Opera Rarities

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A Thread to let Forumistas know about performances of rarely-staged operas that are being given Live.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

To kick off - Stanford's Much Ado About Nothing, to be given in Morley Town Hall on 23rd & 24th August by the Northern Opera Group:

http://www.northernoperagroup.co.uk/much-ado-about-nothing/4594599648

[Cockney Sparrow]

I know RVW* didbn't want to call it an opera, but for the purpose of this thread - anyone aware of a performance of The Pilgrims Progress - please post it here, preferably in time to buy a ticket (or even queue on the night(s) ) . It still grieves me that the recent RNCM performances weren't mentioned here.... And I do try to have my antennae out, generally (and not only for this work).

*(Vaughan Williams)

[Stanfordian]

I know RVW* didbn't want to call it an opera, but for the purpose of this thread - anyone aware of a performance of The Pilgrims Progress - please post it here, preferably in time to buy a ticket (or even queue on the night(s) ) . It still grieves me that the recent RNCM performances weren't mentioned here.... And I do try to have my antennae out, generally (and not only for this work).

*(Vaughan Williams)

I reported from the RNCM production 'The Pilgrims Progress'. It was a most enjoyable student production! Opera magazine is the place to read about opera both internationally and in the UK.

For me this is a work that looses so much more than normal operas do when just heard rather than seen in actual performance.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would've liked to have seen that production, too. I've only seen The Pilgrim's Progress in a(nother) non-professional production staged at the Gardner Arts Centre in Falmer nearly 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of a day out in Morley - show a chap a good time! - somewhere I've never been before, in spite of living near Leeds for a total of 29 years.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I reported from the RNCM production 'The Pilgrims Progress'. It was a most enjoyable student production! Opera magazine is the place to read about opera both internationally and in the UK.

I thought I'd remembered seeing it mentioned here, Stanf.

But my hopes for this Thread are that productions of "unusual" operatic repertoire* will be pointed out here in time for any interested Forumistas to make arrangements to attend.

(* = "Unusual productions of operas", on the other hand, are regularly reported on the Forum )

[Bryn]

I would've liked to have seen that production, too. I've only seen The Pilgrim's Progress in a(nother) non-professional production staged at the Gardner Arts Centre in Falmer nearly 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of a day out in Morley - show a chap a good time! - somewhere I've never been before, in spite of living near Leeds for a total of 29 years.

Slightly O/T, I do wish Radio 3 would rebroadcast their production of the Radio Play of Pilgrim's Progress with music by RVW.

[Dave2002]

PP is indeed an oddity. ENO did it in 2012 - very odd indeed, with the giant. Not sure if it was recorded.

https://bachtrack.com/review-eno-pilgrims-progress-oida-brabbins

[Cockney Sparrow]

The Pilgrims Progress was performed when the Royal Opera House was closed for complete refurbishment so 1997--2000. I went to Symphony Hall to see it in a staging with minimal sets - blocks really. It was well played and directed.

Hickox performed it at Sadlers Wells, again semi-staged in 2008 with Roderick Williams giving a superb performance as Pilgrim (I went twice, it was a tour de force). A bit later, after a talk before Riders to the Sea, I commented to Tony Palmer that with the passing of Richard Hickox we had lost an advocate for PP, and he told me the moving spirit for Sadlers Wells was the director, David Edwards.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/24/classicalmusicandopera.livemusicreview

I passed on the Coliseum production when I read the reviews - indeed it seemed (without seeing it) an odd approach and unhelpful to the work (fairly sure that I would be able to get in there after the 1st night). Given ENO's general reputation at the time, I had very little confidence in them.........

The RNCM production ran until 6 April 2019, and Stanfordian posted about it on the 7th in the "What was your last concert" thread.


I searched the BBC Genome ("Pilgrims Progress Vaughan Williams") as to Bryn's comment for a re-broadcast of the play with RVW's music but I'm too short of time to unravel the search results. However, I also turned up a CD of the original 1943 broadcast from Albion Records:

https://rvwsociety.com/pilgrim/

(and, dare I add, its on Naxos Music Library with a PDF booklet - Catalogue No.: ALBCD023-024 ( http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-library/page2 ).

[Bryn]

The Pilgrims Progress was performed when the Royal Opera House was closed for complete refurbishment so 1997--2000. I went to Symphony Hall to see it in a staging with minimal sets - blocks really. It was well played and directed.

Hickox performed it at Sadlers Wells, again semi-staged in 2008 with Roderick Williams giving a superb performance as Pilgrim (I went twice, it was a tour de force). A bit later, after a talk before Riders to the Sea, I commented to Tony Palmer that with the passing of Richard Hickox we had lost an advocate for PP, and he told me the moving spirit for Sadlers Wells was the director, David Edwards.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/24/classicalmusicandopera.livemusicreview

I passed on the Coliseum production when I read the reviews - indeed it seemed (without seeing it) an odd approach and unhelpful to the work (fairly sure that I would be able to get in there after the 1st night). Given ENO's general reputation at the time, I had very little confidence in them.........

The RNCM production ran until 6 April 2019, and Stanfordian posted about it on the 7th in the "What was your last concert" thread.


I searched the BBC Genome ("Pilgrims Progress Vaughan Williams") as to Bryn's comment for a re-broadcast of the play with RVW's music but I'm too short of time to unravel the search results. However, I also turned up a CD of the original 1943 broadcast from Albion Records:

https://rvwsociety.com/pilgrim/

(and, dare I add, its on Naxos Music Library with a PDF booklet - Catalogue No.: ALBCD023-024 ( http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-library/page2 ).

Sunday 8 January 1978 19.20

John Gielgud in The Pilgrim's Progress
by JOHN BUNYAN adapted by EDWARD SACKVILLE-WEST from the stage version by W. NUGENT MONCK
Music specially composed by Vaughan Williams for the 1943 radio production
DELYTH JONES (soprano) ELSA KENDAL (contralto) ROBIN LEGGATE (tenor)
CHRISTOPHER UNDERWOOD (bar) BBC NORTHERN SINGERS
chorus-master STEPHEN WILKINSON
BBC NORTHERN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, leader BARRY GRIFFITHS conducted by SIR CHARLES GROVES

Technical supervision by ADRIAN REVILL of the BBC Transcription Services Recording Unit
Music recorded by DON HART-RIDGE and mixed by BILL AITKEN Musical adviser
ERNEST WARBURTON
Directed by BENNETT MAXWELL

from https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/6...an&svc=9371539

I have it on a rather low-quality cassette recording and would very much hope for a rebroadcast, some time.

[zola]

Not sure quite how much of a rarity it is but productions of Haydn operas are not exactly commonplace. The RCM are putting on Il Mondo Della Luna in November.

https://www.rcm.ac.uk/events/festival-details/?id=RCM%20Opera

[Steerpike]

Many thanks for this zola. Any opera by Haydn is pretty rare and most are under-rated in my opinion.

This is a splendid thread. I, for one, have missed several 'must see' productions over the years because opera now pops up in so many places.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks for this zola. Any opera by Haydn is pretty rare and most are under-rated in my opinion.

- they are so rarely performed that I haven't really had a proper chance to see if they are "under-rated"!

This is a splendid thread. I, for one, have missed several 'must see' productions over the years because opera now pops up in so many places.

That's what I'm hoping the Thread will correct, Stee-pi .

Be nice if/when the companies manage to develop/afford the technology to broadcast their productions on youTube.

[makropulos]

I reported from the RNCM production 'The Pilgrims Progress'. It was a most enjoyable student production! Opera magazine is the place to read about opera both internationally and in the UK.

For me this is a work that looses so much more than normal operas do when just heard rather than seen in actual performance.

I agree –and I thought the RNCM production was really fine (I reviewed it at length in the June edition of Opera Magazine).

One real rarity is getting an extremely enterprising outing next month: Holst's "Lansdown Castle or The Sorcerer of Tewkesbury." There are two performances in Cheltenham, being given by musicians from Pate's Grammar School. It is on 19 September at 7 pm at the school, and on 21 September at 3 pm at St. Andrew's, Montpelier, GL50 1SP. Admission is free with a retiring collection. Sadly I'm going to be abroad, but I hope it might be of interest.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

To kick off - Stanford's Much Ado About Nothing, to be given in Morley Town Hall on 23rd & 24th August by the Northern Opera Group:
http://www.northernoperagroup.co.uk/...ing/4594599648

VERY worth going to see if anyone can get to Morley for tomorrow night's final performance. It's a superb cast - quite the best singing ensemble I've heard in a very long time - of young singers at the start of their careers. It's accompanied by an orchestra of about 30 professionals - who would have benefited from a couple of extra rehearsals (at one point the 2 'celli & single DB played a passage that seemed not to fit in with what everyone else was doing - whenever said passage returned, they played it in triplets, which suggests that's how it should have gone: very good wind, percussion and harp playing: brass and strings less impressive. Some Am-Dram acting, too.

Doesn't sound overwhelming, does it - but the Music is very good throughout: and the love Music that's associated with Hero & Claudius is tremendous: it really took my breath away, I never knew Stanford could come up with something so sensuous. I found the Music he provided for the "fury" sections - Leonato's denouncing his daughter, Beatrice denouncing Claudio - a bit of a let-down: too civilised and underpowered. But his word-setting is admirable, too - breaking up easily-expected phrasing when the word stress required it. The bickering between Beatrice & Benedict doesn't quite sparkle as much as Shakespeare's text, but is nonetheless delightful - in fact, the only Music I felt was poor was the opening of Act 4 - the Dogberry/"Verges" scene: but even here Stanford wittily played with Sullivanian "oom-pah" accompaniments, which led nowhere - and a rasping stopped horn for the repeated "ass".

The evening was a total delight, and if there's a lot of "spot the influence"* that can be had throughout, Stanford had assimilated these influences convincingly - and, as I said, the Music for Hero & Claudio is in a class of its own. A great deal better than many a more famous repertory work that gets regularly put on (no names, nobody gets upset) and it's probably the only time it'll ever get performed, alas, so the opportunity should be grabbed by anyone interested in this repertoire who can get to it. (If only they'd had the ON Orchestra in the pit!!!!!!!!)

* - a great deal more Wagner (Tannhauser, Rheingold, & Tristan) than I was expecting, too.