# - Arundell, Dennis.

including extensive correspondence from 1920s onwards with Edward J Dent (c.60), A P Herbert, Arnold Bennett, G B Shaw, Beecham, Elgar and other figures in English cultural life, Arundell's working typescripts of some 65 opera libretti, his scholarly  notes on Mozart operas and Purcell editions, photographs and further memorabilia



i) correspondence: main sequence of c.3500 letters discussing a huge range of subjects relating to the performing arts, including many relating to the dozens of productions in which Arundell was directly involved, and scholarly matters, including a long series of around sixty letters by Edward Dent about Purcell, opera, Arundell's career  and music in England, with Arundell's replies, together with letters by Elgar (about music in the Royal Music Library), Sibelius (authorizing him to use the music for The Tempest  in a BBC production of the play), Vaughan Williams, Patrick Hadley, Reynaldo Hahn, Gordon Jacob, Thomas Dunhill, Arthur Bliss, Beecham (about The Bohemian Girl), Adrian Boult (about the BBC), Boris Ord, Maggie Teyte, Eva Turner, Anton Dolin, Leon Goossens, John Coates, George Dyson, Jack Westrup (about his Purcell biography and Purcell's parentage), G E P Arkwright, Edwin Evans, Barclay Squire, HC Colles, Fuller Maitland, Cyril Rootham, Hugh Allen, W W Cobbett, Eric Blom, Gratton Flood, and others, and many letters from the BBC (Edward Clark), and music publishers, Boosey & Hawkes (Roth and Leslie Boosey (about Britten)), Chester's, Novello's, O.U.P, and a series of letters from the Finnish Opera company in Helsinki (where Arundell produced Peter Grimes  in 1949), including from Jussi Jalas



also including letters from writers such as Arnold Bennett, J B  Priestley, G. Bernard Shaw (4, about early opera and the music for Saint Joan), A.P. Herbert, George Moore, Dodie Smith, Dorothy Sayers (including one letter in 1936 addressed to Arundell as 'Lord Peter [Wimsey]'), Baroness Orczy (praising his "exquisite music" for The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1945) J.M. Keynes, R.A. Butler, Hilaire Belloc, Enid Blyton, Christopher Hassall,



actors and theatrical figures such as James Mason, David Niven, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Ellen Terry, Lilian Bayliss, and Sybil Thorndike; Lord Harewood, Winnington-Ingram, Allardyce Nicoll, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch; and film directors, Michael Powell and Humphrey Jennings;  loosely arranged by year in manila envelopes, in four archive boxes, 1921-88
[together with:] several hundred additional letters bundled according to subject, such as Arundell's work with Australian opera companies, the Royal Northern College of Music, the BBC, and specific theatrical productions, in one archive box, chiefly 1950s-70s



ii) libretti and other works: typescripts of more than 65 opera libretti, play scripts, and film scripts, many in multiple copies with revisions, with copious associated correspondence, in five archive boxes



iii) broadcasting: typescript radio broadcasts and related correspondence, in one archive box, chiefly 1950s



iv) Mozart: Arundell's research notes on Mozart, also including typescripts and drafts of published articles, in one archive box



v) photographs and memorabilia: over 100 photographs of productions in Cambridge, Sadler's Wells, Finland, and elsewhere, a small number of signed photos of Ellen Terry, Eva Turner, and others, six cassette tapes of 1930s radio productions (including 'Gaslight') and lectures, in one archive box



vi) theatrical ephemera and printed books: several hundred programmes and related material, mostly in scrapbooks, and also printed books and music including inscribed volumes by Dorothy Sayers, Patrick Hamilton, and Zoltan Kodály, in three archive boxes, c.1910-60s



Box listing available on request

This is a major archive, covering music and theatre over a period of over fifty years, documenting Dennis Arundell's pioneering productions of major operas and plays, during which time he corresponded with major musical and literary figures.

Dennis Drew Arundell was active in the world of the performing arts for over sixty years. He was the producer of several important British premieres of opera and masques, included works by Handel (the first  modern production of Semele, 1925), Purcell (Fairy Queen, 1927, which he also conducted), Stravinsky (the British premiere of The Soldier's Tale, a remarkable production in 1927, where he also played the narrator, Lydia Lopokova played the Princess and Michael Redgrave the Soldier), Honegger (the British premiere of Le Roi David, 1929), Locke (Cupid and Death, 1929), Mozart, Britten (Peter Grimes in Helsinki in 1949), Janácek (the British premiere of Kat'á Kabanova, 1950), Balfe (The Bohemian Girl with Beecham in 1951) and Delius (the premiere of Irmelin in 1953; Arundell also arranged the published vocal score).   Arundell's productions were noted for his fidelity to the score and stage directions, all informed by his broad cultural perspective and original research.  Arundell edited Purcell 's King Arthur (1928) and his Odes for the scholarly complete edition, and corresponded at length with E J Dent on Purcell, wrote scholarly articles on Purcell and Mozart, including  his monograph Henry Purcell (1927) and culminating in the well-known popular work , The Critic at the Opera (1957).  Arundell was also a composer, writing much incidental music, including to Shaw's Saint Joan, Dodie Smith's Touch Wood  (1934), A P Herbert's King of the Castle,  and  Fat King Melon (1927), and to Priestley's Ever Since Paradise (1946).  Much of Arundell's incidental music remains unpublished.

The series of around sixty often substantial letters from Edward Dent from 1923 until 1951, deal with a broad range of musical subjects and display that great scholar's remarkable humanity, wit and wisdom.  He evidently helped Arundell academically and professionally, especially during the late 1920s.  He discusses particularly the music of Purcell and Viadana (with quotations), reports assisting at productions of Dido & Aeneas  at Frankfurt and Stuttgart (describing the conducting of Wilhelm Kempff), Theodora  at Cologne, and the Fairy Queen  at Göttingen. Dent shows great interest in more modern works, including perceptive analyses of early performances of Turandot, Les Noces, The Soldier's Tale at Cambridge,  Façade (praising Arundell's conducting), Honegger's Le Roi David (getting Arundell to do the translation), Busoni, Diaghilev, Pfitzner ("tedious like all Pfitzner, but interesting"). Copland and Sessions.  Dent discusses contemporary musical life, the complacency  of much new British music, and its consequent failure when played abroad, in Germany, dismissing Sullivan, discusses Arundell's lectures at Cambridge, and the academic conditions there, about forgetting work at the BBC ("...like a government office in Vienna, it is a nest of intrigue in which no person will ever shoulder responsibility..."), Westrup's work on Purcell, and inviting Arundell to produce the Fairy Queen  at Paris.  Later, in 1949, Dent writes a remarkable letter about Peter Grimes. making suggestions for Arundell's production in Helsinki, comparing the Budapest production favourably with those at Covent Garden and Sadlers Wells and contrasting the changing "stock" works of different opera houses over the decades. The series is complemented by some copies of Arundell's side of their long correspondence.

Edward Dent points out Arundell's "very remarkable versatility" and his skills in opera production and conducting, scholarship, his work as a composer of incidental music to plays and his published vocal arrangements.  Arundell lectured in music at Cambridge, where he was a fellow at St John's College from 1923-9, before turning to the stage as a professional actor and director. As well as being the first actor to play Dorothy Sayers's aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey on stage, (in Busman's Honeymoon), Arundell also worked extensively in film, radio, and television (much of the latter work being before World War II).  For nearly 15 years Arundell was Chief Producer at the RCM Opera School. Arundell translated at least 15 opera libretti, some included in the standard published vocal scores, and adapted many  more for the stage, radio, and television.  Arundell also presented a number of radio programmes on opera and its history (the archive contains some letters to Arundell from irate listeners).

Arundell left an unusually complete archive of many thousand items. Covering all aspects of Arundell's long career, the collection constitutes a rich source for the performing arts from the 1920s to the 1980s. Arundell's work was remarkably wide-ranging: substantial material (such as letters and typescripts) from his work with Powell and Pressburger, notably their 1950s films 'Tales of Hoffman' and 'Oh Rosalinda!', his research on opera history, as well as papers detailing the protracted development of Arundell's idea for a musical version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and his correspondence with Enid Blyton over theme music for television. The archive sheds light on the workings of major institutions including the BBC, Sadler's Wells, and the Royal College of Music, and also includes Arundell's voluminous correspondence with many important actors, writers, composers, and other leading figures in the world of the dramatic arts - he counted such people as Dorothy Sayers and James Mason among his friends. Arundell translated libretti to operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Mozart, Puccini, Prokofiev, and others, which are often preserved here along with working notes, corrected typescripts, and related correspondence.