Jeremy Commons
Encyclopedia
Jeremy Commons is a New Zealand
opera
historian, scholar, impresario
and librettist. He is an authority on nineteenth-century Italian opera and has published major works on the composers Gaetano Donizetti
and Nicola Vaccaj
.
in 1933. After graduating MA in English from Auckland University and Merton College, Oxford
, he spent a year in Italy
as an Italian Government scholarship-holder studying early nineteenth century opera.
He returned to New Zealand in 1959 and worked for the Department of External Affairs
as a junior diplomat
, with postings at New Zealand's Embassy in Paris
and the High Commission in London.
He joined the English Department at Victoria University Wellington in 1967 as a Reader
and taught English literature, specialising in the Augustan
period. Since retiring in 1989, he has devoted his attention full time to opera-related projects.
In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary
Doctorate
of Literature from Victoria University for his revival of, and research into, nineteenth century Italian operas.
Among other forgotten works he has been instrumental in rediscovering, he has edited in collaboration with the Milanese conductor Daniele Ferrari the opera Il convitato di pietra (1832), a version of the Don Giovanni
story written by the Italian composer Giovanni Pacini
. The work was given its first modern-day performance at the 2008 Rossini in Wildbad Festival. The work has been recorded by Naxos Records
.
His first major scholarly work was the 1,652 page volume The First Performances of the Operas of Donizetti, produced in collaboration with Annalisa Bini and published in Italian in 1997. On his own he subsequently published in 2008 a collection of more than 2000 letters he has transcribed and edited that were written by or to the composer Nicola Vaccaj, a contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, whose singing exercises are used by singers to this day.
At various times during his career, he has been commissioned to write essays, introductions and notes by opera companies in various parts of the world including Opera Australia
, San Francisco and English National Opera
. He has worked with leading exponents of Italian opera such as Dame Joan Sutherland and conductor Richard Bonynge
on articles to accompany their recordings for Decca Records
. Since 1975, he has been a researcher and writer for the London-based company Opera Rara
, which has issued award-winning recordings of neglected nineteenth-century Italian operas.
He collaborated with the Waikato
Opera Group (later Opera Waikato) in presenting operas by Giuseppe Balducci, whose works he had found in the library of the Naples
Conservatorium. These included I gelosi (1993), Il noce di Benevento (1995) and Scherzo (1996). He also collaborated with Dunedin’s
Marama Opera on a production of Chabrier’s Une Education manquée (1996).
In 1995, he branched out on his own with a production of Wekerlin’s La Laitière de Trianon. Three other Wekerlin salon operas followed: Entre deux Feux! (1997) Le Mariage en poste (1999) and Carmontel (2001), as well as Nadaud's Le Docteur Vieuxtemps (1998).
In 2002 he established the Sirius Opera label. It ceased operations in 2006.
With Dorothy Quita Buchanan
he wrote The Mansfield Stories (The Woman at the Store, Miss Brill and The Daughters of the Late Colonel). He mounted the first of these in 1998. Orchestrated versions of all three were presented in 1999. He also collaborated with Buchanan on It Began with a Pony (2003).
With John Drummond he has produced six operas: Mr Polly at the Potwell Inn (2000), A Beleaguered City (2002), Marriage à la Mode (2004), Impersonating Maurice (2005), Mrs Windermere (2006) and The Genteel Pigeons (2006).
He was the co-librettist with Ivan Bootham
for The Death of Venus (2002).
He also adapted Ian Cross
's novel The God Boy
as a libretto for composer Anthony Ritchie
. The resulting opera was premiered by the Dunedin
Opera Company (Opera Otago) at the 2004 Otago Festival of the Arts, and was subsequently given at the 2006 Canterbury University Platform Arts Festival.
He lives in Wellington
.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
historian, scholar, impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
and librettist. He is an authority on nineteenth-century Italian opera and has published major works on the composers Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
and Nicola Vaccaj
Nicola Vaccai
Nicola Vaccai was an Italian composer, particularly of operas, and a singing teacher.-Life and career as a composer:...
.
Academic career
Commons was born in AucklandAuckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
in 1933. After graduating MA in English from Auckland University and Merton College, Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
, he spent a year in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
as an Italian Government scholarship-holder studying early nineteenth century opera.
He returned to New Zealand in 1959 and worked for the Department of External Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is a major ministerial portfolio in the government of New Zealand.The current Minister of Foreign Affairs is Murray McCully, who was National Party Spokeperson of Foreign Affairs and Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs. There are also Associate Minister roles...
as a junior diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, with postings at New Zealand's Embassy in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the High Commission in London.
He joined the English Department at Victoria University Wellington in 1967 as a Reader
Reader (academic rank)
The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...
and taught English literature, specialising in the Augustan
Augustan literature
Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II on the 1740s with the deaths of Pope and Swift...
period. Since retiring in 1989, he has devoted his attention full time to opera-related projects.
In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
Doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
of Literature from Victoria University for his revival of, and research into, nineteenth century Italian operas.
Research and publications
He has spent many years in Italian libraries and archives, uncovering not only neglected opera composers and their scores, but also collections of their letters and papers, contemporary accounts and reviews, thus building up an invaluable picture of their lives and productions.Among other forgotten works he has been instrumental in rediscovering, he has edited in collaboration with the Milanese conductor Daniele Ferrari the opera Il convitato di pietra (1832), a version of the Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
story written by the Italian composer Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
. The work was given its first modern-day performance at the 2008 Rossini in Wildbad Festival. The work has been recorded by Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
.
His first major scholarly work was the 1,652 page volume The First Performances of the Operas of Donizetti, produced in collaboration with Annalisa Bini and published in Italian in 1997. On his own he subsequently published in 2008 a collection of more than 2000 letters he has transcribed and edited that were written by or to the composer Nicola Vaccaj, a contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, whose singing exercises are used by singers to this day.
At various times during his career, he has been commissioned to write essays, introductions and notes by opera companies in various parts of the world including Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, San Francisco and English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
. He has worked with leading exponents of Italian opera such as Dame Joan Sutherland and conductor Richard Bonynge
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge, AO, CBE is an Australian conductor and pianist.Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School before studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for...
on articles to accompany their recordings for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. Since 1975, he has been a researcher and writer for the London-based company Opera Rara
Opera Rara
Opera Rara is a British record label, founded in the early 1970s by Americans Patric Schmid and Don White to promote concerts of rare and/or forgotten operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Donizetti and such other "bel canto" composers as Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, and Federico Ricci.The...
, which has issued award-winning recordings of neglected nineteenth-century Italian operas.
Opera productions
As a producer, Commons has focused on small-scale salon operas, suitable for performance by small groups operating on limited budgets.He collaborated with the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
Opera Group (later Opera Waikato) in presenting operas by Giuseppe Balducci, whose works he had found in the library of the Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
Conservatorium. These included I gelosi (1993), Il noce di Benevento (1995) and Scherzo (1996). He also collaborated with Dunedin’s
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
Marama Opera on a production of Chabrier’s Une Education manquée (1996).
In 1995, he branched out on his own with a production of Wekerlin’s La Laitière de Trianon. Three other Wekerlin salon operas followed: Entre deux Feux! (1997) Le Mariage en poste (1999) and Carmontel (2001), as well as Nadaud's Le Docteur Vieuxtemps (1998).
In 2002 he established the Sirius Opera label. It ceased operations in 2006.
Libretti
From 1997, he has written libretti for small-scale works in collaboration with several New Zealand composers.With Dorothy Quita Buchanan
Dorothy Quita Buchanan
-Life:Buchanan was born in Christchurch, the second of six daughters in a musical family, and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Canterbury University in 1967 and a teaching degree from Christchurch Teachers College in 1975....
he wrote The Mansfield Stories (The Woman at the Store, Miss Brill and The Daughters of the Late Colonel). He mounted the first of these in 1998. Orchestrated versions of all three were presented in 1999. He also collaborated with Buchanan on It Began with a Pony (2003).
With John Drummond he has produced six operas: Mr Polly at the Potwell Inn (2000), A Beleaguered City (2002), Marriage à la Mode (2004), Impersonating Maurice (2005), Mrs Windermere (2006) and The Genteel Pigeons (2006).
He was the co-librettist with Ivan Bootham
Ivan Bootham
Ivan Bootham is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet and composer.- Life and literary works :Ivan Bootham was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, in 1939, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager, working in a variety of jobs in provincial centres...
for The Death of Venus (2002).
He also adapted Ian Cross
Ian Cross
Ian Cross is a novelist, journalist and has contributed significantly to New Zealand letters. His first novel, The God Boy, was released in 1957 to critical acclaim. Other novels include The Backward Sex, After ANZAC Day and The Family Man.Cross has worked as a successful broadcaster on radio and...
's novel The God Boy
The God Boy
The God Boy is a novel written by Ian Cross and first published in 1957. It has been adapted as an opera by librettist Jeremy Commons and composer Anthony Ritchie.-Synopsis:...
as a libretto for composer Anthony Ritchie
Anthony Ritchie
Anthony Ritchie is one of New Zealand's most prolific composers. His works number over a hundred, and include three symphonies, two operas, seven concertos, choral works, chamber music and solo works....
. The resulting opera was premiered by the Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
Opera Company (Opera Otago) at the 2004 Otago Festival of the Arts, and was subsequently given at the 2006 Canterbury University Platform Arts Festival.
Other activities
He was president of the New Zealand Opera Society from 1981-1988, and from 1985–1989 he also edited its magazine Opera News. He remains the society's Patron.He lives in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
.
Sources
- Biographical note in Guide to the Jeremy Commons Letters to Solange Bak, 1984-1994 http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache%3AsudnQV6_xYQJ%3Awww.nypl.org%2Fresearch%2Flpa%2Fmus%2Fpdf%2FMUSCommo.pdf+Jeremy+Commons&hl=en&gl=ph
- SOUNZ: Sirius Opera http://sounz.org.nz/contributor/performer/1319
- 'Don Giovanni' like you've never seen it before http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail.html?news_id=29345
- F.W. Nielsen WrightNiel WrightNiel Wright is a New Zealand poet, literary critic, bibliographer, publisher, and cultural and political commentator. He is best known for his epic poem The Alexandrians, published in 120 books between 1961 and 2007 and totalling some 36,000 lines...
, Jeremy Commons, Musicologist and Impresario: An Initial Bibliography, Original Books, Wellington, 2002
- "Jeremy Commons honoured", Opera News September-October 2006, p. 8
- Victorious, Summer 2007, Victoria University of Wellington, p. 17