Tag Archives: Lalla Rookh

Robert Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and its early Performances

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Guest contributor Conor Browne

Romantic era composer Robert Schumann (1810- 1856) is most likely to be known his numerous lieder. His great interest in literature led him to read Moore’s story of Lalla Rookh. Schumann first came across Moore’s poem in the early 1840s. In a  diary shared with his wife, Clara, he declared “Thomas Moore’s Paradise and the Peri has just been making me very happy” (translated Litzmann, p. 328). Schumann then continues by claiming that “something good in the way of music might be made of it”, showing his initial excitement at this prospect. Inspired by Moore, Schumann began to develop his oratorio, Das Paradies und die Peri, with a sustained composition period in the early months of 1843. He wrote this beautiful music in his spare time, as he had a full teaching schedule at the Leipzig conservatory with over 40 pupils. The diary entries are the perfect insight to Schumann’s progress through Clara’s reaction to each new piece of music that he wrote. “The music is as heavenly as the text; what a wealth of feeling and poetry there is in it!” (Litzmann, p. 350) . It is clear that Clara enjoyed the music of her spouse.

For those who may not know the story behind the work, it is this. A Peri, (an angel  from Persian mythology) is expelled from paradise. She  is told that in order to regain entrance she must bring a gift that is most dear to heaven. The Peri ponders what this could be and makes attempts to bring various gifts. First she brought the last drop of blood from a fallen young hero who died in battle. This was not enough. After this she journeys to Egypt where she acquires the last loving sigh of a lover who died from disease. Again, this was not enough. Eventually she comes across a repentant old sinner who witnesses a young boy praying. She takes a tear from the old man’s face and brings this gift to the gates of paradise. The gates flew open to receive this gift, admitting the Peri once more. It is a rather sweet fairy tale with morality being the core message. Repentance is the greatest gift.

The oratorio premiered in Leipzig on 4th December 1843 and evidently was a rousing success as several  repeat performances followed, including  Dresden on the 23rd of December and Berlin early the following year.  Clara’s diary also records some of the early performance issues that nearly frustrated the work’s premiere, including singers unable to handle the more technically demanding parts. Yet the first audience was attentive , and the press positive. However “Lalla Rookh” was being performed in Germany much before this. Gaspare Spontini wrote a series of tableaux vivant on “Lalla Rookh” for the Berlin royal court in 1821. Furthermore, a translation of “Lalla Rookh” was published in 1839 by the Leipzig-based publisher Bernhard Tauchnitz, so it is quite possible that it was through this  that Schumann first became inspired.

The Musical Times contains an article by George Grove which shows a letter written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1844, praising the work of his friend Schumann, in a bid to persuade Ewer and Co. of London to publish the oratorio. “It is a worthy musical translation of that beautiful inspiration of your great poet, Moore” (716). Even though no immediate action was taken, word of Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri eventually spread, so much so that it had made waves across the Atlantic. Clara records that the American Musical Institute in New York was preparing it for performance in late 1847. By 1854 it had premiered back in Ireland at Great Brunswick Street, Dublin in a performance  of the Royal Choral Institute conducted by John William Glover. According to Freeman’s Journal the music had been re-adapted to Moore’s original poem for the purpose of this performance. As Thomas Moore was from Dublin himself, we can be sure that “Lalla Rookh” and the tale of Paradise and the Peri would already have been well known in in his home city. The Peri premiered in England in June 1856. That performance was given by the Philharmonic Society for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. By 1869 Victor Wilder translated the work into an opera libretto titled Le Paradis et la Péri, performed in Paris at the Théatre impérial italien. These performances not only show just how successful the work was, but that  it changed and evolved from performance to performance, and even inspired new works, breathing new life into Thomas Moore’s beautiful poetry.

The image  shows the beautifully ornate cover page of “Lalla Rookh”, as illustrated by John Tenniel. The Peri is depicted on the cover leaning  across the two lovers’ bodies as she takes the last sigh. Image courtesy of Special Collections, McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast.

Works Cited
Grove, George – “Schumann’s Music in England” – Musical Times 47.753 (1905): 716-718. JSTOR.
Litzmann, Berthold – Clara Schumann: An artist’s life, based on materials found in diaries and letters, translated by Grace E. Hadow. 1913. Cambridge University Press, 2014. E-book.

EVENTS TO MARK LALLA ROOKH’S BICENTENARY

Project ERIN is participating in a number of events in spring 2017 to mark the publishing bicentenary of Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh. These include:

10 May, 13:00-14:00. ‘Moore’s influence on Europe’s music networks through the Irish Melodies and Lalla Rookh’. Seminar by Triona O’Hanlon and Sarah McCleave. Venue: McMordie Hall, Music, Queen’s University Belfast, University Square. Open to the public; no tickets required.
11 May, 13:10-14:25. A concert of Lalla Rookh-inspired music by composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford, Robert Schumann, Félicien David, and Sir John Stevenson. Venue: Harty Room, Music, Queen’s University Belfast, University Square. Open to the public; no tickets required.
15 May, 16:30-17:30. ‘Dublin publications and stage representations: a survey of Moore’s Irish Melodies and Lalla Rookh’. Seminar by Triona O’Hanlon and Sarah McCleave. Venue: Seminar room, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast, 6-8 Fitzwilliam Street. Open to the public; no tickets required.
27 May, 10:00. ‘Spontini’s Lalla Rûkh and the subsequent response of European composers to Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh’. Conference paper by Triona O’Hanlon and Sarah McCleave, for the ‘Lalla Rookh Bicentenary Symposium’, organised by Justin Tonra. Venue: Marsh’s Library, Dublin. For tickets see “Event Brite”.
17 June, 14:00-16:00. ‘The European Response to Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh’, plenary lecture by Triona O’Hanlon and Sarah McCleave, for the annual conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland. To be followed by a concert of works inspired by Lalla Rookh, by cmposers such as Henry Bishop, Frederic Clay, John G. Klemm and Robert Schumann, featuring mezzo sopranos Helen Aiken and Martha O’Brien, as well as pianist Aoife O’Sullivan. Venue: Music, Queen’s University Belfast. Open to conference delegates only; for further details see: http://qub.ac.uk/sites/smi2017/

During summer 2017 a radio documentary on Moore’s Lalla Rookh, produced by Rockfinch productions, will be produced on RTÉ Lyric. This will feature some material from the 17 June concert, as well as contributions by speakers including Anja Bunzel, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Sarah McCleave, Triona O’Hanlon, and Daniel Roberts.

Little Lalla Rookh: the Grand Christmas Pantomime

The British Library has a copy of John F. McArdle’s adaptation of Moore’s Lalla Rookh as a Victorian era Christmas pantomime. This work was first staged at the  Alexandra Palace Theatre, South Kensington, in December 1883 (and repeated at the Bijou Opera House, Liverpool, 1889).  The  original production team included Mr C. Brew (transformation scene, the Peris’ Papyrus-Grove), Loveday (music), Mis Guinniss (ballet and processional pageantry), Mr Norbury and Mr Bennett (gas and lime-light effects); Messrs. Knott and Co. contributed the illusions, while Mr Finlay led the team which provided the scenery. In McArdle’s pantomime, the stories of Lalla Rookh and Hinda are intermeshed, with the latter becoming the principal lady-in-waiting to the Mogul princess.  As in Moore’s poem, Hinda is beloved by the Gheber Hafed, but he is assigned the role of a pantomime Infernal, along with a new character ‘Khoransabad the Terrible’, who vies with the ‘poet’ Feramors/King of Bucharia for Lalla ‘s hand. Indeed, Lalla’s hand is sought by no fewer than 15 princes and potentates, whose desires are marked in an extended pageant that  allows plenty of opportunity to introduce exotic characters (Amazons, Mandarins, and ‘Ashantee Wives’) accompanying the hopeful suitors (the King of Cashmere, the Chinese Emperor, and King Koffee). Lalla Rookh, already totally smitten with the poet Feramors, swiftly rejects them — including Khoransabad, who attempts to woo her with a song to the tune of “Lovely Sally Brook”. She does, however, accept the suit of the unseen King of Bucharia, on the recommendation of the lovelorn Peri Namoune (here two of Moore’s characters are combined as his Namouna was a sorceress in ‘The Light of the Harem’; his Peri was nameless). Namoune has been denied her place in Heaven for daring to love a mortal (Feramors) and can only gain re-entry by effecting the union of her beloved with Lalla Rookh. Lalla’s father the emperor Aurungzebe gives his grudging approval for the match, then sings solo during the Grand Chorus of Moore’s  “Let Erin Remember”. The other Peris  appear from time to time  en masse to sing choruses and perform ballets. The attendant Ghebers, as infernal characters perform an  ‘Impish Ballet’, while Hafed and Khoransabad provide a “Grand Revenge Duet”. The Incantation which follows will be familiar :  “Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble” (here described as ‘The Conspirators’ Chorus’). Fadladeen manages to embroil himself in a pitched battle with the impish Ghebers, which Namoune quells by  rais[ing] a burning brand and wav[ing] it over them; all fall down, Hafed kneels overawed. In the end, the deserving men (Feramors and Hafed) get their girls, while the ‘baddie’ Khoransabad has to content himself by singing the ‘New Tip-top topical song’ while riding a donkey. The characteristic final appeal to the audience ran thus:

 

Fad.: With Moore we have made merry; our endeavour

To make the Moore the merrier than ever.

King.: Forgive our follies at this Christmas time,

All’s fair in love and war – and Pantomime.

Nam: Our faults and failings please to overlook.

Lalla: and let no raven crow o’er Lalla Rookh!

 

 

Lalla Rookh on the Dublin Stage

The first stage work inspired by Lalla Rookh opened at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 10 June 1818. This was M.J. Sullivan’s adaptation of Moore’s text as Lalla Rookh; or the Cashmerian Minstrel, as set by the popular singer-composer Charles Edward Horn. He was the son of a musician, also named Charles Horn, who had moved to London from Nordhausen in 1780. Horn senior counted amongst his pupils members of the Royal Family as well as the young tenor John Braham. Charles junior, born in 1788, became a versatile musician eventually famed for his tenor voice: his first position, however, was as a double-bass player at Covent Garden theatre; he was then appointed as second violoncello at the Italian opera under Lindley; at the age of 17, he published his first ballad, “The Baron of Mowbray”. The New York Mirror (vol. 12, 1834, pp. 294-95) credits Horn with setting at least a dozen theatrical works performed in London, including Moore’s comic opera, The MP; or, The Bluestocking in 1811. (Horn’s taste in poetry, we are told, was “most refined”.)  In the role of the poet Feramors for his opera Lalla Rookh, Horn would have treated his audience to his “veiled” or “husky” voice, which, combine with his “good manners and gentleman-like address” (New York Mirror), would have conveyed a certain appeal to the part.Theatre_audience_18-19th_century

A theatre audience, 18th or 19th century; hand-coloured etching
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Museum number: S.384-2009. Source=http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O182414/print-etching-h-beard-print-collection/ Wikimedia Commons.

We get a mixed impression regarding the success of Horn’s Lalla Rookh. Freeman’s Journal of 11 June 1818 proclaimed two or three of the airs “beautiful”, and described the “plaudits … on every side” when Moore was observed in situ on opening night, with a further “three distinct rounds of applause” two nights later, when Moore sat in the manager’s box. The publication of the score is a further marker of expectations for the work; the title-page records its dedication to that most illustrious of society patronesses, Lady Morgan:

“The Overture, Songs, & Duets, / In the Operetta of / LALLA ROOKH, / Performed with unbounded applause / AT THE / Theatre Royal, Dublin. / FOUNDED ON T. MOORE, ESQ.’S celebrated Poem; / The Words by M. J. Sullivan, Esqr. / The Music Composed, and Dedicated to / Lady Morgan, / By Charles Edward Horn. / Dublin, / Printed for the Author, by I. Willis, 7. Westmoreland Street”

Yet there is no firm record of Horn’s opera entering the repertory on a long term basis, and T. Walsh (Opera in Dublin 1798-1820, p. 192) insists it did not “become a favourite”.

While Horn’s opera may not have exerted an enduring appeal, during the nineteenth century every new generation of Dublin theatre-goers had the chance to engage with Moore’s Lalla Rookh as a stage work. Freeman’s Journal for 10 March 1843 contains an advertisement for a

“New Grand Equestrian Spectacle, / in Two Acts, called / LALLA ROOKH: / Or, The AMBASSADOR OF LOVE, AND GHEBER FIRE WORSHIPPERS / In which the entire Stud will appear.”

This work featured Lalla Rookh and her poet-lover Aliris, her father the Mughal emperor Aurungzebe, as well the added characters of Zerapghan, Himlah, and Meenah. We find another kind of poplar stage entertainment in the burlesque Lalla Rookh, Khoreanbad styled as “A Grand Divertissement” and staged on 4 Oct. 1858 at the Queen’s Royal Theatre.

The Gaiety Theatre would seem to have produced the most popular entertainment founded on Moore’s poem. On 22 December 1881 Freeman’s Journal announced

“This Evening … (at 7:30) / The Enormously Successful / The Grand Annual Christmas Pantomime, / LALLA ROOKH. / Bul Bul, the Peri: Hafed, the Gheber: and the / Feast of Roses, / Founded on Thomas Moore’s Oriental Poem. / New and Gorgeous Scenery. Magnificent Costumes. / Powerful and Specially Selected Company. / Kaleidoscopic Ballet. Exquisite Panorama. Gorgeous Marriage Revels. The celebrated Pet Elephant.”

This work was repeated at least nine times before the following notice appeared in Freeman’s Journal for 31 January 1882:

“This evening … SECOND EDITION / Of the enormously successful Pantomime / LALLA ROOKH . New Songs! New Dances! / New Medley of Moore’s Irish Melodies / New Topical Song! / New Dances and Comic Business by / The pet Elephant.”

This revision generated a further eight performances before, some fifty-five years after its source of inspiration was originally published, the Dublin public’s interest in the pantomime waned.

Lalla Rookh’s 200th at Queen’s University Belfast

The Department of Music at Queen’s University Belfast is running a new module in spring 2017, called ‘A Night at the Opera’. For this module, final-year BMUS students collaborate on a concert for their assessed project. The core text for this year’s cohort of sixteen students is none other than Moore’s ‘Lalla Rookh’ (1817), which inspired numerous songs (for the domestic market), cantatas (for choral societies of the time), and operas (for opera houses in Dublin, Paris, London, Dresden, etc.) from the early romantic period through to the Edwardian era. With two sopranos, a mezzo, one tenor, one bass, two pianists, two violins, and one each playing flute, clarinet, and oboe, we will have to arrange some of the existing music to suit our forces. So some of the students are performing, some are arranging music, and others will be acting as presenters to provide a narrative as well as some visual display to support the selection of music.  One of the students, who has taken sound engineering modules in our BSc, will record the event to add to the ERIN project website. At our planning meeting last week we came  up with a provisional list of repertory, which will be refined further over the next couple of weeks as we begin rehearsals.

Lalla Rookh Bicentennial Concert, 11 May 2017 @ 13:10 Harty Room

Cover, Lalla Rookh: an oriental romance, illustrated by John Tenniel
Cover, Lalla Rookh: an oriental romance, illustrated by John Tenniel

Provisional Programme

Part I. Lalla Rookh and Feramors

Ballet music from Anton Rubinstein’s opera Feramors (Dresden, 1863)

 “Sous le feuillage”  from Félicien David’s comic opera Lalla Roukh (Paris, 1862)

“I’ll sing thee songs of Araby” from Frederic Clay’s cantata Lalla Rookh (Brighton, 1877)

 Part II. The Veiled Prophet

‘Bendermeer’s Stream’ from  Charles Villiers Stanford’s opera The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Hanover, 1881).

Part III. Paradise and the Peri

 “Vom Eden’s Thor”, from Robert Schumann’s oratorio, Das Paradies und die Peri (Leipzig, 1843)

“The glorious Angel” (recit.) > “Nymph of a fair but erring race” (aria)

“Sweet said the Angel” (arietta)

“True was the maiden” (recit and arietta), from John Barnett’s cantata, Paradise and the Peri (pub. London, 1870)

“Schumcket die Stufen zu Allahs Thron”, from Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri

 The Peri Pardon’d, cantata by John Clarke (pub. London, 1818)

Part IV. The Fire Worshippers

 “Her hands were clasped”, a recit.-aria by Thomas Attwood (pub. London, 1818)

“’Twas his own Voice”, recit.-aria by Sir John Stevenson (pub. London, 1817)

“Farewell to thee Araby’s Daughter”, duet for soprano and tenor by Lady Flint, Five Songs from Lalla Rookh  (pub. London, 1818)

 Part V. The Light of the Harem

 ‘Namouna’s Song’ “I know where the winged visions dwell”, from Lady Flint, Five Songs.

“Fly to the Desert”, song by  George Kiallmark (pub. London, 1817)

Image courtesy of Special Collections, McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast

NB: Future blog posts may be written by some of the students enrolled in ‘A Night at the Opera’.

Moore’s Library

Thomas Moore was made an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1846 and after his death in 1852 his wife donated approximately 1,200 items from his personal library to the Academy. Moore’s Library, which is stored in the Council Room at Academy House, contains eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts in English, French and Italian. Its contents include works by Shakespeare and Voltaire, titles on oriental and eastern cultures and traditions, and books about Irish history and politics. Moore was an accomplished scholar and thorough researcher as evidenced by the extensive library he acquired. His researching skills and attention to detail are also evidenced by the presence of numerous footnotes throughout the Irish Melodies, National Airs and printed text for Lalla Rookh. Titles on oriental customs and cultures extant in Moore’s Library no doubt provided the poet-songwriter with the knowledge required to write his epic oriental poem. The following quotation, which provides a definition for the word Lalla, is taken from Bibliothèque orientale: où dictionnaire universel, contenant tout ce qui fait connoître les peuples de l’Orient by Barthélemy d’Herbelot (page 143).

“Laleh Ce mot, dont les Persans & les Turcs se servant pour signifier une tulipe, est chez eux le symbole d’un Amant passioné, à cause que cette fleur a ordinairement se feuilles rouges, & qu’elle est marquée au fonds d’une noirceur, qui a quelque ressemblance à la marque que laisse l’application ou l’impression d’un bouton de feu. Ainsi, disent-ils, l’Amant à le feu sur le visage, & la blessure dans le coeur. Laleh Deschti & Lalech Gouhi. Tulipe de campagne & de montagne, c’est-á-dire, sauvage & non cultivée. Les Persans appellent ainsi les anémones, que les Arabes nomment Schacaik al Noôman, à cause que ce fut Noôman, Roi d’Arabie, qui les transporta le premier de la campagne dans ses jardins.”

https://www.ria.ie/library

http://https://www.ria.ie/

Image Courtesy of Special Collections, McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast

Cover, Lalla Rookh: an oriental romance, illustrated by John Tenniel
Cover, Lalla Rookh: an oriental romance, illustrated by John Tenniel

Lalla Rookh in Europe: the first twenty years

Lalla Rookh is the story of an oriental princess regaled with several fantastic tales by the handsome young poet Feramorz whilst travelling to her own wedding. It  is the quintessential romantic epic. Feramorz (Lalla Rookh’s betrothed, the King of Bucharia, in disguise), successfully courts his bride through his story-telling, and so by the time they reach his kingdom he has captured Lalla Rookh’s heart. Moore, who had started writing Lalla Rookh in 1813, began sending it in installments to Longmans of London between March and May 1817. On the 27th of the month it was ‘out’; by December of that year it was in its sixth London edition.

London was also the site of the initial song sheet publications. The poem itself has several song texts, either sung by Feramorz to the princess or sung by characters within the tales he tells. Moore’s regular music publisher James Power issued songs by Dr John Clarke  and well as Sir John Stevenson in 1817; this was swiftly followed by settings from  Thomas Attwood (4),  J.C. Clifton (1), W. Hawes (2), and G. Kiallmark. 1817 also marked Longman’s first edition of Royal Academician Richard Westall’s engraved ‘Illustrations of Lalla Rookh’.

Lalla Rookh continued to stimulate a notable number of vocal and artistic publications, as well as translations of its poetry, up until the first World War. Possibly the first theatre piece inspired by Moore’s poem was Charles Edward Horn’s Lalla Rookh, or the Cashmerian Minstrel to a text by M. J. Sullivan, which opened at Dublin’s Royal Theatre. The next theatrical setting appears to have been Gaspare Spontini’s ‘Festspiel’, Lalla Rûkh, to a text by S.H. Spicker, which was staged at Berlin’s Royal Palace on 27 May 1822. This stimulated a ‘lyrical drama with ballet’ by Spontini for Berlin’s Royal Opera House in 1822, named after Moore’s enchanting  odalisque, Nurmhahal. That beauty continued to inspire the German song market, with Carl Maria von Weber setting “From Chinadara’s warbling fount”, otherwise known as the ‘Song of Nurmahal’, by 1826.

Moore’s Paris agents Galignani included Lalla Rookh in their 1819 English-language edition of Moore’s works; the brothers Schumann of Zwickau issued the first German translation in 1822. Vienna had its own translation, by Baron de la Motte Fouqué, in 1825. In its second decade Lalla Rookh would travel to the orient (literally; Moore reports that the East India Company had named a ship after his creation in 1827); the poem is published in Swedish translation (Turku, 1829), and again in German at Frankfurt-am-Main (1830). Moore’s tale of the hideous (both morally and physically ) ‘Veil’d Prophet of Khorassan’ is translated into Spanish (El falso Profeta de Cora-san, Barcelona, 1836) as well as Italian (Il Profeto velato, Torino, 1838). As the Victorian era advanced, there was a particular emphasis on illustrated editions of Moore’s poem–but that is a tale for another time.

Are you aware of any translations of Lalla Rookh not mentioned here? Please tell us on the blog!

WELCOME

20 January 2016

Image Blog Post 1

ERIN, a Horizon 2020 funded research project hosted by Queen’s University Belfast, was launched on 1 September 2015.  The aim of this research project is to map Europe’s response to Thomas Moore by examining the dissemination and reception of the Irish Melodies, National Airs and the music associated with Lalla Rookh.  This blog is a platform for sharing our work and will allow interested readers to track the progress of our research project while also providing a forum for discussion.  We expect to make some exciting discoveries along the way and will be posting content twice a month.

Irish poet-songwriter Thomas Moore (1779-1852) is a significant nineteenth-century figure, renowned for his articulation of national identity through the creation and exchange of poetry and song.  Early printed sources for the Irish Melodies, National Airs and Lalla Rookh are extant in libraries throughout Europe.  Our research begins with the Gibson-Massie-Moore Collection housed in Special Collections at the McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast.  The Gibson-Massie-Moore collection is the largest collection of Moore’s published works in the world; it contains over 1,000 volumes of printed music, texts and volumes of illustrations.  We will keep you posted as we develop the various outputs of this project.

Image Courtesy of ContentDM Thomas Moore Music Project

http://cdm15979.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15979coll12