Prom 45 - 16.08.13: Tippett – The Midsummer Marriage

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

6.30pm – c. 10.10pm
Royal Albert Hall

Tippett
The Midsummer Marriage (160 mins)
(concert performance)

Paul Groves tenor (Mark)
Erin Wall soprano, Proms debut artist (Jenifer)
Peter Sidhom baritone (King Fisher)
Ailish Tynan soprano, New Generation Artist (Bella)
Allan Clayton tenor (Jack)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers mezzo-soprano (Sosostris)
David Soar bass (He-Ancient)
Madeleine Shaw mezzo-soprano, Proms debut artist (She-Ancient)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Last heard at the Proms in 1977, The Midsummer Marriage is Tippett's answer to Mozart's The Magic Flute, an opera rich in symbolism and psychology, trials and transformations. Paul Groves and Erin Wall are Mark and Jenifer, Ailish Tynan and Allan Clayton, Bella and Jack, two couples tested by a series of supernatural interventions on the shortest night of the year.

One of today's leading Tippett exponents, Sir Andrew Davis conducts the centrepiece of this summer's Proms focus on Tippett's music alongside Britten's centenary.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not a bad cast!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Not a bad cast!

It hasn't been publicised very well, if at all, but David Wilson-Johnson is to replace Peter Sidhom as King Fisher (no offence to Mr Sidhom).

[edashtav]

Not a bad cast!

Oh dear, on-line silence, has nobody been listening this evening - or it it simply fatigue after hearing so many notes and high flown rhetoric from Michael Tippett?
I wasn't able to listen to the whole opera but what I heard danced, and had the luminous quality that Tippett's music needs. It had been carefully and lovingly prepared.
I hope the Hall was packed and I look forward to hearing it complete on iPlayer and to getting more on-line opinions.

I enjoy Tippett's music far more than Britten's!

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh dear, on-line silence, has nobody been listening this evening - or it it simply fatigue after hearing so many notes and high flown rhetoric from Michael Tippett?
I wasn't able to listen to the whole opera but what I heard danced, and had the luminous quality that Tippett's music needs. It had been carefully and lovingly prepared.
I hope the Hall was packed and I look forward to hearing it complete on iPlayer and to getting more on-line opinions.

I enjoy Tippett's music far more than Britten's!

So do I - well, up to this point in Tippett's career, at any rate... though I do concur with your implication about high-flown rhetoric. I've always felt Tippett was at his greatest in his youthful works, before he acquired the obsession with keeping up to date by "modernising" his idiom and overloading it with sometimes clumsy fashionable references. There is a natural freshness without pretentions in Tippett's first piano sonata, the Double Concerto and Boyhood's End, and in Britten's On This Island. Both were essentially naive tonal composers, albeit in very different ways, who one can't help feeling made the mistake of complexifying their music out of fear presumably that it would fall out of fashion or be regarded by the criticalia as reactionary if it remained too obviously tonal.

[edashtav]

So do I - well, up to this point in Tippett's career, at any rate... though I do concur with your implication about high-flown rhetoric. I've always felt Tippett was at his greatest in his youthful works, before he acquired the obsession with keeping up to date by "modernising" his idiom and overloading it with sometimes clumsy fashionable references. There is a natural freshness without pretentions in Tippett's first piano sonata, the Double Concerto and Boyhood's End, and in Britten's On This Island. Both were essentially naive tonal composers, albeit in very different ways, who one can't help feeling made the mistake of complexifying their music out of fear presumably that it would fall out of fashion or be regarded by the criticalia as reactionary if it remained too obviously tonal.

I like your use of the word "naive", S-A; it captures their youthful spirit well.

[Dermot]

Oh dear, on-line silence, has nobody been listening this evening - or it it simply fatigue after hearing so many notes and high flown rhetoric from Michael Tippett?
I wasn't able to listen to the whole opera but what I heard danced, and had the luminous quality that Tippett's music needs. It had been carefully and lovingly prepared.
I hope the Hall was packed and I look forward to hearing it complete on iPlayer and to getting more on-line opinions.

I enjoy Tippett's music far more than Britten's!

Hello,

I am posting from my room in Imperial College after attending tonight's wonderful performance. Tippett is one of my favourite composers and I came to London specially to hear the opera live. I also took the opportunity to attend Thursday's prom and will be in the hall for Saturday's two concerts. Age now precludes me from standing in the arena, so for the first time I had the luxury of a seat in the circle.

The hall was not full, but there was what I would describe as a respectable number present. A few audience members near me left after the first act and some others after the second. Those that remained were highly enthusiastic at the conclusion. I will leave it to others better qualified than me to comment on the merits of the performers, but the luminous - an apt word which was much used in the pre-prom discussion in the RCM- beauty of the music was overwhelming.

It was a overcast day in London but, although we are past midsummer, the audience came out of the Albert Hall to a beautiful moonlit night. It seemed altogether fitting.

[Nick Armstrong]

Great first post, Dermot - thank you! I'd been wondering how it was in the Hall - friends were there, one of them an occasional member here, but alas, despite their efforts over the years (including giving me Colin Davis's recording on Lyrita as a gift one year) I've never been converted to it... I listened to the interval (pre-prom) talk and noted that word 'luminous' too - and yes, the orchestral music is wonderful. It's when the singers start I have a problem

Very glad that you devotees in the Hall had such a good time - and the lunar send-off sounds ideal

[Mary Chambers]

.. I listened to the interval (pre-prom) talk and noted that word 'luminous' too - and yes, the orchestral music is wonderful. It's when the singers start I have a problem

Quite. I'm not really qualified to comment, since I only listened to the first hour or so (the Monteverdi Choir's Bach on television lured me away), but from what I heard the word-setting sounded poor, though the performers coped admirably. I haven't read the libretto, so it was impossible to follow what was going on in spite of the synopsis given beforehand. In other words, I hadn't done my homework, so I'd better shut up.

I'd like to see it staged. That might give me a better idea of it - or possibly not, from what I've heard!

[Suffolkcoastal]

Wanted to have a listen to it last night, as I think the Opera ecstatically beautiful but wasn't feeling well enough to concentrate on it.
I largely agree with your comments EA, Tippett's music from the 1960's after King Priam and Britten's from the same decade after the War Requiem largely, with some exceptions seem to be trying to 'update' and both composer's works seem to suffer in freshness as a result. Fortunately both 'recovered' some of that freshness and purity of style in the 70's though of course Britten sadly didn't live long enough to continue on with the series of works he had written from Death in Venice to 1976. Tippett took a little longer but then produced that marvellous Triple Concerto and many of the succeeding works seem to capture the clarity of his earlier music, though still occasionally falling into a the trap of trying to be young and 'with it' in works like 'New Year'.

[edashtav]

Hello,

I am posting from my room in Imperial College after attending tonight's wonderful performance. Tippett is one of my favourite composers and I came to London specially to hear the opera live. I also took the opportunity to attend Thursday's prom and will be in the hall for Saturday's two concerts. Age now precludes me from standing in the arena, so for the first time I had the luxury of a seat in the circle.

The hall was not full, but there was what I would describe as a respectable number present. A few audience members near me left after the first act and some others after the second. Those that remained were highly enthusiastic at the conclusion. I will leave it to others better qualified than me to comment on the merits of the performers, but the luminous - an apt word which was much used in the pre-prom discussion in the RCM- beauty of the music was overwhelming.

It was a overcast day in London but, although we are past midsummer, the audience came out of the Albert Hall to a beautiful moonlit night. It seemed altogether fitting.

Yes, welcome, Dermot, it's good to get another Tippett enthusiast on-board and to get a report "from the front". I do worry that some listeners find it difficult to latch onto Tippett, and wonder/worry that his audience may be diminishing. We must battle on, for those who do appreciate Tippett know that so often one comes away spiritually lifted and full of good cheer after hearing his works.

[Serial_Apologist]

Tippett took a little longer but then produced that marvellous Triple Concerto and many of the succeeding works seem to capture the clarity of his earlier music, though still occasionally falling into a the trap of trying to be young and 'with it' in works like 'New Year'.

I do agree there.

[french frank]

I haven't read the libretto, so it was impossible to follow what was going on in spite of the synopsis given beforehand. In other words, I hadn't done my homework, so I'd better shut up.

The synopsis sounded even more complicated than The Magic Flute. I feel contemporary opera probably needs to be seen more than classical - even if only in a concert performance - to see how the singers are relating to each other and follow what's happening.

But for those who'd like a taste of the music on its own (mainly) before embarking on the entire opera, here's Maestro Davis and the BBC SO.

[arthroceph]

I was looking forward to listening to this on internet radio largely on the strength of discussions in these forums when the Proms programme was deciphered/announced. If I remember. this was regarded as one of the highlights.

I'm still to "get" Tippett after several attempts. However, I have few problems Britten due to what I see as his originality and adventurous harmonies. I'm no expert but my personal opinion was that Tippett is one, if not two, steps down from Britten's rank in the pecking order of great composers.

After listening (though I'll admit that it was easily distracted listening), what stood out from the braodcast for me was Steve Roud's second interval talk (some 2hrs 10 mins in) which I was impressed with. Also, this idea of Tippett's "luminosity" was new to me, and I will look out for it though I dont think that's going to cut it for him in my ears. Another impression was that the goings-on in the opera's libretto/book sounded like complete drivel on first hearing, and I was left with the strong impression that you would need to know the Magic Flute first (which I don't), which is a disappointing "dependency" as you'd say in computer-speak.

Having said all that - which was rather subjective I admit, I won't give up on him and will continue to listen every now and then.

[Mary Chambers]

Some prominent conductor - I think it was Simon Rattle - said that he found that performers from different countries usually found Britten good to play/sing, but were generally baffled by Tippett. Britten tended to think that Tippett was somewhat amateurish, although he was the one who persuaded Tippett to get A Child of Our Time performed. Britten was the younger but much more experienced composer.