The Duenna (Gerhard opera)

The Duenna (La Dueña) is an English/German-language opera in three acts composed by Robert Gerhard to libretto by the composer, after the 1775 comedy The Duenna by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Composed from 1945 to 1947, the opera was premiered on BBC radio in 1949, conducted by Stanford Robinson and was received well. It was revised in 1951 for performance at the ISCM Festival in Wiesbaden, but there the use of popular melodies did not go down well with critics. The opera is in part atonal, following Gerhard's teacher Schoenberg. Gerhard was wounded deeply "when it was heard by an audience unlikely to be put off by its occasional modernisms" it was coolly received, "because Gerhard the pupil of Schoenberg seemed to be wasting his time on light music". Grove notes that "it unfolds as a series of set pieces... related to... Spanish folk music" and represents "Gerhard's last extended look at his Spanish inheritance..."

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