Proud Musical Borrowings in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
An essay by Nicholas Burns
Vancouver Opera is presenting Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the first time in our history. As part of our work in exploring and explicating the opera, we have commissioned some artists and writers to explore their responses to the opera. More information on our production is here.
Have you ever stopped to think about the origins of your favourite hits? It might surprise you to learn that many iconic songs were actually inspired by other compositions. Composers have always loved to steal from each other. The art of musical parody (not necessarily comedic parody) is likely as old as music itself. This art of ‘musical-borrowing’ has led to some smash hits throughout the ages. Take the 1975 pop song “All by Myself” by Eric Carmen which directly quotes the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto.
The Beatles were also masters of this parodic art. In the 1963 Beatles song “All My Loving”, Paul McCartney ‘borrowed’ a lick from the famous American jazz pianist Dave Brubeck’s song “Kathy’s Waltz”. More recently, pop-sensation Olivia Rodrigo came under fire for her smash hit “good 4 u” sounding a lot like pop-punk band Paramore’s 2007 hit “Misery Business”.
While the practice of borrowing music may seem taboo today, it was actually a common occurrence in the past. Until the 20th century, ‘stealing’ music was practically a form of praise and endearment, and most definitely not a cause for litigation! Composers in the baroque period (1600–1750) were prolific in their musical parodies. JS Bach practically copied an entire piece from his Italian colleague, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi[ (his famous Stabat Mater duet for soprano and alto). The only alterations Bach made were translating the original Latin text into German, as per the liturgical conventions in 1740s Leipzig, and an additional ‘Amen’ movement at the end. George Frederick Handel was so prolific at parody that he even copied himself! He reused the same ravishing alto aria three separate times in his life, on both the opera stage in Rodelinda (Dove sei, amato bene?) and Alcina (Verdi prati), and in the concert hall in the oratorio Israel in Egypt (Thou shalt bring them in).
Benjamin Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” uses musical parody in both a sober and humourful manner. Britten, being a lover of music by baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659–1695), borrowed many structural (how the music is organised on a macro level) and aesthetic ideas from him to form the music of the fairies. The most overt example is in his aria ‘Welcome wanderer’ for Oberon, the king of the fairies.
The most striking thing about this aria is that it is written for a countertenor, a tenor, or a bass singer who sings in their higher falsetto range. Britten’s choice of using a countertenor to sing the role of Oberon is a bold choice, considering the prominence of Wagner’s music on opera stages at that time. As far as vocal aesthetics are concerned, the countertenor is the exact opposite from a leading Wagnerian heldentenor. While the countertenor may have been exotic during the time that “Midsummer” premiered, there is evidence to suggest that Henry Purcell’s choirs at Westminster Abbey may have used adult-aged falcettists, much like major cathedral choirs in London during Britten’s life. There is also something eerily similar about the aria ‘Welcome wanderer’ and Purcell’s famous song ‘Sweeter than Roses’
The opening cello solo in ‘Welcome wanderer’ with reduced orchestration evokes the sparse baroque accompaniment in ‘Sweeter than Roses’ (typically a cello plus a keyboard instrument). The slow setting of the text with explosive melodic outbursts is also a uniting element between the two arias. Benjamin Britten composed a book of original accompaniments for some of Henry Purcell’s songs, so the strong evocation of ‘Sweeter than Roses’ in ‘Welcome Wanderer’ is no coincidence.
The real comedic parody comes during the final act’s play. Pyramus’ entrance aria ‘O Grimlook’d Night’ is a parody on the famous ‘Misere’ duet from Verdi’s Il Travatore. Both ‘O Grimlook’d Night’ and the ‘Misere’ open with low voices and an ominous dotted rhythm evoking a certain brand of funeral march. The gravity of the music is unmistakable, and in Britten’s case, unmistakably cliché. The clichés continue in Britten’s opera, with him almost directly copying the mad scene from Gaetano Donizetti’s 1835 opera Lucia di Lammermoor for Thisby’s death scene.
The pairing of voice and flute in parallel ascending scales is unmistakable. In the case of Lucia, the voice-flute pairing is utterly haunting, and in Thisby’s case, utterly hilarious.
Moments later, Britten’s humour continues to shine when he sets the text of the Lion’s attempts at intimidation to a polka. Needless to say, the lion is unsuccessful in his attempts to scare.
There are so many moments where Britten’s use of musical parody is prominent in this opera. The actors troupe often sings in close harmony, evoking a barbershop quartet, while the lovers’ music is in the grand, lyrical style of traditional opera that had existed for the past 150 years before “Midsummer”. And the fairies are made to sound otherworldly, their world painted with highly dissonant harmonies and plentiful percussion evoking the 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg.
But despite all these examples of parody, Britten’s “Midsummer” is no simple copycat work. To me, it is a testament to Britten’s diverse musical influences and experiences. But perhaps if Donizetti were alive to hear ‘Midsummer’, he would have been upset and sued? Oh well, we’ll never know!
Vancouver-based Countertenor Nicholas Burns appeared at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, performing Bach cantatas with Philippe Herreweghe. He has also appeared with appeared with the American Bach Soloists, BachFest Leipzig, Tafelmusik, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival, L’Harmonie des saisons, The Theatre of Early Music, and le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. On the opera stage, Nicholas has performed in numerous Handel operas including Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Polinesso in Ariodante, and Lichas in Hercules. He also gave the world premiere of the opera L’Orangeraie by French composer Zad Moultaka. Nicholas frequently performs the vocal works of JS Bach, including over 50 of Bach’s cantatas, as well as the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and B Minor Mass in a ‘one-voice-per-part’ setting. Upcoming performances include engagements with Tafelmusik, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Toronto Bach Festival, Symphony Nova Scotia, Oberlin Conservatory, I Musici, and Early Music Vancouver. Aside from singing, Nicholas is an accomplished bagpiper, having won the World Pipe Band Championships in 2012.