An entertaining performance today on BBC R3 of Granados's one-act opera Goyescas, performed by the BBC Singers and Symphony Orchestra. That is opera rather than zarzuela. Key distinctions between the two are invited. This opera, based on paintings by Goya, has never become a repertoire regular although its star is rising. As recently as 2002, when it was performed at St John's Smith Square, reviewer Christopher Webber wrote: "It's sad but hardly surprising that no British professional company has ever mounted Goyescas, so all the more credit to David Chernaik and his Apollo Chamber forces for giving us a chance to hear the opera, sung in the original Spanish and sensitively semi-staged by John Theocharis".
In early 1916, a delay in the US incurred by accepting a recital invitation caused the composer to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe. On the way across the Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, as part of the German WW1 policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In a failed attempt to save his wife, whom he saw flailing about in the water some distance away, Granados jumped out of his lifeboat and drowned. The ship broke in two parts and only one sank. Ironically, the part of the ship that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most passengers, except for Granados and his wife, on board.
The presenter of today's programme suggested the composer would have been a much more important figure in classical music had he lived. Do experienced forum members agree?
In early 1916, a delay in the US incurred by accepting a recital invitation caused the composer to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe. On the way across the Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, as part of the German WW1 policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In a failed attempt to save his wife, whom he saw flailing about in the water some distance away, Granados jumped out of his lifeboat and drowned. The ship broke in two parts and only one sank. Ironically, the part of the ship that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most passengers, except for Granados and his wife, on board.
The presenter of today's programme suggested the composer would have been a much more important figure in classical music had he lived. Do experienced forum members agree?
His Opus 1, Dedicatoria, is a nice little piece for settling the nervous player (me) when playing in public. 
Comment