Burke & Hare: A Student Study Guide by Boston Lyric Opera

STUDENT STUDY GUIDE

A WORLD PREMIERE COMMISSIONED BY MUSIC-THEATRE GROUP WITH THE SUPPORT OF BOSTON LYRIC OPERA

Esther Nelson Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director David Angus Music Director John Conklin Artistic Advisor

November 6, 2017

Dear Educator, Boston Lyric Opera is pleased to invite high school and college students to attend Final Dress Rehearsals of each of our productions throughout the Season. We look forward to welcoming you and your students to The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts for the final rehearsal leading to the opening of our World Premiere of Julian Grant and Mark Campbell's The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. The experience of seeing and hearing live, professional opera is second to none. We are especially pleased to give students this unique and special opportunity to witness the final moments in the preparation of a brand new opera. We encourage you to explore the world of opera in your classroom as well. We are proud to offer this study guide to support your discussions and preparations for Burke & Hare. We've included special insights into this particular production as well as the opera's historical context. Boston Lyric Operaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to build curiosity, enthusiasm, and support for opera. This study guide is one way in which we support the incredible work of educators like you, who are inspired by this beautiful art form and introduce it to your students. As we continue to develop additional study guides this season, we want your feedback. Please tell us about how you use this guide and how it can best serve your needs by emailing education@blo.org. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re interested in additional opera education opportunities with Boston Lyric Opera, please visit blo.org/education to discover more about our programs. We look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Ann S. Kirk Manager of Education Programs

TABLE OF CONTENTS SYNOPSIS ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 CHARACTERS ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 HISTORY BEHIND THE STORY................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 COMPOSER .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 LIBRETTIST............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 THE BIRTH OF A NEW OPERA ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 LISTEN UP! ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 MYSTERIOUS DEAD BODIES.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 HISTORY OF ANATOMY............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 RESOURCES ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16 HISTORY OF OPERA: AN OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 THE SCIENCE AND ART OF OPERA ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 NOTES TO PREPARE FOR THE OPERA .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 24

SYNOPSIS

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. The city’s world-renowned schools of anatomy suffer from a shortage of cadavers for use in dissection lessons, and seek new methods for supply to meet demand. DONALD William Hare and William Burke, two poor Irishmen who manage a boardinghouse in Tanner’s Close with their significant others Helen and Margaret, discover one of their lodgers – Donald, a retired soldier – has died of natural causes. Dr. Robert Knox (1791–1862), Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist; sketch At first Burke and Hare bemoan the loss of rent Donald owed, but then Hare suggests by unknown artist, published in A Sketch they sell his corpse to an anatomy school to make up for the lost income. Burke initially of the Life and Writings of Robert Knox the Anatomist (1870). balks at the idea, but eventually is persuaded, and they pack the corpse into a tea chest for transport to the surgery school run by Dr. Knox, where it is met by his assistant, Dr. Ferguson. Knox extols the pursuit of knowledge in a lecture to his anatomy students before preparing Donald’s body for dissection. ABIGAIL SIMPSON Burke and Hare celebrate their windfall with Margaret and Helen at a pub. After the women depart, Burke and Hare are harassed by Abigail Simpson, a drunk, apparently homeless woman. Hare convinces Burke to do Abigail a favor by putting her out of her misery; he suggests murdering her and selling her body to Dr. Knox. Burke again protests, then relents. Hare approaches Abigail and offers to buy her a whisky. Meanwhile, at another table in the pub, Ferguson has a romantic exchange with Mary Paterson, a young prostitute he has been seeing. THE OTHERS In no time, Burke and Hare’s new enterprise is a success. Because the pair prey on the disenfranchised, the identities of their victims are often unknown. Knox and Ferguson enjoy the rise in enrollment at their school, while Burke, Hare, Helen and Margaret again celebrate their prosperity at the pub. DAFT JAMIE A few months later, James Wilson (“Daft Jamie”), a beloved street character of Edinburgh, sings Knox a ditty in passing. Helen and Margaret approach Daft Jamie to offer him whisky. At the school, Knox gives Ferguson good news about a promotion, but Ferguson is distracted after recognizing the corpse of Daft Jamie. He voices suspicions about Burke and Hare’s methods of obtaining bodies. Knox reminds him that their research serves the greater good – then orders Daft Jamie’s head and feet be removed before dissection, to avoid suspicion. MARY PATERSON In the pub, Burke struggles with his conscience while Helen and Margaret remind the group they must stick together at all costs. Hare notices Mary Paterson sitting by herself across the pub and invites her to Tanner’s Close. Later, back at the school, Ferguson is distraught to find Mary’s body on the surgery table, but Knox heartlessly observes she will be popular with the students. Ferguson protests. Knox threatens him and warns him they must stick together. He forces Ferguson to present Mary’s naked body to the students for anatomical illustration. MADGE DOCHERTY Madge, an itinerant Irish woman, has come to Edinburgh to find her son. She meets Hare who claims they are related. He lures her to Tanner’s Close promising to help her. Burke and Hare ply her with whisky, and when she is too drunk to struggle, they murder her. Helen and Margaret enter and are surprised by the body, as they have potential lodgers – an entire family – in the next room. They try to hide her body beneath some straw, but the family spots Madge’s lifeless arm and flees. At the school, a constable questions Knox, who compels Ferguson to deny all knowledge of the crimes. Victims and perpetrators alike recount the aftermath of the killing spree. Synopsis by Mark Campbell, librettist. 4

CHARACTERS Dr. Robert Knox, tenor Lecturer at the Museum of Comparative Anatomy Dr. Ferguson, lyric baritone Assistant to Dr. Knox William Burke, bass baritone Irish immigrant, former canal worker, lives in Tanner’s Close, friend of William Hare William Hare, bass Irish immigrant, lives and works in Tanner’s Close, friend of William Burke Helen McDougal, soprano Burke’s common-law spouse Margaret Hare, mezzo-soprano Hare’s wife, inherited a boarding house in Tanner’s Close after the death of her first husband Donald, bass An old man, retired soldier, resident of the boarding house Abigail Simpson, soprano An old woman, a salt seller Daft Jamie, tenor A young man, age 18, who wanders the streets Mary Paterson, mezzo-soprano A young prostitute, age 18. Madge Docherty, soprano An Irish immigrant and mother

Dr. Ferguson

William and Margaret Hare

Costume Designs for BLO’s World Premiere of Burke & Hare by Nancy Leary

HISTORY BEHIND THE STORY

John Knox's House, painted by Louise Rayner c. 1861

In 1828, Edinburgh was a bustling, prosperous city. It swelled during the harvest, with scores of immigrants and laborers arriving in search of seasonal employment and housing. The Old Town section, which dated back to the city’s Medieval roots, was densely populated, with winding cobblestone streets, thickly lined with markets and bustling with industrial activity. The working class and poor clustered into tenement buildings and rented out any extra space for cash to travelers and itinerant workers. Meanwhile, the New Town, designed and built in the 18th century, boasted gleaming, ordered streets, stately Georgian homes, and lives of comfort and wealth for the city’s well-to-do. Edinburgh also was the center of a relatively new industry that was experiencing a boom of success, money and renown—its schools of anatomy were thriving. Hundreds of would-be doctors, surgeons, and anatomists flocked to the University of Edinburgh as well as the numerous private anatomy courses available in nearby Surgeons’ Square. One such school was run by Dr. Robert Knox, a brash and ambitious anatomist who had begun his career in the military hospitals of the Napoleonic wars and in South Africa. Knox returned to Edinburgh in 1822 and, by 1826, was the charismatic and ambitious leader of a thriving school that took on more students than his competitors combined, and boasted three assistants. Knox, like the other anatomists and lecturers of his day, needed a constant supply of cadavers for purposes of demonstration and practice for his students. Carefully preserved and methodically dissected throughout the course of a three-month class, one cadaver could serve as the subject of a full week of study. Dissecting theaters were circular precursors to modern operating theatres, with steeply raked seating all around, enabling viewers to see the Did you know? Cadavers were often preserved in central subject–the cadaver, brought back to life (so to speak) in alcohol (like whisky) or water, depending on when they vivid detail by the flamboyant Dr. Knox. planned to dissect them. Formaldehyde, commonly used for preservation, was not discovered until 1859. Today, Demand for fresh bodies was intense. There were few legal avenues for obtaining subjects; Scots law permitted only the formaldehyde is known as a harmful chemical to the bodies of those who had died in prison, committed suicide, living, but only in the last few decades have scientists or orphans be used for medical research, a limited supply. begun using other alcoholic and chemical compounds The practice of grave-robbing arose in response, aided by a that are less toxic again. complicated legal situation: as corpses were not considered anyone’s property, it was technically not illegal to sell a corpse. It was, however, illegal to disturb a gravesite or to steal any property from the deceased. Grave-robbers, also known as resurrectionists, most often found success by robbing the graves of the poor, as they were less likely to be guarded or protected. The medical profession, in its quest for knowledge and success, found itself complicit—and sometimes an eager partner—in these illicit activities.

In this atmosphere of mounting greed and increasing oversight of graveyards, in November of 1827, two men named William Burke and William Hare discovered the body of Hare’s lodger, Donald. Donald was a retired soldier who had been ill and apparently died of natural causes. As corpses were no one’s property, selling his body to the school of Dr. Knox was not a crime. But what happened next undoubtedly was.

Dr. Robert Knox

Burke and Hare were poor laborers who lived near one another in the tenements of Tanner’s Close, a section of the Old Town, and had struck up a friendship. After netting £7.10s for Donald’s body, the pair graduated next to murder. While their own accounts of the crimes differ in sequence and the historical record is unclear, Burke and Hare murdered no fewer than sixteen people over the course of about ten months – three men, twelve women, and one Did you know that the particular method that William child – before they were apprehended in November of 1828. The Burke used to murder his victims—by suffocation, details of their crimes are dark and grim; they targeted mainly leaving no marks—is referred to as burking? The term is transient, poorer members of the lower class with whom Burke now a legal and medical term. and Hare interacted and considered less likely to be missed. They suffocated their victims and sold the bodies to Dr. Knox’s anatomy school. After they were caught, the story of Burke and Hare quickly caught on in the popular press, and Knox was vilified for his role in the murders. There were many who believed that the doctor was, at best, negligent, and at worst, the mastermind behind the crimes. Editorials demanded that he be tried; a crowd burned him in effigy outside his home. Public outcry helped lead to the passing of the Anatomy Act of 1832, which regulated the practice of anatomy, and allowed doctors and anatomists greater ability to access unclaimed bodies. With a greater supply and increased scrutiny, cases of anatomy murders and the practice of grave-robbing faded away. Hare paid with his freedom; Knox with his career; Burke with his life. The victims netted about ten pounds each (around $600 today).

REFLECT: Edinburgh in the 1820s was booming, and yet there were also great economic disparities in the city. What might you have done if you’d found yourself in Burke and Hare’s situation, with a dead body and no one to claim it?

Political Satire: Wellington and Peel in the roles of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare suffocating Mrs Docherty for sale to Dr. Knox; representing the extinguishing by Wellington and Peel of the Constitution of 1688 by Catholic Emancipation. Colored etching by W. Heath, 1829.

COMPOSER

JULIAN GRANT • Grant was born in London, England; his father was a Yugoslavian refugee, and his mother’s family is from the north of England. “I don’t know where the music comes from, the music just kind of happened,” he laughed. “I spent most of my misspent teenage years listening to opera recordings.”

Julian Grant

• Grant read music at Bristol University then won a scholarship to study at the Banff Centre in Canada under the likes of Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, and Morton Feldman—who, Grant says, gave him the most to think about. • Grant has written 18 operas of various lengths and styles, including The Skin Drum, which won the 1988 National Opera Association of America’s biennial chamber opera competition and received a semi-staged performance to launch the English National Opera’s Contemporary Opera Studio in 1990. • Grant’s Hot House premiered at the Royal Opera House in London as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. • Grant has lived, worked, and composed in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Japan. While living in Beijing, he worked with the Beijing New Music Ensemble and attempted to master the Yang Qin (Butterfly Harp). • From 2002–07, Grant was the Music Director of St. Paul’s Girls’ School in West London, a position previously held by luminaries including Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. • Grant has lived in America since 2010, in Princeton, NJ and New York. • Grant and his partner, Peter Lighte, have two daughters, who are now in college, and a dog. “The dog is really the only person who understands me,” he joked. • When not composing, Grant loves to visit art galleries and is a movie buff.

LIBRETTIST MARK CAMPBELL • Mark Campbell graduated from the University of Colorado in theater and dance, intending to be an actor. “But I found out pretty early that I wasn’t any good,” he laughed.

Mark Campbell

• Campbell began writing lyrics almost by accident—he was dating a composer at the time who needed words for a musical theatre piece he was working on about the last days of the Romanovs. “A real toetapping musical, as you can imagine,” Campbell remembered. He wrote a lot of lyrics for musical theatre in his early career, which he believes taught him discipline and craft. • In 1990, Campbell was selected for the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist by Stephen Sondheim, a big step in his early career. • His first full-length opera was Volpone, with composer John Musto, which premiered at Wolf Trap Opera in 2004. Its success led to three other collaborations with the composer: Later the Same Evening (2007), Bastianello (2008), and The Inspector (2011), which BLO performed in 2012 at the Shubert Theatre. • Campbell’s best known work is Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for composer Kevin Puts in 2012. • Campbell’s mother was a painter, a fact that has a nice resonance in his own artistic life today—he has written three operas about painters, including a current commission for Opera Paralléle about a pivotal moment in the life of Georgia O’Keefe, with co-librettist and filmmaker Kimberly Reed and composer Laura Kaminsky. • Campbell also mentors up-and-coming librettists, including work with American Opera Projects, American Lyric Theater, Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, University of Colorado’s New Opera Workshop, and Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program. • Campbell is one of the most prolific and successful librettists of today, with more than 15 librettos written and five new premieres in 2017. • Stephen Tracy, who runs a successful candle company named Keap, is Campbell’s husband. They live in the West Village of New York City and dream of having a wire-haired dachshund. • The vast majority of Campbell’s librettos have been written in Provincetown during January or February. It’s been a favorite writing retreat since 2002. • When not writing (which is rare!), Campbell enjoys attending classical music concerts and experiencing a different side of music.

Which came first? The words or the music? In the case of Campbell and Grant’s collaboration, Campbell began, drafting the beginnings of a libretto and Grant followed, responding with his musical ideas. Yet the process was highly collaborative and recursive in order to arrive at a finished piece.

THE BIRTH OF A NEW OPERA Creating a new opera is an iterative process that often takes several years. This is Julian Grant and Mark Campbell’s first collaboration on an opera. In 2012, the opera was commissioned by MusicTheatre Group, a New York City based organization that fosters the creation and development of new works of performing arts. It was here where the creation process began—the incubation. Originally, Music-Theatre Group was working on securing the rights to an unproduced screenplay by poet Dylan Thomas about Burke and Hare, and when it fell through, Grant and Campbell agreed to continue working on the opera creating an original libretto. The opera had its first workshop at Music-Theatre group in December 2016, where it began to come to life. Shortly thereafter, excerpts of the opera were performed as part of OPERA America’s New Opera Showcase in January 2017. Boston Lyric Opera stepped in to “birth” the opera into a full production bringing all the elements of the opera to life by assembling a full creative team including set, costume and lighting designers, a stage director, a conductor, and the orchestra and cast. The world premiere of the full production will take place on November 8, 2017 at The Cyclorama in Boston Center for the Arts.

Set Model for BLO’s World Premiere of Burke & Hare by Scenic Designer Caleb Wertenbaker

Did you know? That many writers have been drawn to the story of Burke and Hare including Sir Walter Scott, Christopher North, and Robert Louis Stevenson who penned the short story, “The Body Snatcher,” in 1884. The company of the OPERA America New Works Showcase of Burke & Hare, in January of 2017, with conductor Erik Ochsner and the SONOS Chamber Orchestra. Photo: Jeff Reeder Photography. 10

LISTEN UP! What will a new composition sound like? How do composers choose what instruments, voicings, textures, and tempos to use? Both Julian Grant and Mark Campbell are accomplished in their craft, and yet this is their first collaboration. To what extent will this new opera sound similar to earlier work of theirs? Here are some examples of compositions by Julian Grant:

Sancho’s Dance Mix: Suite for string orchestra after dances by Ignatius Sancho. Grant, 2014.

Learn a chorus to his opera Hot House with the choirmaster for the production at the Royal Opera House. Grant, 2014.

Listen Up!

Strike Opponents with Both Fists for flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano. Grant, 2008.

Listen Up!

As librettist, Mark Campbell is a master of words. Here are a few examples of other pieces he has wordsmithed:

Listen Up!

GENERAL QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR LISTENING • What instruments are playing? • How fast is the music? Are there sudden changes in speed? Is the rhythm steady or unsteady? • Key/Mode: Is it major or minor? (Does it sound bright, happy, sad, urgent, dangerous?) • Dynamics/Volume: Is the music loud or soft? Are there sudden changes in volume (either in the voice or orchestra)? • What is the shape of the melodic line? Does the voice move smoothly or does it make frequent or erratic jumps? Do the vocal lines move noticeably downward or upward? • Does the type of voice singing (baritone, soprano, tenor, mezzo, etc.) have an effect on you as a listener? • Do the melodies end as you would expect or do they surprise you? • How does the music make you feel? What effect do the above factors have on you as a listener? • What is the orchestra doing in contrast to the voice? How do they interact? • What kinds of images, settings, or emotions come to mind? Does it remind you of anything you have experienced in your own life? • Do particularly emphatic notes (low, high, held, etc.) correspond to dramatic moments? • What type of character fits this music? Romantic? Comic? Serious? Etc. 11

MYSTERIOUS DEAD BODIES, A PRESTIGIOUS DOCTOR, AND A CASE TO SOLVE Dr. Robert Knox's involvement remains a mystery. (Was he complicit A representation of Dr. Knox, Old Surgeon’s Hall Museum, Edinburgh or oblivious?) At the trial, his colleagues spoke in support of his innocence, testifying that it was standard practice for anatomical lecturers not to question where their cadavers were sourced. Certainly, this was to protect themselves, as current laws dictated that only those who died in prison, committed suicide, or were orphans could be used for research, thus making it highly likely that cadavers were being sourced using various illegal methods. Since burking left no evidence of murder that could be detected in the 19th century, nobody knew the exactly how each person had died. Nonetheless, when the case broke, the press had a heyday, and it was the talk of the town. While some supported Knox, others condemned his moral character for accepting each fresh body when it appeared at his door without question. The Old CSI

Did you know? The Police Department in Edinburgh in the 19th century was also responsible for fixing roads, Scotland was a pioneer in local law enforcement, establishing a street lights, and cleaning streets. professional police force in Edinburgh in 1805. Officers followed strict procedures to investigate crime including questioning witnesses and suspects, collecting evidence, and analyzing any physical wounds. A Medical Investigator would be brought to each crime scene and analyze the body for cause of death. As a branch of the city administration, however, they had many other duties to attend to as well, so they relied heavily on citizen reports to bring illegal acts to their attention. The police were tipped off to Burke and Hare’s nefarious dealings when rumors spread that a well-known member of the community, a beggar known as Daft Jamie, was conspicuously missing. Despite the fact that investigative forensics were “cutting edge” in Edinburgh at the time, since Burke and Hare suffocated their victims, pinning the murder of Jamie to them was nearly impossible from a medical standpoint. There were no DNA tests and the most reliable evidence was witness testimony, yet no one had caught them in the act. It was only a few years earlier, in 1823, that Johannes Purkinje devised the first fingerprint classification system, but it would not be used as forensic science for another 75 years. Burke and Hare’s crimes were finally brought to light when Hare’s lodgers, Ann and James Gray, who were acquaintances of Helen McDougal, grew suspicious about their hosts’ behavior. They had all celebrated All Hallows Eve the evening before with fellow neighbors and lodgers including Madge Docherty, an Irish woman in town searching for her son. When the Grays, who were encouraged to stay with the Hares that night, returned to Burke’s house, they discovered the body under the bed and went to the police. An officer questioned Burke and McDougal and searched their house. Finding their testimony incongruent, he returned with Police Surgeon Alexander Black for further investigation. They undertook thorough questioning of neighbors, tenants, and others, discovered blood on and under the bed, and heard testimony that Burke and Hare had been seen carrying a tea chest topped with fresh straw. Knowing that bodies were an illegal trade at the time, they then searched the schools of anatomy and found the body of Madge Docherty at Dr. Knox’ school. The following morning, William Burke, Hellen McDougal, and William and Margaret Hare were apprehended and taken into custody under the suspicion of the murder of Docherty where they were questioned and held without bail. None of them confessed at that time. William Burke 12

William Hare

Sketches by George Andrew Lutenor, a portrait painter who was also one of the jurors at the trial.

The Conviction

Burke's execution in the Lawnmarket, depicted on a contemporary broadsheet. The scene has been imagined. 1829.

The case was treated as a capital crime by the Court of Judiciary in Parliament Square. Sir William Rae, the lord advocate—the highest ranking judicial officer in the country—called a jury trial. The local press broke the story the day after the arrests, and suddenly it was the talk of the town. Many others came forward reporting missing people, and Police Surgeon Alexander Black started to suspect that the murder of Madge Docherty was not an isolated case. The trial played out, making national and international news. The anatomy schools, and Dr. Knox in particular, were immediately assumed to be complicit. Knox became the target of gossip, opinion articles, and cruel jokes—caricatured as “noxious” and “obnoxious.” In the end, Hare turned on his associate, receiving immunity for a full confession; his wife, Margaret, also avoided prosecution as part of the deal. Hare was eventually released and left Edinburgh for the city of Dumfries, but was recognized on the journey; when he arrived, an angry mob had gathered and he was driven from town and not seen again. Burke and Hare’s crimes were immortalized in a cautionary, Burke and his lover, Helen McDougal, were tried for the murder dark nursery rhyme well-known to Edinburgh children: of Madge Docherty, the final victim. Burke was sentenced to Up the close and doon the stair, hang, but McDougal’s verdict came back not proven. Burke But and ben’ wi’ Burke and Hare. made a full confession after his sentence, placing much of the Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief, blame for the murders on Hare, and was hanged in early 1829 Knox the boy that buys the beef. before a crowd of 25,000. In a dark twist of justice, his body was dissected at the University of Edinburgh; his skeleton remains on display at the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School, while his death mask and a book bound of his skin are on view at Surgeons’ Hall Museum. Knox, disgraced and excluded from University life, left Edinburgh in 1842; his notoriety never completely faded, though he maintained a medical practice in London until his death in 1862. DISUSS: Dr. Knox escaped with only a stained reputation, yet received heavy criticism due to his association with Burke and Hare’s crimes. Do you think that it is ethical to kill any living creature (or look the other way when someone else does) “in the name of science?” Why or why not?

Did you know that there is a wallet made from Burke’s skin on display at Surgeons’ Hall Museums in Scotland?

A business card case made from the skin of William Burke.

HISTORY OF ANATOMY IN THE WESTERN WORLD: OUR FASCINATION WITH THE HUMAN BODY

480 B.C The systematic study of the human body began with Alcmaeon and Empedocles in the Grecian Empire. 460 B.C. Hippocrates, known as the Father of Early Medicine, founded the first school of medicine and wrote the first medical text: The Hippocratic Corpus. 400 B.C. Aristotle corrected many of the previous theories using deduction as a research method. 300 B.C. Herophilus and Erasistratus conducted the first systematic dissections of the human body. 150 A.D. Galen dissected many animals, including African monkeys, documenting the brain’s main structures, the differences between veins and arteries, and how muscles work.

Anatomical studies of the shoulder c. 1510. Black chalk, pen and ink on paper by Leonardo da Vinci.

Due to religious beliefs and superstition, the study of anatomy was extremely rare in the Western World until the end of the thirteenth century. 1489 Leonardo da Vinci produced hundreds of drawings from his dissection of human bodies. 1543 Andreas Vesalius, the “Father of Anatomy,” published his seven-volume De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body). His publication carefully integrated text and drawings, setting a new path toward the use of the scientific method in anatomy study.

The anatomical theatre of the University of Leiden, early 17th century. Contemporary engraving. 14

Surgical instruments used for amputation, bone and organ operations, 1841. Wellcome Library, London.

Anatomy lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer, 1617 by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt.

1628 William Harvey, an English physician, made major contributions to the field about the function of the heart and circulatory system. His method set the standard for future anatomical research. 1818 Novelist Mary Shelley published Frankenstein. 1822 The Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh forced unregulated schools of anatomy to close, and thus museums of comparative anatomy began offering lectures to fill demand. 1832 The Anatomy Act is passed in the U.K., lifting strict regulations on where cadavers for medical research could be sourced, thus providing more legal options for obtaining them. 1858 Gray’s Anatomy is published, written by English surgeon, Sir Henry Gray. This textbook is used in medical schools and anatomy classes to this day. The title of the award-winning popular television medical drama—now in its 14th season—Grey’s Anatomy is a nod to the influential textbook, but spelled differently as it also refers to the title character’s name, Meredith Grey.

The Anatomy textbook, Gray’s Anatomy. 1887 Edition.

TODAY The field of Anatomy includes evolutionary and molecular biology which is where the majority of current research is focused.

RESOURCES

Campbell, M. (n.d.). Mark Campbell Librettist/Lyricist. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from https://www.markcampbellwords.com/ Campbell, M. (2014). The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burk & Mr. Hare. Complete Libretto. Coda: The Magazine of Boston Lyric Opera. (2017, October). Retrieved October 11, 2017, from https://issuu.com/ bostonlyricopera/docs/blo_fix_codafall17_final_singles Grant, J. (n.d.). Julian Grant Composer. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from https://www.juliangrant.net/ Jenkins, B. (n.d.). History of Medicine – Curious Edinburgh. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://curiousedinburgh.org/ category/history_of_medicine/ McLeod, D. (2015, November 2). Edinburgh’s dark history: Burke and Hare. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://blog.nms. ac.uk/2015/11/02/edinburghs-dark-history-burke-and-hare/ Morrison, J. (2016, July 22). Uncover the true story of the world’s most infamous serial killers Burke and Hare. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/burke-hare-remain-two-worlds-8473806 Nenadic, S. (2011, February 17). History - British History in depth: The Rise of Edinburgh. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/scotland_edinburgh_01.shtml Rosner, L. (2011). The Anatomy Murders: Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh’s Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://www. sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/burkehare The Horrid and True Story of Burke and Hare. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://www.burkeandhare.com/

1600-1750

1730-1820

THE HISTORY OF OPERA Toccata from L’Orfeo. Claudio Monteverdi Favola in musica. Reprint of the First Edition of the Score, Venice 1609, via Wikimedia Commons

People have been telling stories through music for millennia throughout the world. Opera is an art form with roots in Western Europe dating back hundreds of years. Here is a brief timeline of its lineage.

RENAISSANCE 1573 The Florentine Camerata was founded in Italy, devoted to reviving ancient Greek musical traditions, including sung drama. 1598 Jacopo Peri, a member of the Camerata, composed the world’s first opera – Dafne, reviving the classic myth. 1607 Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) wrote the first opera to become popular, Orfeo, making him the premier opera composer of his day and bridging the gap between Renaissance and Baroque music. His works are still performed today.

BAROQUE 1637 The first public opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, was built in Venice, Italy. 1673 Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) Italian-born composer, brought opera to the French court, creating a unique style, tragédie en musique, that better suited the French language. Blurring the lines between recitative and aria, he created fast-paced dramas to suit the tastes of French aristocrats. 1689 Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) simple and elegant chamber opera, Dido and Aeneas, premiered at Josias Priest’s boarding school for girls in London. 1712 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), a German-born composer, moved to London, where he found immense success writing intricate and highly ornamented Italian opera seria (serious opera). Ornamentation refers to stylized, fast-moving notes, usually improvised by the singer to make a musical line more interesting and to showcase their vocal talent.

Dido and Aeneas, 1747, Pompeo Batoni, via Wikimedia Commons

CLASSICAL 1750s A reform movement, led by composer Christoph Gluck (1714-1787), rejected the flashy ornamented style of the Baroque in favor of simplicity refined to enhance the drama. 1767 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote his first opera at age 11, beginning his 25-year opera career. Mozart mastered, then innovated in several operatic forms. He wrote operas serias, including La Clemenza di Tito, and operas buffas (comedic operas) like Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). He then combined the two genres in Don Giovanni, calling it dramma giocoso. Mozart also innovated on the form of Singspiel (German sung play), featuring spoken dialogue, as in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

1805 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) although a prolific composer, wrote only one opera, Fidelio. The extremes of musical expression in Beethoven’s music pushed the boundaries in the late Classical period and inspired generations of Romantic composers. 17

Giuseppe Verdi

Giacomo Puccini

Richard Wagner

ROMANTIC — THE GOLDEN AGE OF OPERA 1816 Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) composed Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), becoming the most prodigious opera composer in Italy by age 24. He wrote 39 operas in 20 years. This new style created by Rossini and his contemporaries, including Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini, would, a century later, be referred to as bel canto (beautiful singing). Bel canto compositions were inspired by the nuanced vocal capabilities of the human voice and its expressive potential. Composers employed a strategic use of register, the push and pull of tempo (rubato), extremely smooth and connected phrases (legato), and vocal glides (portamento).

1790-1910

1842 Inspired by the risqué popular entertainment of French vaudeville, Hervé created the first operetta, a short comedic musical drama with spoken dialogue. Responding to popular trends, this new form stood in contrast to the increasingly serious and dramatic works at the grand Parisian opera house. Opéra comique as a genre was often not comic, rather realistic or humanistic. Grand Opera, on the contrary, was exaggerated and melodramatic. 1853 Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) completed La Traviata, a story of love, loss, and the struggle of average people, in the increasingly popular realistic style of verismo. Verdi enjoyed immense acclaim during his lifetime, while expanding opera to include larger orchestras, extravagant sets and costumes, and more highly trained voices.

A scene from a 19th-century version of the play The Barber of Seville by Pierre Beaumarchais. Its origins in the commedia dell’arte are shown in this picture which portrays Figaro dressed in the costume and mask of Harlequin. 1884, via Wikimedia Commons

1865 Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) Tristan und Isolde was the beginning of musical modernism, pushing the use of traditional harmony to its extreme. His massively ambitious, lengthy operas, often based in German folklore, sought to synthesize music, theater, poetry, and visuals in what he called a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art). The most famous of these was an epic four-opera drama, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which took him 26 years to write and was completed in 1874. 1871 Influenced by French operetta, English librettist W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) began their 25-year partnership, which produced 14 comic operettas including The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Their works helped inspire the genre of American musical theater. 1874 Johann Strauss II, influenced largely by his father, with whom he shared a name and talent, composed Die Fledermaus, popularizing Viennese musical traditions, namely the waltz, and shaping operetta. 1896 Giacomo Puccini’s (1858-1924) La Bohème captivated audiences with its intensely beautiful music, realism, and raw emotion. Puccini enjoyed huge acclaim during his lifetime for his works.

Mikado theatre poster, Edinburgh, 1885, via Wikimedia Commons

20TH CENTURY

Hammerstein and Kern

Leonard Bernstein

Scott Joplin

20TH CENTURY 1911 Scott Joplin, “The King of Ragtime,” wrote his only opera, Treemonisha, which was not performed until 1972. The work combined the European late-Romantic operatic style with African American folk songs, spirituals, and dances. The libretto, also by Joplin, was written at a time when literacy among African Americans in the southern United States was rare. 1922 Alban Berg (1885-1935) composed the first completely atonal opera, Wozzeck, dealing with uncomfortable themes of militarism and social exploitation. Wozzeck is in the style of 12-tone music or Serialism. This new compositional style, developed in Vienna by composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), placed equal importance on each of the 12 pitches in a scale, removing the sense of the music being in a particular key. 1927 American musical theater, commonly referred to as Broadway, was taken more seriously after Jerome Kern’s (1885-1945) Show Boat, words by Oscar Hammerstein, tackled issues of racial segregation and the ban on interracial marriage in Mississippi. 1935 American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937), who was influenced by African American music and culture, debuted his opera, Porgy and Bess, in Boston, MA, with an all-African American cast of classically trained singers. 1945 British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) gained international recognition with his opera Peter Grimes. Britten, along with Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), was one of the first British opera composers to gain fame in nearly 300 years. 1957 Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), known for synthesizing musical genres, brought together the best of American musical theater, opera, and ballet in West Side Story—a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary setting.

Porgy and Bess by the New York Harlem Theatre, 2009

1987 John Adams (b. 1947) composed one of the great minimalist operas, Nixon in China, the story of Nixon’s 1972 meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Musical Minimalism strips music down to its essential elements, usually featuring a great deal of repetition with slight variations. TODAY Still a vibrant and evolving art form, opera attracts contemporary composers such as Dominick Argento (b. 1927), Philip Glass (b. 1937), Mark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960), Thomas Adès (b. 1971), and many others. These composers continue to be influenced by present and historical musical forms in creating new operas that explore current issues or reimagine ancient tales.

So Young Park as Queen of the Night Photo: Eric Antoniou.

THE SCIENCE AND ART OF OPERA

HOW THE VOICE WORKS

WHY DO OPERA SINGERS SOUND LIKE THAT? Opera is unique among forms of singing in that singers are trained to be able to sing without amplification, in large theaters, over an entire orchestra, and still be heard and understood! This is what sets the art form of opera apart from similar forms such as musical theater. To become a professional opera singer, it takes years of intense physical training and constant practice—not unlike that of a ballet dancer—to stay in shape. Additionally, while ballet dancers can dance through pain and illness, poor health, especially respiratory issues and even allergies, can be severely debilitating for a professional opera singer. Let’s peek into some of the science of this art form.

Singing requires different parts of the body to work together: the lungs, the vocal cords, the vocal tract, and the articulators (lips, teeth, and tongue). The lungs create a flow of air over the vocal cords, which vibrate. That vibration is amplified by the vocal tract and broken up into words by consonants produced by the articulators. Breath: Any good singer will tell you that good breath support is essential to produce quality sound. Breath is like the gas that goes into your car. Without it, nothing runs. In order to sing long phrases of music with clarity and volume, opera singers access their full lung capacity by keeping the torso elongated and releasing the lower abdomen and diaphragm muscles, which allows air to enter into the lower lobes of the lungs. This is why we associate a certain posture with opera singers. In the past, many operas were staged with singers standing in one place to deliver an entire aria or scene, with minimal activity. Modern productions, however, often demand a much greater range of movement and agility onstage, requiring performers to be physically fit, and disproving the stereotype of the “fat lady sings.”

Vibration: If you run your fingers along your throat you will feel a little lump just underneath your chin. That is your “Adam’s Apple,” and right behind it, housed in the larynx (voice-box), are your vocal cords. When air from the lungs crosses over the vocal cords it creates an area of low pressure (google The Bernoulli Effect), which brings the cords together and makes them vibrate. This vibration produces a buzz. The vocal chords can be lengthened or shortened by muscles in the larynx, or by increasing the speed of air flow. This change in the length and thickness of the vocal cords is what allows singers to create different pitches. Higher pitches require long, thin cords, while low pitches require short, thick ones. Professional singers take great pains to protect the delicate anatomy of their vocal cords with hydration and rest, as the tiniest scarring or inflammation can have noticeable effects on the quality of sound produced.

Resonance: Without the resonating chambers in the head, the buzzing of the vocal cords would sound very unpleasant. The vocal tract, a term encompassing the mouth cavity, and the back of the throat, down to the larynx, shapes the buzzing of the vocal cords like a sculptor shapes clay. Shape your mouth in an ee vowel (as in eat), then sharply inhale a few times. The cool sensation you feel at the top and back of your mouth is your soft palate. The soft palate can raise or lower to change the shape of the vocal tract. Opera singers always strive to sing with a raised soft palate, which allows for the greatest amplification of the sound produced by the vocal cords. Different vowel sounds are produced by raising or lowering the tongue. Say the vowels: ee, eh, ah, oh, oo and notice how each vowel requires a slightly lower tongue placement. This area of vocal training is particularly difficult because none of the anatomy is visible from the outside!

Articulation: The lips, teeth, and tongue are all used to create consonant sounds, which separate words into syllables and make language intelligible. Consonants must be clear and audible for the singer to be understood. Because opera singers do not sing with amplification, their articulation must be particularly good. The challenge lies in producing crisp, rapid consonants without interrupting the connection of the vowels (through the controlled exhale of breath) within the musical phrase.

Perfecting every element of this complex singing system requires years of training, and is essential for the demands of the art form. An opera singer must be capable of singing for hours at a time, over the top of an orchestra, in large opera houses, while acting and delivering an artistic interpretation of the music. It is complete and total engagement of mental, physical, and emotional control and expression. Therefore think of opera singers as the Olympic athletes of the stage, sit back, and marvel at what the human body is capable of! 20

Contralto

Somewhat equivalent to the lower female alto role in a chorus, mezzosopranos (mezzo translates as “middle”) are known for their full and expressive qualities. While they don’t sing frequencies quite as high as sopranos, their ranges do overlap, and it is a “darker” tone that sets them apart. One of the most famous mezzo-soprano lead roles is Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen.

Occasionally women have an even lower range that overlaps with the highest male voice. This voice type is rare, and they often play male characters, referred to in opera as trouser roles.

Tenor

The highest male voice; tenors often sing the role of the hero. One of the most famous tenor roles is Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliet. Occasionally men have cultivated very high voices singing in a range similar to a mezzo-soprano, but using their falsetto. Called the Countertenor, this voice type is often found in Baroque music. Countertenors replaced castrati in the heroic lead roles of Baroque opera after the practice of castration was deemed unethical.

A middle-range male voice, baritones can range from sweet and mild in tone, to darker dramatic and full tones. A famous baritone role is Rigoletto in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Baritones who are most comfortable in a slightly lower range are known as Bass-Baritones, a hybrid of the two lowest voice types.

Baritone Bass

Mezzo-Soprano

Opera singers are cast into roles based on their tessitura (the range of notes they can sing comfortably). There are many descriptors that accompany the basic voice types, but here are some of the most common ones:

The lowest male voice, basses often fall into two main categories: basso buffo, which is a comic character who often sings in lower laughing-like tones, and basso profundo, which is as low as the human voice can sing! Doctor Bartolo is an example of a bass role in The Barber of Seville by Rossini.

Bass

The highest female voice; some sopranos are designated as coloratura as they specialize in being able to sing very fast moving notes that are very high in frequency and light in tone, often referred to as “color notes.” One of the most famous coloratura roles is The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Soprano

DIFFERENT VOICE TYPES

Baritone

Tenor Contralto

110 HZ

Mezzo-Soprano

Soprano

220 HZ

440 HZ

880 HZ

Each of the voice types (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass) also tends to be sub-characterized by whether it is more Lyric or Dramatic in tone. Lyric singers tend toward smooth lines in their music, sensitively expressed interpretation, and flexible agility. Dramatic singers have qualities that are attributed to darker, fuller, richer note qualities expressed powerfully and robustly with strong emotion. While its easiest to understand operatic voice types through these designations and descriptions, one of the most exciting things about listening to a singer perform is that each individual’s voice is essentially unique, thus each singer will interpret a role in an opera in a different way. 21

THE PHYSICS OF OPERA SINGERS What is it about opera singers that allows them to be heard above the orchestra? It’s not that they simply sing louder. The qualities of sound have to do with the relationship between the frequency (pitch) of a sound, represented in a unit of measurement called hertz, and its amplitude, measured in decibels, which the ear perceives as loudness. Only artificially produced sounds, however, create a pure frequency and amplitude (these are the only kind that can break glass). The sound produced by a violin, a drum, a voice, or even smacking your hand on a table, produces a fundamental frequency as well as secondary, tertiary, etc. frequencies known as overtones, or as musicians call them, harmonics. For instance, the orchestra tunes to a concert “A” pitch before a performance. Concert “A” has a frequency of about 440 hertz, but that is not the only pitch you will hear. Progressively softer pitches above that fundamental pitch are produced in multiples of 440 at 880hz, 1320hz, 1760hz, etc. Each different instrument in the orchestra, because of its shape, construction, and mode in which it produces sound, produces different harmonics. This is what makes a violin, for example, have a different color (or timbre) from a trumpet. Generally, the harmonics of the instruments in the orchestra fade around 2500hz. Overtones produced by a human voice—whether speaking, yelling, or singing—are referred to as formants. As the demands of opera stars increased, vocal teachers discovered that by manipulating the empty space within the vocal tract, they could emphasize higher frequencies within the overtone series—frequencies above 2500 hz. This technique allowed singers to perform without hurting their vocal chords, as they are not actually singing at a higher fundamental decibel level than the orchestra. Swedish voice scientist, Johann Sundberg, observed this phenomenon when he recorded the world-famous tenor Jussi Bjoerling in 1970. His research showed multiple peaks in decibel level, with the strongest frequency (overtone) falling between 2500 and 3000 hertz. This frequency, known as the singer’s formant, is the “sweet spot” for singers so that we hear their voices soaring over the orchestra into the opera house night after night.

Listen Up! 22

Prof. Tecumseh Fitch, evolutionary biologist and cognitive scientist at the University of Vienna, explains the difference between a fundamental frequency and formant frequency in the human voice. For an opera singer, the lower two formants (peaks on a graph) determine the specific vowel sound. The third formant and above add overtones that are specific to each particular singer’s voice, like a fingerprint. When two people sing the same note simultaneously, the high overtones allow your ear to distinguish two voices.

Boston Opera House

A RESONANT PLACE The final piece of the puzzle in creating the perfect operatic sound is the opera house or theater itself. Designing the perfect acoustic space can be an almost impossible task, one which requires tremendous knowledge of science, engineering, and architecture, as well as an artistic sensibility. The goal of the acoustician is to make sure that everyone in the audience can clearly understand the music being produced onstage, no matter where they are sitting. A perfectly designed opera house or concert hall (for non-amplified sound) functions almost like gigantic musical instrument. Reverberation is one key aspect in making a singer’s words intelligible or an orchestra’s melodies clear. Imagine the sound your voice would make in the shower or a cave. The echo you hear is reverberation caused by the large, hard, smooth surfaces. Too much reverberation (bouncing sound waves) can make words difficult to understand. Resonant vowel sounds overlap as they bounce off of hard surfaces and cover up quieter consonant sounds. In these environments, sound carries a long way but becomes unclear or, as it is sometimes called, wet–as if the sound were underwater. Acousticians can mitigate these effects by covering smooth surfaces with textured materials like fabric, perforated metal, or diffusers, which absorb and disperse sound. These tools, however, must be used carefully, as too much absorption can make a space dry–meaning the sound onstage will not carry at all and the performers may have trouble even hearing themselves. Imagine singing into a pillow or under a blanket. The shape of the room itself also contributes to the way the audience perceives the music. Most large performance spaces are shaped like a bell–small where the stage is, and growing larger and more spread out in every dimension as one moves farther away. This shape helps to create a clear path for the sound to reach every seat. In designing concert halls or opera houses, big decisions must be made about the construction of the building based on acoustical needs. Even with the best planning, the perfect acoustic is not guaranteed, but professionals are constantly learning and adapting new scientific knowledge to enhance the audience’s experience.

Boston Symphony Hall, opened in 1900, with acoustical design by Harvard physicist Wallace Clement Sabine, was the first concert hall to be designed with scientific acoustic principles in mind. Each seat was mathematically designed and placed for maximum acoustical perfection.

NOTES TO PREPARE FOR THE OPERA You will see a full dress rehearsal–an insider’s look into the final moments of preparation before an opera premieres. The singers will be in full costume and makeup, the opera will be fully staged, and a full orchestra will accompany the singers, who may choose to “mark,” or not sing in full voice, in order to save their voices for the performances. A final dress rehearsal is often a complete run-through, but there is a chance the director or conductor will ask to repeat a scene or section of music. This is the last opportunity the performers have to rehearse with the orchestra before opening night, and they therefore need this valuable time to work. The following will help you better enjoy your experience of a night at the opera: • Arrive on time! Latecomers will be seated only at suitable breaks in the performance and often not until intermission. • Dress in what you are comfortable in so that you may enjoy the performance. For some, that means dressing up in a suit or gown, for others, jeans and a polo shirt fit the bill. Generally “dressy-casual” is what people wear. Live theater is usually a little more formal than a movie theater. Please do not take off your shoes or put your feet on the seat in front of you. • Respect your fellow opera lovers by not leaning forward in your seat so as to block the person’s view behind you, and by turning off (not on vibrate) cell phones and other electronic devices that could make noise during the performance. Lit screens are also very distracting to your neighbors, so please keep your phone out of sight until the house lights come up. • Taking photos or making audio or video recordings is strictly forbidden. • Do not chew gum, eat, drink, or talk while the rehearsal is in session. If you must visit the restroom during the performance, please exit quickly and quietly. • At the very beginning of the opera, the concertmaster of the orchestra will ask the oboist to play the note “A.” You will hear all the other musicians in the orchestra tune their instruments to match the oboe’s “A.” • After all the instruments are tuned, the conductor will arrive. Be sure to applaud! • Feel free to applaud or shout Bravo! at the end of an aria or chorus piece if you liked it. The end of a piece can be identified by a pause in the music. Singers love an appreciative audience! • It’s OK to laugh when something is funny! • When translating songs and poetry in particular, much can be lost due to a change in rhythm, inflection and rhyme of words. For this reason, opera is usually performed in its original language. In order to help audiences enjoy the music and follow every twist and turn of the plot, English supertitles are projected.

• Sit back, relax and let the action on stage pull you in. As an audience member, you are essential to the art form of opera—without you, there is no show!

HAVE FUN AND ENJOY THE OPERA!

Boston Opera House

• Listen for subtleties in the music. The tempo, volume, and complexity of the music and singing depict the feelings or actions of the characters. Also, notice repeated words or phrases; they are usually significant.