The Duchess of Padua (2024)

​Broadway World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Packed full with stunning music... Lambert’s music is spot on"
Bachtrack  "... an ode to the human voice… the melodrama was delicious and ...this is a slick and stylised production.”
The Reviews Hub ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "For passionate opera fans, having something so new should come as a welcome joy… " 
Newbury Weekly News  " ... a modern triumph, rich with allusions to mainstream opera, layered with meaning and gripping throughout."

The Space Theatre 
London E14 3RS
20 - 25 February 2024

The Georgian Theatre Royal 
Richmond (Yorks) DL10 4DW
Sat 2 March

The Anthony Burgess Foundation
Manchester M1 5BY
Sun 3 March

The Croft Hall,
​Hungerford RG17 0HY
Sun 10 March

The Music Troupe is a registered charity no. 1161386
Generously supported by

THE MARCHUS TRUST​

---

​FIDELIO CHARITABLE TRUST

GREENHAM TRUST​

read about the opera on The Arts Dispatch
https://www.theartsdispatch.com/edward-lambert-on-the-duchess-of-padua/

​Music: Edward Lambert
Words: Oscar Wilde
Director: Fleur Snow
​Design: Melissa Sofoian
Model maker: Yun Geng
Lighting: Jonny Danciger
Production manager: Tabitha Benton-Evans
Ellie Neate (soprano) The Duchess
Anna Elizabeth Cooper (mezzo-soprano) Guido Ferranti
James Beddoe (tenor) The Duke
Henry Grant Kerswell (bass) Count Moranzone
Piano duo:
​Adrian Salinero & Alex Norton

"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
Oscar Wilde's epic tragedy of revenge, passion and murder has been turned into a compact opera which now receives its first performances.. An avenging young man falls for the browbeaten duchess and casts them both into danger. At times melodramatic, at times sentimental, with everything in between, this adaptation of Wilde's beautiful verse faithfully follows the twists and turns of the drama's extraordinary plot - and reveals it to be more modern than it seems. There has been no known production of the play between 1891 and 2010 (Wikipedia), and so the best of Wilde's eloquent and touching text is, for the duration of these performances, rescued from oblivion. With arias, ensembles, a love-duet and a death scene, a quartet of fine voices accompanied by a virtuoso piano duo brings to life this ‘Italian-style’ opera for intimate spaces. 

The performance lasts about 1'45" including interval

MusicTroupe · The Duchess of Padua

Review in the Journal of The Oscar Wilde Society, July 2024  "Among the ensemble, Ellie Neate shines with a mesmerizing performance, infusing the Duchess with an almost feminist world-weariness and delicate vulnerability. She skilfully guides us through the character’s intricate emotional journey, her vocals captivating with clarity and emotive resonance, beautifully complementing the commanding mezzo-soprano of Anna Elizabeth Cooper. Cooper expertly navigates the intricate and emotionally charged role, infusing it with depth and maturity. Henry Grant Kerswell’s imposing presence and resonant bass lend gravitas to the portrayal of Count Moranzone, expressing a man consumed by vengeance. Meanwhile, James Beddoe infuses the Duke of Padua with a perilous charm, adeptly manoeuvring through the sometimes complex music. Accompanied solely by pianists Alex Norton and Adrian Salinero, each member of the quartet undertakes formidable vocal challenges, executing unexpected tempo changes, fluid phrasing and fierce leaps in register. Under the musical direction of Lambert himself, director Fleur Snow’s staging, complemented by the minimalist props and set design by Melissa Sofoian, delivers a focused and compelling presentation. The converted church venue at The Space, renowned for its superb acoustics, serves as an ideal gothic backdrop. The set design features projections of pointed stone arches in the early scenes, alongside fragmented marble visages of the preceding three duchesses adorning the dinner table, each labelled with name tags. Despite its simplicity, the direction effectively utilizes the venue’s spatial constraints. The incorporation of still images and occasional video projections, coupled with Jonny Danciger’s adept lighting, enhances the overall ambiance... The performance by The Music Troupe at The Space Theatre seamlessly intertwined Lambert’s gothic-inspired melodies and captivating performances, offering the audience an enchanting musical journey. The fusion of vocal mastery and piano accompaniment created an enchanting atmosphere, enhanced by meticulous staging and innovative use of space."

​The Duchess of Padua is an early play by Wilde written in Paris in 1883. A drama of revenge, passion and murder in the Gothic style which was then in vogue, it is related to Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy as well as 19th century antecedents such as Shelley’s I Cenci or Hugo's Lucrezia Borgia (which had been transformed into a bel canto opera by Donizetti). "Personally I like comedy to be intensely modern, and like my tragedy…. to be remote", Wilde wrote in 1894. The Duchess of Padua was an attempt to bring to the stage the sensi-bilities of the aesthetic movement: the beauty of the dialogue seems to matter more than the realistic portrayal of character and the credibility of the drama. Even so, the Duchess herself is a fully drawn Victorian contemporary, a feisty feminist trapped in a failed marriage to the cruel Duke and who has the misfortune to fall for a high-minded house-guest. The text astutely depicts the dilemmas surrounding their doomed courtship and reflects Wilde's eventual rejection of conventional morality: beyond the elevated blank verse are indeed modern ideas “under an antique form.”
This adaptation of The Duchess of Padua turns the play into a four-act ‘Italian-style’ opera (with arias, ensembles, a love duet and a death scene) for four voices accompanied by piano duet.

Resumé
Some twenty years ago the noble Duke Lorenzo rose up against the dictator Malatesta of Rimini. He had made a pact with his friend the Duke of Padua who subsequently betrayed him in exchange for territory. Lorenzo was executed and his wife died giving birth to a child. Count Moranzone took the baby to be brought up by a serving family in Perugia… 

Synopsis
(Act One)  By the cathedral of Padua at noon Count Moranzone tells young Guido Ferranti, recently arrived in Padua, that his noble father was betrayed and then executed by the Duke of Padua. To exact revenge, Guido must first serve and befriend the Duke and then, with his father's own dagger, kill him when Moranzone decides the time is ripe. The Duke appears - apparently as evil as he ever was - and Guido is accepted as a member of his household. Guido prays for courage but, as courtiers leave the cathedral, he catches sight of the beautiful Duchess. 
(Act Two)  In his palace, the Duke is revealed as a cruel husband to the Duchess who muses on the subjugation of women. Guido declares his love for her. She returns his feelings and they sing a tender duet. Moranzone appears with the dagger and reminds Guido of his duty to avenge his father. Feeling himself unworthy of the Duchess' love, Guido abandons her and resolves to murder the Duke that night. As her thoughts turn from anger to self-destruction, the Duchess blames Moranzone for breaking their relationship.
(Act Three) During a stormy night, Guido announces he’ll not commit murder but instead will serve a warning on the sleeping Duke to change his ways. Moranzone is not impressed by this noble scheme. Lying awake, the Duchess, meanwhile, considers her options. As Guido finally approaches the Duke’s bedchamber, the Duchess comes out of it: on the point of killing herself she has instead stabbed the Duke to death. Guido is horrified that the woman he idolised is capable of such a thing and casts her off a second time. Beside herself with rage, the Duchess frames Guido for the murder.
(Act Four)  Incarcerated in a dreadful dungeon, Guido is provided with poison in preference to dying on the scaffold. He sleeps. The Duchess visits him; to ease her conscience and save the man she truly loves, she has arranged for his escape. Believing he no longer loves her, she drinks the poison to die in his place but, on waking, he confesses his love and refuses to leave her. As the executioners approach at dawn, he takes the Duchess’ dagger and dies in her arms. She succumbs to the poison while Moranzone draws a wry conclusion to the tale (from The Ballad of Reading Gaol).

Composer's notes
As a composer specialising nowadays in small-scale operas, I’m fond of the Italian bel canto style in which the focus of the music is the voice with its remarkable beauty and agility. Back in 2019, in search of a traditional drama with an Italian flavour which might be accessible to audiences in all sorts of venues, I came across Oscar Wilde’s play The Duchess of Padua written in 1883 when he was still in his twenties and leading the fashionable 'Aesthetic' movement. I quickly saw that the text was very beautiful indeed, as one might expect, yet, in addition, its emotional intensity seemed over the top for spoken drama but all the more suited to a drama in song.

The play was written for Mary Anderson, an actor, who subsequently turned it down. Wilde regarded the work highly at first, though after the success of his later comedies he seems to have changed his mind. It was performed in New York in 1891, but thereafter suffered almost total neglect, a fact that was encouraging since I wouldn’t have wanted to tamper with a favourite masterpiece. (In fact, a grand opera by Jane van Etten based on the play was performed in Chicago in 1914). I omitted the minor parts and crowd scenes, so reducing the cast to the 4 principal characters. I judged the result to be a less epic, therefore a more personal drama, one which would also be comparatively economical to produce.

By way of compensation, I used some of Wilde’s stage directions in the body of the text to be expressed by the cast; thus, the singers are on stage throughout doubling as narrators, commenting on the action and describing the scene, like a Greek chorus, while also acting out their roles. Our production will therefore be highly stylised. I called my work a 'parlour opera' and chose as accompaniment a piano duet, a favoured means of Victorian domestic entertainment.

Wilde's text, in blank verse, is highly polished and eloquent. It revels in the beauty of language for its own sake and is intrinsically musical. It’s easy to see how, by using this mannered style to comic effect, Wilde arrived at the wit of his later plays. Here’s the cruel Duke greeting young Guido, who’s come to Padua to seek revenge for his father’s execution:

In Padua we think that honesty is ostentatious, so
It is not of the fashion. Guido, be not honest.
See thou hast enemies, else will the world think little of thee:
It is its test of power. 

The Aesthetic movement drove the world of contemporary fashion. Wilde became for a time the successful editor of The Woman’s World. His mother was also a poet and an advocate for women’s equality. With his artistic sensibilities and her influence, a strong feminist tone surfaces in the character of the Duchess. Just before the play was written, the Married Women’s Property Act was passed which allowed a wife to hold property in her own right for the first time. But there must have been many a Victorian woman trapped in a loveless marriage for whom this first step in female emancipation came too late:

Men when they woo us call us pretty children:
We are their chattels, and their common slaves,
Less dear than the hound that licks their hand,
Less fondled than the hawk upon their wrist.
Woo, did I say? bought rather, sold and bartered,
Our bodies as merchandise.

Although purporting to be set in renaissance Italy, Wilde's text presents a window into the vast inequalities in contemporary Victorian society:

There is many a woman here in Padua,
Some workman’s wife, or artisan’s,
Whose husband spends his wages in a revel,
And reeling home late, finds his wife by a fireless hearth
with a child who cries for hunger,
And then beats his wife because
The child is hungry, and the fire black.

So the Duchess falls for Guido - but does he really love her? Guido's response is somewhat over-sweet and betrays Symbolist influences, fashionable at that time in Paris:

Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea,
Ask of the roses if they love the rain,
Ask of the little lark, that will not sing
Till day break, if it loves to see the day:--
These are but empty images, shadows of my love, 
which is a fire so great that all the waters of the main
Can not avail to quench it.

Guido is both idealistic and chauvinistic and lacks the courage to kill the Duke:

It is woman’s mission by their love to save the souls of men: 
and loving her, my Lady, I see a nobler vengeance
In letting this man live, than doth reside in bloody deeds. 

…so our Duchess kills the Duke instead. The depiction of an aristocratic wife killing her husband would have appalled Victorian society, or at least the male contingent thereof, just as Guido himself is outraged. This may help to explain the play's lack of appeal to theatrical impresarios at the time. This murder, however,  is eclipsed by a semi-naked, degenerate teenage girl kissing the severed head of John the Baptist in Wilde's next play, Salomé, written in French in 1891, made into a German opera in 1905,  but not publicly produced in censorious England until 1931. Wilde's quest for Beauty evidently went arm in arm with Gothic horror - perpetrated by females.

The Cult of Beauty was the title of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2011 which in many ways provided the catalyst for the series of small-scale operas that I subsequently embarked on. For what, in music, is more beautiful than the singing voice? Could I not write music which would adapt some of those procedures from opera's Golden Age and show off the remarkable abilities of classically trained singers? Yet suspicion falls on any artist nowadays who strives after beauty for its own sake. Music, we seem to be told, must have an educational or social purpose in order to be relevant and inclusive:

Such music! It should be merrier; 
but grief is of the fashion now. 

Similar establishment tyrannies and conventions existed for artists in Victorian England. Casting off those restraints and seeking inspiration from the past, Wilde and others stood for the maxim 'Art for Art's sake'. Aesthetes like him deplored ugliness, utilitarianism and vain originality, being convinced that arts and crafts need only to enhance life through their beauty. They included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Christina Rossetti and James MacNeill Whistler (a close friend of Wilde's for a time). They differed, of course, in their vision of what beauty was or how it was to be achieved. The danger point approached - and Wilde crossed it - when they argued that morality and convention should not, in addition, constrain life's experiences. The rest, as they say, is history. 

​We are each our own devil and we make this world our hell.
Have I not stood face to face with beauty? 
That is enough for one man’s life. 

Whistler: Symphony in White

Edward Lambert interviewed on The Arts Dispatch

• When did you first become aware of The Duchess of Padua and what was it about the work that drew you to adapting it for chamber opera?

My particular joy in writing chamber operas is to show off the qualities of the voice. Classically trained opera singers have amazing talents - the beauty, individuality and agility of the sound they make, their dramatic skills and their musicianship. Since opera emanated from Italy and the repertory of its Golden Age was almost exclusively Italian, I was looking for an Italian subject which would complement my vocal style, which is a sort-of modern remake of 'bel canto'.  At the same time, Italian opera took its texts very seriously and libretti were typically crafted by serious literary figures. I chanced upon The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde and thought these things might come together.
​

• What can you tell us about the story Wilde’s play tells?

Wilde's mother was not only a poet, but an advocate for women's rights. He himself was to edit The Women's World magazine for a while. A definite feminist strain emerges in the character of the Duchess. She's trapped in a loveless marriage and her cruel husband subjects her to coercive control. When she falls for a passionate but high-minded young man, she contemplates suicide as a release from her situation, but kills her husband instead. Unfortunately, when her horrified lover rejects her, she blames the murder on him and the tragedy of the final act ensues. These situations may smack of melodrama but then this play was written in the heyday of Victorian Gothic. Besides, remembering the successful appeal of Sally Challen in 2019 against a murder conviction on the grounds that she was a victim of domestic abuse, the Duchess is a complex character we can recognise and sympathise with.

• How did you approach devising the adaptation?

Alas, I'm no scholar of Oscar Wilde, but it appears the play is usually dismissed as derivative, quoting sources as varied as Shakespeare, Jacobean tragedy, Victor Hugo (Lucrezia Borgia), and Shelley (I Cenci). I would have thought that the literary quality of the text, which is written in elevated blank verse, stands comparison with these mighty figures. However, the play feels over long and contains many subsidiary parts and background 'chatter' so, at the least, it seems prohibitively unwieldy to produce. Hence, perhaps, its neglect. Yet, although some of the text might be over-sentimental when spoken, it would, I reckoned, be suitable for singing. Since the opera had to be economical in scale, I began by cutting those small parts and reducing the quantity of text. I cut the entire fourth act (there are five in the play). I was left with a much more personal drama for just four characters which, I supposed, from a dramatic point of view, would work well.  Arrogant as it must seem, I've persuaded myself that Wilde wouldn't turn in his grave if he saw the result. Finally, I decided to write the accompaniment for piano duet since I was reminded that playing duets - one piano, four hands - was a favourite from of Victorian domestic entertainment. 

• Has the work changed from your original vision for it?

Since our productions have, by their very nature, to be simple and tailored for small spaces, I needed to find a way of suggesting the epic nature of the settings: the market square of Padua in front of the cathedral, the Duke's palace, the Duke's bedchamber and the dungeon of the castle. I was struck by the details and eloquence of Wilde's stage directions and it occurred to me to include these as part of the sung text. Our four singers therefore double as a chorus describing the scene, commenting on the action or even taking over lines from the main characters. When the Duchess and Guido fall in love, for example, the other cast members join in and together they sing a 'madrigal'. It's all Wilde's text in its original sequence, but re-purposed from time to time in different ways. The opera's therefore meant to be highly stylised, frequently stepping outside the drama and doing a bit of storytelling.

• How does it feel to be opening the opera at The Space Theatre before touring the show?

In many ways, it's great to be showcasing this work away from the glare of the West End (chance would be a fine thing!) The Space Theatre, in a converted church on the Isle of Dogs, was set up to support new writing and, indeed, the team there could hardly be more encouraging and helpful. We don't have the resources of manpower or money to mount ambitious productions and we want to show that an opera company doesn't have to have much infrastructure. Besides, The Space boasts lovely acoustics and a Steinway grand piano. Our mini tour is designed to try out the work in four very different types of venue down to a village hall.

• Is there anything you hope audiences take away from the show?

”Personally I like comedy to be intensely modern, and like my tragedy…. to be remote", Wilde wrote. The play is a product of the Aesthetic Movement - the Cult of Beauty - whose arts and crafts were inspired by the past but very much of their time. I admire the products of this period and hope people will similarly enjoy the combination of beautiful voices and Wilde's drama which I hope my opera offers. As I write, the cast is working hard to master roles which are incredibly challenging: I want my audiences to be amazed by their performances. Isn't that the wonder of opera, the combination of so many talents? 

Cast & creatives for the first performances 2024

Ellie Neate graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama opera course in 2022. She has performed Five Eliot Landscapes by Thomas Adès at Oxford Lieder Festival, at Wigmore Hall for the BBC and in "ENO does Eurovision". Opera roles include Celia Iolanthe, First Daughter Akhnaten and Elsie Maynard (cover) The Yeomen of the Guard at English National Opera, Cunegonde Candide (Blackheath Halls Opera), Lisa La Sonnambula, Elisa Il Re Pastore and Cleopatra Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (Buxton International Festival), Galatea Acis and Galatea, Milica Svadba and Maria Bertram Mansfield Park (both Waterperry Opera) and Gretel Hansel and Gretel (BYO).

Anna Elizabeth Cooper made her Glyndebourne debut recently as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also performed Soeur Alice in Barrie Kosky’s production of Dialogues des Carmélites. Previously, she performed Olga Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park and premiered the role of Suzanna in Joseph Howard’s Behind God’s Back at the Tête-à-Tête Festival. Other operatic roles include Concepcion L’heure Espagnole, Lisetta il mondo della luna, Dinah Trouble in Tahiti and Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro directed by Sir Thomas Allen at the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio. Anna will be covering Zweite Dame in Glyndebourne’s production of Die Zauberflöte this summer.

James Beddoe is an Artist Masters graduate from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Roles in 2022/2023 included ‘Nemorino’ Donizetti L’elisir d’amore, three productions as ‘Prince Ramiro’ Rossini La Cenerentola, ‘Schoolmaster’ Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, Rodolfo La bohème, ‘Lensky’ Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, ‘Aeneas’ Purcell Dido & Aeneas. James also performs regularly as an oratorio soloist and recitalist, as well as an Evangelist. For spring 2024, in addition to The Duchess of Padua, he will be appearing as ‘Strephon’ in a production of Iolanthe at the Athenaeum, London, and performing Britten St Nicolas for the first time.

Henry Grant Kerswell trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy and as a Young Artist at Opera Holland Park, The Britten Pears Programme and Grange Park Opera. Since making his principal debut at Opera Holland Park, Henry has gone on to sing with  many companies including Scottish Opera, Opera North, Birmingham Opera Company, Grange Park Opera, Bergen National Opera, English Touring Opera, Royal Opera House and Wexford Festival Opera. Future plans include Hotensius, La fille du Regiment for Grange Park Opera and Fasolt in Regent Opera's upcoming Ring Cycle.

Fleur Snow is an opera director and musician from West Wales. She is passionate about new music, historical gesture and site-specific work. Recent work as an assistant director has been on the international stage, with credits including Evgenij Onegin, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Du Är Min Nu, Göteborgs Stadsteater, La Bohème, Opera Holland Park and Die Lustigen Weiber, Staatsoperette Dresden. Fleur is currently staff director in Theater St Gallen.

Melissa Sofoian (Set and Costume Designer) made it to the Linbury Prize Top 20 shortlist in 2019. From 2019 to 2021 for David Poutney, she served as Design Assistant to Leslie Travers on Die Meistersinger (Oper Leipzig), Al Wasl (Dubai Opera), and Mefistofele (Teatro Alla Scala). Other productions include Simon Boccanegra (Latvian National Opera), Peter Grimes (Theatre Basel) and Anoush at the Marylebone Theatre in London in 2023. With an Architectural background, she's a multidisciplinary artist, also involved in Exhibition Design.

Tabitha Benton-Evans is a Cornish-Scottish director, writer and performer with an MA in Opera Directing at RWCMD where they directed A Dinner Engagement and wrote and directed a pop-up opera, Interrupted. They previously studied French at the University of St Andrews where they performed in and directed The Magic Flute, Orphée et Eurydice and The Pirates of Penzance. In 2022 they directed The Burning Question for The Music Troupe which was hailed as "a delicious and unexpected cocktail of frothy cappuccino and sparkling prosecco, spiked through with hot peperoncini – an absolute delight from start to finish."

Yun Geng (model maker) received a Master's degree in Theatre Design from UAL's Wimbledon College of Arts in 2018.  After that, she dedicated several years to honing her craft in Beijing and recently returned to the UK to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Kent, advancing her skills in the art of puppetry making.

Adrian Salinero (piano) is from Basque Spain and based in London. A 22/23 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, he has worked with Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and English National Opera. He has worked alongside David Parry and Christian Curnyn and performed in the Wigmore Hall and BBC's Hoddinott Hall. He was recently keyboard player and ensemble member in OVO's production of Weill's The Threepenny Opera at The Cockpit and other venues and also played for Lambert's Masque of Vengeance in November.

Alex Norton (piano) trained as a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio (2022/23). Recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia and the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto and various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme and Welsh National Opera’s Cherry Town by Shostakovich. Alex has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Wigmore Hall, various European venues, and made his concerto debut with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto.

production images: Claire Shovelton

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