Event overview
Are you interested in performing in the Department of Music's opera in June? Come along on Thursday 30th at 1pm to find out more.
The Department of Music is holding an open meeting to anyone interested in getting involved in the annual opera as part of the PureGold Festival. Come and find out more on Thursday 30th January in RHB 167.
The Dragon of Wantley is a legend of a dragon-slaying by a knight on Wharncliffe Crags in South Yorkshire, recounted in a comic broadside ballad of 1685 which tells of how a huge dragon - almost as big as the Trojan Horse - devours anything it wishes, even trees and buildings, until the Falstaffian knight Moore of Moore Hall obtains a bespoke suit of spiked Sheffield armour and delivers a fatal kick to the dragon's "arse-gut" - its only vulnerable spot, as the dragon explains with its dying breath.
The opera, with music composed by John Frederick Lampe in the 1730s, punctured the vacuous operatic conventions and pointed a satirical barb at Robert Walpole and his taxation policies. This Augustan parody was a huge success and its initial run was 69 performances in the first season; a number which exceeded even The Beggar's Opera. The opera debuted at the Haymarket Theatre, where its coded attack on Walpole would have been clear. Part of its satire of opera was that it had all of the words sung, including the recitatives and da capo arias. The play itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments.
Image: Illustration of a winged dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch, 1806.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Jan 2020 | 1:00pm - 1:45pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
