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Vaughan Williams' Operas and Music for the Stage
Unpublished Incidental Music for Stage Works
Background InformationThe Pilgrim's Progress"The last of Vaughan Williams's operas, one of his greatest works, and a labour of about forty years. This work to me is the key to Vaughan Williams' music. Musical ideas that reappear throughout his catalogue find their most meaningful expression here. Unfortunately, it will never be a popular work, since it lacks any sexual element at all ( the Vanity Fair sequence, though brilliant, has all the allure of Hogarth and Breughel ) and the melodramma approach to character and situation. Furthermore, it has no vocal displays to impress the voice groupies, just magnificent music in the service of story." "In the 20s, Vaughan Williams wrote "The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains," an extended act - or "pastoral episode" - which he later incorporated into The Pilgrim's Progress. Since the composer was at an advanced age with the opera still incomplete and unsure that he would live long enough, he released some of the material in other forms. The Fifth Symphony is the greatest of these, but there is also the so-called "Bunyan Sequence" for radio. The complete opera, still available on EMI, should be preferred over the latter, although the radio piece will interest the VW fanatic in how the composer shaped and tightened the final version." "The opera exhibits all of Vaughan Williams's range, from the Tallis Fantasia (which receives its apotheosis as Pilgrim enters the Celestial City) through Sancta Civitas, the Pastoral Symphony, the English Hymnal, Symphonies 4 and 6, and a lifetime of setting great English poetry to tunes that fit. The work has its low spots, notably the fight with Apollyon, more suited to stage spectacle ( like Wagner's dragon ) than sound, but they are incredibly few. Credit is also due to the poet Ursula Vaughan Williams ( the composer's second wife ) for wrenching a wonderful libretto from what seems to me a dramatically recalcitrant original. Adrian Boult conducts the only complete recording, with the happily-named John Noble as Pilgrim, the role he created, and just about every first-rate singer in the British isles. However, EMI recorded it, so it's not likely to linger in the shops." -- Steve Schwartz Recommended Recording :Incidently, the full text of John Bunyan's classic book can be seen here.
Hugh the Drover"Written primarily in the years before World War I, first performed in 1924, and revised continually until the composer's death, "Hugh the Drover" is Vaughn Williams' signature folk opera in at least two senses. First, it is explicitly based on the folksong idiom he loved so much and refined so beautifully. Second, it expresses his feelings--seemingly ambivalent--about the rural people from whom those folksongs emanated. He cautioned his librettist, Harold Childs, to treat those people with respect because they were "capable of such beautiful songs". On the other hand, the story of the opera--in which the townsfolk are gullible enough to be convinced that the title character, a stranger to the village, is a French spy--shows the peasantry as a fickle and easily manipulated lot. In any event, the opera offers sumptuous love duets, typically atmospheric orchestral music, and a happy ending in which the tenor wins his soprano." -- Jeremy Williams Recommended recording:
Riders to the Sea"Irish dramatist H.M Synge's play provided Vaughan Williams with his best libretto and most effective theatrical work. Still, no one will produce the opera, for all the usual reasons and because the piece is so short. The story centres around a family's lament for sons lost at sea off the Donegal coast. It's notable for the orchestral portraits of the sea and the wind, which ultimately lead to the Sinfonia Antartica." "Meredith Davies conducted a performance with Norma Burrowes, Margaret Price, Benjamin Luxon, and the magnificent Helen Watts as Maurya. EMI produced it, and you'll be happy to hear that they've recently reissued it." -- Steve Schwartz Recommended Recording:Ambrosian Singers; Orchestra Nova of London; Meredith Davies. EMI CDC 7 64730 2.
Sir John in Love"Vaughan Williams wrote five operas: Hugh the Drover, The Poisoned Kiss, Sir John in Love, Riders to the Sea, and Pilgrim's Progress. All except the Poisoned Kiss (Overture excepted) have appeared on recording at one time or another. All are to some extent 'problem' operas. Hugh the Drover and, to some extent, The Poisoned Kiss suffer from weak libretti. Pilgrim's Progress is too far from the normal stuff of successful opera. Riders to the Sea is too short." "Based on Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Sir John in Love competes with Verdi's Falstaff. Although Verdi's work is an undeniable masterpiece, I prefer Sir John. The music is one long chain of glorious tunes. In the last act especially, RVW seems to play a successful game of 'Can You Top This?'; until a spectacular finale. For those of you who love opera for the melodies, you won't find a better; even Puccini seems a bit sparse in comparison. The only recording appeared on EMI LP. Perhaps they will transfer to CD." -- Steve Schwartz Recommended Recording :John Alldis Choir; New Philharmonia Orchestra; Meredith Davies. EMI (lp) SCLX-3822
The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite"Vaughan Williams wrote incidental music for the Cambridge University production of Aristophanes' "The Wasps", The source - which can be seen by following the link - is a satirical play. It's one of the first works in which he found his own voice, and it's a masterpiece of wit and fancy, from the fantastic buzzing of the "wasps" (actually the citizens of Athens) to a delightfully loopy speedup of themes from Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and a Haydnesque surprise. The complete suite is to be preferred to recordings which contain only the overture. Adrian Boult and Vernon Handley have recorded the complete suite." -- Steve Schwartz Recommended Recording : |
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