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2013 will mark significant anniversaries for three of the greatest operatic composers - the bicentenary of the births of Richard Wagner (May) and Giuseppe Verdi (October), and the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten (November). It is natural - given our society's current obsession with anniversaries - that opera, this year, may well come to dominate classical music activities and thinking in ways that would not otherwise be the case.
It may even lead to a generalised discussion on what constitutes opera. All of us - opera-lovers or not - surely have a reasonable idea of what an opera is, or should be, yet it requires a broad understanding to embrace some recent productions of new works which have been given under the blanket word of 'opera,' but what about certain dramatic vocal works which, for one reason or another, lie outside the notion of singing on stage, in costume, with orchestral or instrumental accompaniment?
Of course, such a broad definition may suggest a Joad-like response as to what one means by 'dramatic' - but assuming, for the sake of argument, that the word refers to succeeding events told in story-book fashion, does the resultant musical 'drama' have to be given over to realisation by an 'opera producer' - a profession that has only come about in world opera since the end of World War II, one which the late Hans Keller excoriated as a 'phoney profession?
These questions have recently resurfaced following the courageous decision by English National Opera to mount a new production of Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress, first given under the blanket 'opera' umbrella at Covent Garden in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain. The idea of the latest major operatic work by the country's then leading composer, based...