Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
7 - The Impresario 1910–1914
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The voice of music will not fail us
When sorrow's waters rise in flood.
Cambridge in all its artistic pursuits ought to aim not at imitation London, but at presenting just those things wch London can't present.
When shall we see you here? Rootham & I have had much talk over Z. We found we had to make up our minds at once about the Theatre, and it has been reserved for us for November 30 to Dec 2. 1911.
1910–1911
With the big decision to produce The Magic Flute, opera became the focus and unifying element of Dent's life, this amateur Cambridge production only the first skirmish in his lifelong battle for opera in Britain. Producing an opera to his exacting standards would be a statement of defiance to the musical establishment, and in choosing Mozart's last opera, Dent was being even more radical in his approach. He knew that for an ambitious scholar to take what appeared to be such a massive diversion from his scholarly pursuits might appear academic suicide, especially when he ought to have been working on his doctorate. Colleagues like Edward Naylor were highly critical of the whole enterprise. But Dent was deliberately taking a course very different from the usual routes, and far more important in the long run than another Hellas would have been. In his teaching, increasingly in his writing, and now through performance and production, Dent was finding a working vehicle for his high standards of scholarship.
In 1910 ‘most of Mozart's operas were almost completely unknown in this country’; Mozart was somewhat in the shadow of late nineteenth-century opera, while The Magic Flute was generally held in low esteem. Although The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni were well established in the repertory – usually in heavily compromised versions – Mozart's other operas were largely ignored. Dent wanted to give Mozart and The Magic Flute a leg up into the twentieth century. ‘Idomeneo had never been performed here at all; Die Entführung had been revived by Sir Thomas Beecham for a few performances in 1910’, Cosi fan tutte had one performance in English in 1890, La clemenza di Tito abandoned after 1840 as being hopelessly old-fashioned.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Edward J. DentA Life of Words and Music, pp. 177 - 211Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023