Identities

This chapter examines how discourses of national identity played into the 1920s opera debate and connected to discussions about cultural categorisation. Focusing in detail upon two magazines devoted explicitly to opera and associated with opera companies (Opera and MILO), it demonstrates the ways in which operatic propaganda played into contemporary identity politics. The chapter analyses the ways in which connections were drawn between opera and sport as a means of popularising opera, masculinising it, and rendering it middlebrow. It also considers connections that were drawn between opera, good health, and model citizenship, focusing in particular on endeavours designed to foster an interest in opera among school children. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Thomas Beecham’s Imperial League of Opera and the ways in which it attempted to masculinise opera by employing imperialist, militaristic rhetoric.

Brows

Chapter 3 focuses upon two archetypal figures in the 1920s battle of the brows: the highbrow and the so-called man in the street. It discusses the various ways in which the term ‘highbrow’ was employed during this period, before considering which music periodicals and critics fell into the highbrow camp, even if the term was not always explicitly used. The chapter proposes that there were various types of highbrow critic: some overt snobs, others more benevolent voices who wanted to share good music with a wide audience. The second part of the chapter analyses the eclectic, middlebrow tastes of the ‘man in the street’, a mythical figure who represented the burgeoning middle classes. Finally, the chapter considers publications, talks and broadcasts that were employed by various opera companies and individuals during the 1920s to encourage more people to watch and listen to opera.

Contexts

Chapter 1 provides a sketch of 1920s operatic culture, in order to provide a context for subsequent chapters. It introduces the nostalgic, pessimistic terms in which opera was framed in the years around 1920, before charting how operatic culture developed across the course of the decade. The chapter introduces the key companies that were active during the decade and the sorts of venues in which they performed. Performance standards are analysed, in terms of both singing and staging. The chapter outlines the particular financial problems that opera companies faced during this period and also considers the threat posed to opera by various alternative forms of entertainment and diversion, including film, dance, musical theatre, jazz, sport, and motoring. The chapter examines how the British situation compared with operatic culture in both continental Europe and the USA, and concludes by discussing the ‘feast or famine’ approach to operatic performance that typified the decade.

Epilogue

The epilogue weighs up the evidence provided in the previous chapters and concludes that whilst opera was in some respects almost impossible to categorise in the terms of the 1920s ‘battle of the brows’—and that such categorisation might even be undesirable—it sat closest to the middlebrow. The epilogue examines similarities and differences between operatic culture in the 1920s and the present day, focusing on performance practices, connections with popular culture, and social relevance. It discusses the current elitism debate in brief and considers what today’s opera companies might learn from the conversations about opera that took place during the 1920s.

Stars

This chapter examines why the star singer was considered by highbrow critics to be so problematic. It examines the cult of personality within the 1920s context and the ways in which this was fuelled by modern advertising methods, and considers the relationship between opera stars and new types of stars from the worlds of film, sport, and variety. The chapter considers how singers promoted themselves through autobiography, press interviews, recordings, and merchandising deals, and how they negotiated the world of modern celebrity in ways that placed them in the middlebrow camp. It examines how singers were presented by the press as simultaneously familiar and exotic. Detailed attention is paid to the ‘celebrity concerts’ of the era, whose pick-and-mix programmes were considered so problematic by highbrow commentators, and to the perceived tension between artistic integrity and commerce. Highbrow attitudes towards the audiences who enjoyed listening to celebrity singers are also scrutinised.

Boundaries

This chapter considers opera’s interactions with various forms of popular culture in 1920s Britain. It establishes that ‘cultural purity’ was important to highbrow commentators but not to those with middlebrow taste, and explains that opera, as a hybrid art form, was problematic in this regard. The chapter considers the ways in which the newer form of cinema was perceived to be posing a threat to live opera, but reveals that film and opera interacted in productive ways. It also draws surprising connections between opera and jazz and examines opera’s appearances in popular fiction. The latter part of the chapter is devoted to the relationship between opera recordings and the notion of the bestseller, a problematic new term in the context of the battle of the brows. 1920s concerns about the commercialisation of listening and reading are considered, as are those about new audiences and who had the right to consume culture.

Audiences

Chapter 2 examines the sorts of people who attended the opera in 1920s Britain. It explains that the audience for opera in this period was far from homogeneous, and analyses the ways in which interest in opera cut strikingly across conventional class lines. The chapter examines the partial decline of aristocratic patronage of opera at Covent Garden and the reasons for it, also discussing the diverse social groups who also frequented the theatre. It analyses the audience for opera beyond the West End, whether at the Old Vic or at a variety of theatres both in London and the provinces where touring opera companies performed. The chapter also examines operatic performance in some unconventional spaces, such as at a Lyon’s Corner House in central London. It concludes by discussing the size of the 1920s audience for opera, and the extent to which opera-going was accepted as a British pursuit.

Introduction

The introduction outlines the topics covered within the book and the critical methodologies used to examine them. It explains the reasons for the emergence of the 1920s 'battle of the brows', before explaining why opera's place within it was complex. In order to provide background for the issues under consideration in the 1920s context, the introduction outlines how opera's social and cultural status had changed across the course of the previous century, from being an elite form of entertainment in the early nineteenth century to something far more populist by 1900. The introduction explains the centrality of opera to broader cultural debates of the 1920s, and makes the case for examining British operatic culture during this period. It outlines the scope of the book in terms of topics covered and methodology, and discusses the main journalistic sources used, before outlining the organisation of material into chapters.

Repertories

This chapter establishes that different types of opera were classified differently during the 1920s and considers questions of contemporary canon formation. Early opera and some modern operas were acceptable to highbrow tastes; German opera was preferable to Italian. The chapter begins by establishing what the 1920s British operatic repertoire was and considering the ways in which it was perceived to be ossifying into a ‘museum culture’. It considers the repertoire performed by the touring companies and how they adjusted their programming to suit the tastes of different cities. Innovative attempts by Oxford students to revive early opera are discussed. The chapter examines why nineteenth-century Italian opera was deemed so problematic by highbrow commentators, before considering how Wagner’s works cut across highbrow–middlebrow categories in surprising ways. It concludes by considering operatic topics that were deemed particularly well-suited to British tastes, and whether Britain could properly be called an operatic nation at all.