Robin Hood (1891), incorporated elements of European operetta and the Savoy works, but attempted to minimalize topical and physical humor. In Rob Roy (1894) and The Highwayman (1897), the only works to rival Robin Hood's acclaim, the composer demonstrated greater control of his craft, often creating operatic scenas that exhibit a tonal coherence rare in the works of his contemporaries.;At the turn of the century, de Koven became increasingly active as a music critic. In 1902, he founded the Washington (D.C.) Symphony Orchestra, conducting their first three seasons, and began a stormy association with the Shubert brothers in order to promote his own works.;With the advent of ragtime, audience's tastes began to change. De Koven's facility in absorbing folk ballads and exotic idioms did not extend to popular styles; his shows at the turn of the century reveal an artist trying to balance artistic idealism with commercial considerations. Critics and audiences perceived of these works as retrogressive. At the same time, de Koven worked on various extravaganzas for which the music was given little credit, such as The Little Duchess for Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.;By the time Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow revitalized American operetta in 1907, George M. Cohan's works had begun to suggest fresh avenues for the musical theater. De Koven's works competed unfavorably with those of Victor Herbert, partly because they sounded too operatic for his audiences. At the end of his life, de Koven composed two grand operas, The Canterbury Pilgrims (1917) and Rip Van Winkle (1920). This autumnal metamorphosis may be seen less as the abandonment of de Koven's comic opera goals than as a search for an audience more closely attuned to his ideal.;The dissertation also includes two appendices dealing with British performances of de Koven's comic operas, and a catalogue of the composer's complete works.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
