Sigma Alpha Iota

16 Winter 2022 • sai-national.org By Hollis Thoms S ince 1993, PAN PIPES has published twelve articles of mine in the winter composer issues; most have been on composer discoveries that I have made through my own research. e following article on Leveridge/Lampe's Pyramus and isbe and Rousseau's Le Devin du village is another variation on that theme. In the early 1700s, Italian opera was all the rage, but around 1730 in both England and France there were quite different responses to this pervasive Italian influence. Richard Leveridge (1670-1758) and Johann Frederick Lampe (1703- 1751) wanted to rid English opera of the Italian influence and composed Pyramus and isbe as a satirical argument against such influence, while Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) wanted to incorporate the Italian influence into French opera to improve its melodic beauty, composing Le Devin du village as the new way of writing. Neither chamber opera is well known, it seems, but both are wonderful and worth discovering, if you do not know them. Leveridge/Lampe: Pyramus and Thisbe Leveridge/Lampe: Pyramus and Thisbe (1716/1745) (1716/1745) In England, Johann Frederick Lampe began producing operas in English and his works became very popular. One of his short operas, or masques, was based on "Pyramus and isbe," the play within the play, from A Midsummer's Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. He derived his libretto for his masque from composer and singer Richard Leveridge, who in 1716 produced his own aerpiece, "Pyramus and isbe," a comic parody of Italian opera, writing the music and adapting the words from Shakespeare's text, singing the role of Pyramus in his own work. Leveridge was primarily a prominent baritone in Henry Purcell's operas and lived long enough to also sing in some of Handel's operas, becoming well known for his rendition of Polypheme in Acis and Galatea. As a composer, he wrote many songs, which became very popular, especially his comic-patriotic ballad, e Roast Beef of Old England, becoming a national song. My interest in Leveridge came about recently as I purchased, in a Sotheby's auction, his 1727 Collection of Songs, and began to look through them. Richard Leveridge was well known for his witches' music added to productions of William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, when he also sang the part of Hecate. is Macbeth witches' music continued to be used for a hundred years in subsequent productions well into the late 19th century, when the performance practice of adding "variety show" elements to the productions in Shakespeare's plays ceased, as critical Elizabethan scholarship emerged and authentic performances were more desired. Leveridge's Comick Masque of Pyramus and isbe libretto took some of the critical comments by eseus, Lysander, and Hippolyte in Shakespeare's original drama and gave them to his characters Rochet and Gamut. He added the character Semibrief. He shortened, added, deleted, and changed the Shakespeare text, mostly from the Act 5, scene 1 final performance by the "rude mechanicals." Evidently, Leveridge wrote music for the production, but, unfortunately, according to sources, his composed music has been lost. Johann Frederick Lampe, however, revived and revised Leveridge's adaption of Pyramus and isbe in 1745, changing some of the characterizations. Semibrief, the composer, a character retained from the Leveridge libretto, advocates pushing back on the pervasive influence of Italian opera and promoting English opera instead. In talking to the Master of the production by the "rude mechanicals" who would be presenting Pyramus and isbe, Semibrief, accompanied by two gentlemen (no longer named Rochet and Gamut), says: "You must know, Sir [referring to the Master], one of these Gentlemen having made the Tour of Italy has but little Taste for our homespun, English, Entertainments—nor has he yet got the better of his foreign Prejudice: But, between you and I, I don't doubt, when he has heard a little of this Piece, I shall bring him to our Opinion; and let him see, the English Tongue is as fit for Musick, as any foreign Language of 'em all." William Shakespeare's plays were popular during the Restoration period through extravagant productions, when scenes were added, deleted, or changed and music was added to make the plays more immediately appealing to the public, unabashedly distorting the original work of the bard. e Pyramus and isbe masque became a stand-alone entertainment piece. Composer Discoveries, Again! Leveridge/Lampe's Pyramus and Thisbe and Rousseau's Le Devin du village Cposers

• Cover