#hubert parry

[wandrenowlereacts]

That moment you find an opera titled "Guenever" by Hubert Parry, where Lyonesse joins Mordred in order to have revenge for Gareth's death by the hand of Lancelot and manages to kill Guinevere, while Lancelot fights against the army she gathered.

But then you realize that Una Taylor, the librettist, destroyed the libretto of the opera because it got rejected so the plot is all that survives. And Hubert Parry was discouraged over the whole thing so he didn't finish the music.

[lesser-known-composers]

Hubert Parry (1848-1918) - Judith, Oratorio: Long Since in Egypt's Plenteous Land ·

Waynflete Singers · Winchester Cathedral Choir · Timothy Byram-Wigfield ·

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra · David Hill

[themaninthegreenshirt]

Blake, Parry, Elgar.

Jerusalem

[coeruleum-blue]

[ondasyletras]

Hubert Parry - Symphony No.4 in E-minor (1889)

[abuffalomonster]

i love musicals

so much

but

i dont think classical/choral music is appreciated enough. im in a profesh choir and honestly people act like its all hymns and shit and all religious (90% of our choir isnt even christian, including me)

anyway

the music is so goddamn beautiful

take some time out of your day and listen to some beautiful music,

some examples:

Blest Pair of Sirens is absolutely gorgeous. (Hubert Parry)

Light Out of Darkness (Edward Elgar)

Colegium Regale (Edward Elgar)

Doubt Not Thy Fathers Care (Edward Elgar)

I mean anything by Elgar tbh (hes very talented and his musics gorgeous)

Seligkeit (Franz Schubert) i actually did this piece for my singing exam today ahah

And obvs Wolfgang Mozart is amazing, he was very young when he died and i will never be able to fathom how much gorgeous music he wrote before then

10/10 recommend

all of this music is so gorgeous, and if you find it boring i dont mind, you wont offend me. but i think its all much more beautiful than some of the things on the radio. and being a singer myself i really really appreciate how difficult it is

also please feel free to reblog and add any more pieces u like i really would love so more to listen to!!!!

[wandrenowlereacts]

The Opera That Never Was: Hubert Parry's Guenever

It is through research that one tends to find the most interesting of things. In this case, as I mentioned yesterday, I learned that around 1884, a man called Hubert Parry, a very well-known composer in his time, started writing an opera titled "Guenever.” This was partly inspired by Wagner’s works, whom he absolutely was a fan of, as well as his love for Arthurian literature (which he learned from through Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Guinevere” from Idylls of the King). He asked his friends to recommend him to a librettist, whose name was Una Taylor. However, Taylor didn’t have the experience in everything that was related to opera (Dibble, 2002).

Nonetheless, both Parry and Taylor were very enthusiastic about the creation of “Guenever”, being that they were huge fans of Arthurian literature. And so, they started working in the production of the opera, but it hit some snags along the way, such as health problems, sabbaticals and Parry finding that Taylor wasn’t someone he quite clicked with. But he powered through and finished his opera. Then, he gave the libretto to one of his friends, so that he took it to Carl Rosa (who was a big name in the opera business). Rosa read the libretto and rejected it immediately because he found it unworkable, although he expressed his like for Acts III and IV (Dibble, 2002).

This rejection hit Parry hard. But his friends encouraged him to try again, and he hired a translator to translate his opera into German so that it could be performed in Germany. There were talks with, at least, two conductors, but he was rejected for another Arthurian opera called “Merlin” by Karl Goldmark. This disappointment led to Parry deciding not wanting anything to do with his opera, so he threw the libretto into a drawer and didn’t speak about his work ever again. Furthermore, Una Taylor, his librettist, destroyed the libretto of the opera and all mentions of the plot in letters that she and Parry had exchanged (Dibble, 2002).

The only remnants of the play that were left were several excerpts of music he wrote and the mention of the plot of the play through letters he exchanged with a friend (Dibble, 2002). The plot of the opera is as follows:

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

As we all know, Lady Lyonesse of Castle Perilous only makes her appearance in Malory’s Book of Gareth, but nowhere else in the narrative. This opera has Lyonesse bid in support of Mordred, because she wants revenge for the death of her husband. After the death of Mordred in the battle of Camlann, it is Lyonesse herself who takes charge of what’s left of her deceased brother-in-law’s army and charges directly to the nunnery Guinevere has taken refuge in. Not only does she lay siege to the nunnery, but she exacts revenge by killing Guinevere, whom she blames for the death of Gareth. It is also implied that Lancelot dies as well fighting against the remainder of the troops (Dibble, 2002).

This plot of the opera has a very unique take of what happened in the aftermath of Gareth’s death. It explores a ‘what if’ that has never been done before. It is a very unfortunate thing that the libretto of the opera was destroyed, but it still is a positive thing that the plot still exists to have a glimpse of an opera that never had the chance to shine.

References

Dibble, J. (2002). King Arthur in music. In R. W. Barber (Ed.), Parry’s Guenever: Trauma and Catharsis (pp. 35–50). D.S. Brewer.

[lesser-known-composers]

Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918) - Symphony No. 2 in F Major, "The Cambridge": I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro moderato ·

Matthias Bamert · London Philharmonic Orchestra