The Influence of the Paris Stage on Kane O’Hara’s <i>Midas</i>

Authors

  • Rachel Talbot Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35561/JSMI12163

Keywords:

opera, Rousseau, O'Hara, burletta, Dublin, Paris, borrowings

Abstract

Kane O’Hara’s English burletta, Midas (1762), combined many influences, borrowing its airs in the manner of the pasticcio or ballad opera and connecting them with recitative in the manner of opera seria, pantomime, and the masque. The main sources for borrowing are folk music, catches, pantomime, and English and Italian opera. Two airs from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s opera (or intermède) Le Devin du village (1752) are perhaps the most surprising inclusion. O’Hara’s retention of these two airs in all versions of Midas, along with their rarity, points to their having a particular significance in relation to his purposes for Midas.

This article explores the awareness of French music and literature in Dublin in the middle of the eighteenth century. The circumstances of the composition and first performances of Midas and Le Devin du village are compared, and O’Hara’s settings of Rousseau’s airs are analysed and viewed in relation to Rousseau’s writings on music. The original performer of the two borrowed airs, Pierre Jélyotte, was the most celebrated singer at the Paris Opera in the middle of the eighteenth century: his association with the operatic romance, and the relevance of his other roles in relation to Midas, are investigated. Jélyotte’s vocal characteristics, his association with the guitar and his pastoral roles appear to be mirrored in Apollo’s disguise in Midas. This article proposes, indeed, that O’Hara’s borrowing of two airs from Le Devin du village reveals a more pervasive influence from the Paris stage than has hitherto been suspected.

Author Biography

Rachel Talbot, Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music

Rachel Talbot is an Assistant Lecturer in Vocal Studies at Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama. She is also vocal tutor at St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir School and Grammar School, Dublin. In 2014, she completed her PhD at DIT on ‘Kane O’Hara’s Midas: its Origins and Reception’. She performs as a recitalist, soprano soloist in oratorio, and as a member of early music and chamber ensembles. She has directed student productions of operas by Maurice Greene, William Boyce, Thomas Arne and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre.

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Published

17-07-2017

How to Cite

Talbot, R. (2017). The Influence of the Paris Stage on Kane O’Hara’s <i>Midas</i>. Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 12, 33–66. https://doi.org/10.35561/JSMI12163

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Articles