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Maxwell Davies's ‘Resurrection’: Origins, Themes, Symbolism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

John Warnaby
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Extract

Peter Maxwell Davies originally conceived the opera Resurrection in 1963, in response to the commercialism he encountered while studying in the United States. He regarded it as a sequel to Taverner, even before the completion of his first opera. Despite the intervention of two important chamber operas (The Martyrdom of St. Magnus and The Lighthouse), his decision to settle in the Orkney Islands, and the various changes in his compositional style – encouraged by his involvement with the writings ot George Mackay Brown – Maxwell Davies has retained the main elements of his inspiration. There appear to have been several attempts to complete the opera in response to the prospect of its reaching the stage, but the final impetus came from an increasing awareness, during the 1980s, of the corrosive effects of Thatcherism on British culture and society. Consequently, Resurrection became the focus of 25 years of endeavour, all the changes contributing to its ultimate fruition. It extends the philosophical and theological ideas adumbrated in Taverner, but explores these themes in the context of contemporary society, as opposed to the earlier opera's concern with events surrounding the English Reformation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 191 , December 1994 , pp. 6 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 Barthes, Roland, translated Howard, Richard: Critical Essays (1972), p. 67 Google Scholar.

2 New Grove Dictionary of Music (1980): Volume 1, p. 112 Google Scholar.

3 The Open University: Course A308: The Rise of Modernism in Music: Unit 30, p. 51.

4 Tempo Booklet No. 2 (1979), Peter Maxwell Davies: Studies from Two Decades, p. 44 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid..

6 The Open University: op. cit., p. 55 Google Scholar.

7 Ibid..

8 The Open University: op. cit., p. 58 Google Scholar.

9 Ibid..

10 Ibid..

11 The Open University: op. cit., p. 59 Google Scholar.

12 Ibid..

13 Tempo Booklet No.2, p. 46.

14 Dunn, Douglas: Finished Fragrance: The Poems of George Mackay Brown. Poetry Nation 2 (1974), pp. 80/92 Google Scholar.