Masque of Vengeance

Adapted from The Revenger's Tragedy 

The Stoller Hall, Manchester M3 1DA
Sunday 12 November 2023

Music: Edward Lambert (2023)
Words: Thomas Middleton (1606)
with some additional verses by Thomas Campion (1567-1620)
Director: David Edwards
​Design: Tabitha Benton-Evans
Movement: Jenny Weston

In order of singing:

Vindicio, the revenger, often disguised as Caria, a procuress        
Leila Zanette (mezzo-soprano)

King, an elderly ruler    
Charles Johnston (baritone)

Duchess, the King's new wife
Laure Meloy (soprano)

Prince, the King's son by a previous marriage, heir to the throne
Francis Gush (counter-tenor)

Spurio, the King's illegitimate son
Lawrence Thackeray (tenor)

Antonio, a gentleman at court
Christopher Foster (bass)

Vacuo, the Duchess' son by a previous marriage
Will Diggle (tenor)

Gratiana, mother to Vindicio & Virginia
Mae Heydorn (contralto)

Virginia, Vindicio's sister
Madeline Robinson (soprano)

Voice at the Masque
Charles Johnston

Piano duet: Alex Norton, Adrian Salinero

Distant voices: sung by members of the cast

Synopsis

The story portrays a criminal regime full of rivalry, lust and murder.

• The ruler, known as the 'King', has a son by a previous marriage called 'Prince' Lussurioso, the heir to the empire.
• The King also has an illegitimate son called Spurio.
• The King's new wife, the 'Duchess', has a son from her previous marriage called Vacuo.

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(Scene 1) Vindicio (played by a mezzo-soprano) is a guy who's on the run. He has with him the death mask of his fiancée. The King murdered her and violated her corpse. Vindicio's mother, Gratiana, was widowed and along with his sister, Virginia, reduced to poverty. Vindicio plots revenge on the King's regime.

(Scene 2) Antonio is a senior courtier whose daughter has killed herself following her rape by Vacuo. At his trial, the King cynically condemns his stepson's behaviour but defers the death sentence and remands him in custody, much to the dismay of the Duchess, whose favourite child he is, and of Antonio, who wants justice for his daughter.

(Scene 3) Vindicio spends much of the drama disguised as a madam procuress called Caria, who is sought out by the Prince to engage a local girl whom he lusts over. This turns out to be Vindicio's sister, Virginia.

(Scene 4) Vindicio - as Caria - goes to the house of his mother and sister and, testing them, tries to persuade Virginia to yield to the Prince's lust. Horrified at first, Gratiana soon sees this liaison as a way out of poverty. Virginia, however, will have none of it. Vindicio rejoices at his sister's purity.

(Scene 5) The Duchess, angry at being sidelined by the King, starts an affair with Spurio, the King's bastard son, who's ambitious for the crown. Vindicio spies them together.

(Scene 6) Vindicio (still as Caria) reports back to the Prince who is eager to bed Virginia. Vindicio diverts his attention by mentioning the affair between the Duchess and Spurio. The Prince rushes to the Duchess's bedroom with sword drawn - but finds only the King in bed with her. The ensemble expresses shock and horror. The Prince is arrested for treason and borne away to prison. Antonio is given the King's signet ring as authority for the Prince's execution.

(Scene 7) Vindicio again confronts Gratiana, but this time as himself. When she repents of wanting to sell her daughter, Vindicio forgives her. 

(Scene 8) Accompanied by the sound of distant choral singing, Antonio uses the authority granted by the King to kill Vacuo - rather than the Prince - in his prison cell, in revenge for the death of his daughter. Vacuo dies unrepentant.

(Scene 9) The King has decided he needs a new adventure and has employed Caria to fetch him a girl. He's coming to an assignation in a suitably dark cemetery where Vindicio is setting a trap for him.

'Caria' is assisted by Virginia and Gratiana who have become co-conspirators. Virginia is dressed up for the kill. 

To the death mask of Vindicio's fiancée, the trio apply poison on its lips. Virginia puts on the death mask and when the King arrives he attempts to kiss her. He tastes the poison and lies dying while Vindicio reveals his true identity.

The Duchess and Spurio meet nearby for their sexual encounter. As a final humiliation, Vindicio forces the King to watch them and then, having cut out his tongue, stabs him to finish him off.

(Scene 10) Taking off his disguise, Vindicio dresses the King's corpse in Caria's clothes. The Prince arrives celebrating his release from prison and wanting Caria killed because of the trick she played on him. He employs Vindicio for the job (not knowing they are one and the same) so Vindicio pretends to kill the sleeping Caria. The Prince is concerned to find that the corpse is not Caria's but that of the King.

​Others arrive on the scene. 'Caria' is implicated in the King's murder for it appears "she" must have carried out the crime and fled in the King's clothes. To everyone's relief, the Prince is proclaimed the new king and festivities are ordered.
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(Scene 11)  While the Prince's "coronation" is in progress, Virginia prepares to participate in the final act of vengeance. The company dance a masque during which the Prince's throat is cut. Spurio proclaims himself king but the dying Prince draws a pistol and shoots him dead. Vindicio now hails Antonio as the new ruler and boasts about killing the old King. Antonio declares, "You that would murder him would murder me!" and runs his sword through Vindicio.
​

"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
Edward Lambert introduces his new operas.

That is the message of The Revenger’s Tragedy, upon which Masque of Vengeance is based, a cautionary tale of rivalry between dysfunctional criminal factions. Thomas Middleton’s play is set in an Italian court and there was certainly good reason for that: for the English establishment in the early 1600s, its subversive plot could have become rather too close for comfort. By placing the action in Italy, the corrupt, murderous and lecherous cast of villains are by implication enemy Catholics. The play, performed at the Globe the year following the Gunpowder Plot, satirises the tragedy inherent in a cycle of violence. But its sardonic wit has endured and it feels as though it could be set anywhere in contemporary society, from gangland to a seat of political power.

Nevertheless, turning The Revenger’s Tragedy into Masque of Vengeance was an attempt to write an “Italian” opera. That is to say, to emulate an approach in which the voice is pre-eminent and the music is structured around opportunities for classically-trained singers to show what they can do. I wanted the cast to enjoy singing the piece. Besides, the plot seemed worthy of many an Italian opera and I quickly decided to make Vindicio a trouser role (a male played by a female) in line with an old tradition. Then, when he plays the pimp, it seemed obvious for him to put on a disguise as the female Caria. (In the original, both personae are male). Compared to the play, I trimmed the character count, omitted many smaller roles and reduced the size of the ruling family's younger generation. I changed some character names for simplicity's sake. Of course, the text was abridged in the process but I believe the essence of the play is retained.

In this, as well as in some other recent works, I’ve employed a piano duet as accompaniment. Four hands are capable of a large range of dramatic and colourful sonorities - four equals two squared, as it were. My focus has been to compose opera as purpose-built chamber music, not just out of necessity, but to exploit the impact that such voices and instruments can have in intimate spaces. Large institutions take an enormous risk in producing new operas, so they're as rare as hen's teeth. The standard repertory has shrunk to the dozen or two works that can attract an audience. How can this state of affairs be sustained? What other art form comprises such a small number of 'classic' favourites? Opera is clearly capable of infinite variation and renewal so surely new opera should be 'out there'? At the very least, small-scale works can be accessible, economical and suited to all kinds of venues. 

Chamber works constituted the origins of opera when it was trialled in Florence at the end of the 16th century. And so my other “Italian” opera, The Duchess of Padua, written just before the pandemic for a cast of four, I termed a 'parlour opera'. In the play on which it's based, Oscar Wilde was emulating Jacobean tragedy - so the two pieces make unlikely bedfellows. Masque of Vengeance is a dark comedy, an almost farcical bloodbath, whereas Wilde’s tragic love story is more human, genuinely touching, even if the situations feel rather Gothic at times. Wilde portrays an idealised love thrown off course by the pursuit of honour, but in the process reveals many feminist insights: the Duchess turns into a modern character who determines to shake free of her controlling husband, while her young lover 'grows up' as he learns to regard her as a woman rather than an ideal.

This development of character in confronting Fate or a dilemma, such an essential ingredient of great tragedy, is absent in Masque of Vengeance; rather, the cast is trapped in their roles. The three female characters, Duchess, Gratiana & Virginia, are slaves to passion, money and purity respectively with the male gaze being, of course, directed towards the latter. I've given Gratiana and her daughter greater roles as eventual co-conspirators with Vindicio: they are the underdogs taking on their oppressors. Those men, with the possible exception of Antonio, are unattractive, misogynistic and cynical. Yet, although they're dangerous, they don’t seem entirely serious, their motivations don’t ring true and they’re rather stupid. Thus, Vindicio is able to play them along like a puppet-master.

The result is that the play appears to be about theatricality itself - no pretence that it's real - making it ideal for translation into the artificialities of opera. Vindicio is often a spectator himself. He introduces to us the ruling regime at the end of Scene 1, he spies upon the Duchess and Spurio in Scene 5, and when he's not looking on he's mostly disguised as Caria. Comedy comes to the fore in the scene in which Vindicio is asked to stab his alter ego, so in effect our main character kills off his disguise: "So, so, I must kill myself!" Only the sensible, down-to-earth Virginia has any integrity and, ultimately (in my version at least), she deserves her victory over the men who would exploit and abuse her. 

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The Duchess of Padua is at The Anthony Burgess Foundation,  M1 5BY on Sunday 03 March 202
More details at http://musictroupe.co.uk

These performances are generously supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation and an anonymous donor​

Vindicio - Leila Zanette (mezzo-soprano) has just spent her third season with Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist, where she covered the roles of Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, 2nd Nymph Rusalka, Aisha Dalia and Mezzo Corypheè Le Comte Ory. She has sung Irene Tamerlano (Cambridge Handel Opera Company) and Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Wexford Festival Opera Young Artists). With Royal Academy Opera, Leila performed the roles of Marta Iolanta, Juno Semele, Véronique Le Docteur Miracle, Older Woman Flight and Medea Teseo at the London Handel Festival. For Grange Festival she covered the title role of Carmen.

'Duchess' - Laure Meloy (soprano) specialises in contemporary opera. She has performed at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and English Touring Opera during their Olivier winning season. Recently she made debuts as Brünnhilde Die Walküre at the Grimeborn Festival, Zaïde in Freiburg, Germany, Gutrune Götterdämmerung with Longborough Festival Opera, Ariel The Tempest at Hungarian State Opera, and joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. Her album One Art won Hawai'i Public Radio’s International Art Song Contest, and a monodrama of the same title premiered in London at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival.

Virginia - Madeline Robinson (soprano) is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Since training she has performed roles with Opera South (Gontran in Chabrier's Une Educations Manquee, Hurn Court Opera (Cover Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale), Cumbria Opera Group (Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni), Opera della Luna (Johanna in a revival of the original melodrama of Sweeney Todd) and in March of this year was nominated for an Off West End Award for her performance of Rose Maybud in Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore at Wilton's Music Hall. 

Gratiana - Mae Heydorn (contralto) was a GSMD Anglo-Swedish Society scholar and made her professional debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen. She is the Winner of the Swedish Wagner Prize 2019 and has since sung her critically acclaimed role debut as Erda at Longborough Festival Opera. Contemporary performances include the TV documentary Opera Mums for BBC Four (Kerry) and Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus at ENO. In 2021 the UK premier of Gounod’s La Nonne Sanglante earned her an Offie nomination for the title role.

'Prince' - Francis Gush (countertenor) is a graduate of the Royal College of Music. In 2023 performances included the title role in Giulio Cesare English Touring Opera, Arbante in La Forze dell’amor paterno (Stradella) The Barber Oper, and Daryl in the contemporary opera A&E (Muelas/Ward). Francis made his debut with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment in a programme of Purcell and Blow. Previous operatic engagements include Athamas (cover), Semele Opera de Lille and Arsace, Partenope with Hampstead Garden Opera. He covered Spirit Dido and Aeneas at the BBC Proms with La Nuova Musica.

Spurio - Lawrence Thackeray (tenor) has performed Rodolfo La Boheme, Alfredo La Traviata, Tamino Magic Flute, Peter Quint Turn of the Screw, Ruggero La Rondine, Don Jose Carmen, Rinuccio Gianni Schicchi, Nemorino L'elisir d'amore, Fox Cunning Little Vixen and Eisenstein Die Fledermaus. He has worked for Glyndebourne Festival, Opera North, Grange Park, Garsington, West Green House and Waterperry Festival and abroad for Wexford Festival, Opera Ireland, Bergen National Opera and Silent Opera at the Bejing International Music Festival.

Vacuo - Will Diggle (tenor) studied as a baritone at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. He has since transitioned to tenor and recently covered Aeneas Dido and Aeneas for Grange Festival. Notable engagements include: Germano La Scala di Seta (Teatro Signorelli, Italy); recitals (Tsaritsyno Palace, Moscow); Dulcamara, cover L'elisir d'amore (New Generation Festival, Florence); Long John Silver The Hive (Hoxton Hall); and trio member Trouble in Tahiti (RCM). As a chorister, Will has performed at Sydney Opera House with Opera Australia in Don Giovanni, Aida, La traviata and Lohengrin.

'King' - Charles Johnston (baritone) has worked for many companies in the UK and abroad in repertoire ranging from the great operas of Verdi and Puccini to contemporary pieces via Wagner and Strauss. He has appeared with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Opera North. He has sung Rossini in Spain, Mozart and Debussy in France and Maxwell-Davies, Hindemith and Walton in Switzerland. He has sung Macbeth in Singapore and toured the US with Die Fledermaus and Opera Theatre Company’s acclaimed production of Handel’s Rodelinda. Recently he has established himself as an audiobook narrator.

Antonio - Christopher Foster (bass) was a winner of the N.F.M.S. Young Concert Artists' Award, a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition and an inaugural Samling Scholar. 
Concert highlights have included the world premiere of Łukaszewski’s Requiem (Presteigne Festival), Mozart’s Requiem (RFH), and Handel’s Messiah (Forbidden City, Beijing). Operatic roles have included Mozart’s Sarastro & Leporello; Puccini's Traveller & Sacristan; Kawabata, Philip Glass Hotel of Dreams; Arkel Impressions de Pélleas; Britten Curlew River for Opera Nova; Arthur, Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse and 2 operas by Edward Lambert at the Tête à Tête Festival.

Alex Norton (piano) trained as a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio (2023/24). Recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia and the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto. Other highlights include various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme and Welsh National Opera’s Cherry Town by Shostakovich in which he was a repetiteur and orchestral pianist. 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.

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.

Tabitha Benton-Evans (design) is a Cornish-Scottish artist whose work includes directing, costume and scenic design, writing and drag performance. After graduating from St Andrew's University, they completed an MA in Opera Directing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Directing credits include 'Gaṅgā' for Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2023, Edward Lambert's 'The Burning Question' for Tête-a-Tête: The Opera Festival 2022 and 'A Dinner Engagement' for RWCMD. They have assisted at Welsh National Opera, the National Opera Studio and RWCMD. They are a founding member of Transgress Opera and will be directing their upcoming production of Glück's 'Orphée et Eurydice'.

David Edwards has directed opera in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, London (where he staged ten revivals for The Royal Opera), Milan, Vienna, France, Italy, Singapore, and regularly in Tokyo at the New National Theatre where he directed for the Opera Studio for over a decade. In 2023 he returned to the NNT Tokyo to stage a scenes program with the Young Artists.

Jenny Weston (choreographer) had a busy career as a dancer before choreographing operas and working as a movement director for Glyndebourne, Opera Holland Park, ENO and Diva Opera, among others. Projects abroad include Vienna, Syria and Long Beach, California. Contemporary projects include Nixon in China and The Passenger. 

Thomas Middleton (1580 – 1627) was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian tragicomedy. (Wikipedia)

Edward Lambert (composer) has composed music for a wide variety of performers. He has written the operas Caedmon (Royal Opera/Donmar Warehouse), The Button Moulder (Royal Opera Education), All in the Mind, (W11 Opera) and Six Characters in Search of a Stage (2014 Brighton and London venues). The Catfish Conundrum in 2014 kicked off regular appearances in Tete-à-Tête: The Opera Festival since when he has created 15 more operas.

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Save the date!
​Our next production is The Duchess of Padua on the play by Oscar Wilde showing at The Space London E14 3RS Tue 20 - Sun 25 Feb 2024