Search - Benjamin Luxon, Bryn Evans, John Huw Davies :: Delius: A Village Romeo and Juliet

SUPERB DELIUS OPERA FINALLY ON CD

Operaman! | Chicago, IL United States | 05/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It was some sort of miracle that EMI finally reissued Meredith Davies' recording of Delius' Village Romeo and Juliet on CD. I always knew there was an audio potential in this recording not possible on analog LP (my well-worn Angel LPs, and a very long futile search for the British EMI pressings attest to that). This is simply one of my favorite opera recordings. I prefer it to the Mackerras/Argo digital version of a few years back (the recording that provided the soundtrack to Petr Weigl's film of the opera, now on DVD). Davies employs the revised Tom Hammond version of the sung text - more singable than the version used by Mackerras and printed in the Boosey & Hawkes vocal score. The CD also includes Eric Fenby's discussion on Delius' music (not included in the original Angel LPs). Only one drawback - the complete libretto is not included in the gatefold 2-CD set. I'm willing to overlook that in light of having this wonderful recording back in circulation."

DOWN THEY CAME AND FOUND A BOAT

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 11/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When Delius wrote his own libretto in English based on Gottfried Keller's novel Die Leute von Seldwyla he took his title from an obvious resemblance to Shakespeare in the plot. For me there is another poem that keeps suggesting itself, and it is Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott. Changing Tennyson's pronoun from `she' to `they' I get a caption for this review. When I come to the sad outcome aboard the boat in each case I think `Singing, in their song they died'. The intriguing analogy, which may or may not be applicable, would be `The curse is come upon them'.



Sali and Vrenchen, the Swiss family Romeo and Juliet, have prosperous farmers for fathers. Between their farms is a strip of waste land coveted by both. The nearest this tract has to an owner is a vagabond referred to as The Dark Fiddler. He is not a particularly mysterious figure. Everyone knows that he cannot claim the land because he was born out of wedlock, and although he makes reference to his `kingdom' he does not place any kind of gipsy's curse on either the farmers or their offspring, or even seem greatly to lament his loss. He predicts that there will be trouble when all his land has been annexed, but that never actually happens. When both families have been reduced to beggary by a lawsuit over their claims (quite an achievement even for lawyers I must say) the coveted land is still described as `wild'. However there is surely a heavy suggestion of some kind of curse. Two prosperous farmers are first reduced to penury: then their children, head over heels in love, journey to their self-immolation via a run-down inn called The Paradise Garden, where The Dark Fiddler and his fellow vagabonds offer a chance of propertyless vie de boheme to the bewildered lovers, which these children of capitalism cannot take up, seeking oblivion as their only course. I know not what the curse may be.



As my interest in Delius, and my admiration for him, have grown in late years I have started to feel a need to hear some of his more important compositions from other interpreters than just Beecham. I dare say Beecham is still alone and unique, but he has helped me to the view that Delius does not need him as a support any more than Strauss does. Meredith Davies conducted the revival of this work at the Delius Centenary Festival in Bradford in 1962 (whether standing in for the recently deceased Beecham I do not know). This recording dates from 1973, and the large cast is absolutely stellar. Glancing down just the minor parts I see the names Stephen Varcoe, Felicity Palmer, Sarah Walker and Ian Partridge, to mention but a few. There is one real weakness in the casting (not in the cast) and it is in the choice of singers for Sali and Vrenchen as children. Sali is a boy treble, Vrenchen a very grown-up sounding soprano whom I might almost have expected to have educated Sali in grown-up issues without letting 6 years go by. The parts need to be balanced and symmetrical, and the issue is admirably dealt with in Karajan's set of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Otherwise it would be hard to complain. Just look at the names taking the five main parts, and in particular let me highlight the trumpet-toned Robert Tear as Sali, his thrilling tenor offsetting the predominance of baritone timbres in the other parts.



The recorded sound is not bad at all, if not to 2007 standard. Above all the voices are well captured, including the chorus in the festive scenes. In Delius orchestral tone is obviously important, and what a marvellous orchestrator he is. The 1973 tone is not the last word in refinement perhaps, but the feeling of this composer's mixed palette is conveyed in all essentials, so unlike the linear sound of certain contemporaries such as Stravinsky Mahler and Sibelius. A Village R & J is, to my thinking, a highly successful music drama in which the lessons of Wagner have been well learned and applied. In the first place the libretto itself strikes me as absolutely excellent, and although it is not supplied in full with this set the commentary by Eric Fenby, the amanuensis of the stricken composer in his last ghastly years, goes a very long way, helped by the great clarity of the singers' enunciation.



There is a fascinating filler in which Fenby offers his reflections on the composer he served so devotedly, including his re-enaction of the sessions in which Delius dictated his later music to him. The life-story of the composer could hardly offer a more ironic commentary on the narrative he sets to music here. Delius was destroyed by, in Beecham's arch expression, Aphrodite pandemos: Sali, Vrenchen, Romeo and Juliet were others of her victims in another way, as was Hippolytus in yet a different way, and as are many unsung and unnoticed in ways I shall never know. The pity of their tragedies in life and death becomes their glory in art."

Superb version of one of the most gorgeous operatic masterpi

G.D. | Norway | 06/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This reissue of Delius's finest and most famous opera is a set that should be in every music enthusiast's collection. And I lament the fact that the other Delius operas (apart from Fennimore and Gerda) are so hard to obtain, insofar they are wonderful works as well; I'd be willing to say that they are indeed masterpieces, at least the best of them (such as A Village Romeo and Juliet) worthy of comparison with - in fact as good as - anything written by, say, Puccini or Richard Strauss. Those are strong claims, but I really mean them. This is quite simply breathtakingly magnificent music. Fortunately, when EMI set down A Village Romeo and Juliet with Meredith Davies in 1971, they gathered a spectacular cast, and even though I haven't heard the Mackerras version of A Village Romeo & Juliet, at least this is a superb performance and an an immensely satisfying version of the work (it is certainly also helped by using Tom Hammond's revised text for the libretto - the composer's own is rather, shall we say, unsatisfactory).



Delius's music is enchantingly atmospheric and evocatively colorful as always, but in this work he also achieves a strong dramatic cohesion - the music never seems to meander, even though Delius doesn't hold back on lushness and instrumental color. It is partially also to the credit of Davies that the music appears so convincingly cogent with his sure-footed pacing of the drama. The storyline resembles Tristan & Isolde as much as Romeo & Juliet and climaxes in the famous orchestral set-piece, the Walk to the Paradise Garden, and it is to the credit of Davis and his forces also that such a hackneyed piece comes across as such a emotionally harrowing and ecstatic culmination. I cannot forego mentioning, at the same time, the glorious realization here of the dream sequence and the almost dizzyingly lively fair scene - extraordinarily fine, sumptuous music marvelously realized.



Much of the important music is given to the duets between the main characters, Vreli and Sali. Elizabeth Harwood and Robert Tear are excellent in these parts, focused, warm-toned and characterful, Noel Mangin and Benjamin Luxon are superb as their fathers, and so is John Shirley-Quirk as the Dark Fiddler. The rest of the cast includes many starry names - and embarrassment of riches, really, since few of them get to sing more than a few lines overall, and mostly in ensemble numbers, but at least they ensure that the vocal parts are uniformly superb.



I have nothing negative to say about the orchestral or choral contributions either, and the sound quality is marvelous. In sum, if you don't already own this set, you should do everything in your power to obtain a copy, for this is a stunningly gorgeous experience. Urgently recommended."