.
Something splendid
is happening in England. For many years, the nineteenth and early twentieth
century operatic and strictly comic-operatic (excluding, thus, the
opéras-bouffes of G&S et al) works of British composers have been all but ignored
by producers and recording companies. Now, in the 21st century, such pieces
seem to be being rediscovered by growing groups of enthusiasts, and gradually
transferred on to disc in fresh (and often first) recordings. Cheshire’s
Victorian Opera has been the leader in the field, with full recordings of such
pieces as The Maid of Artois, Robin Hood and
Lurline, but they are not alone in
the field. The latest welcome addition to the ranks of operatic lifesavers is
Retrospect Opera, whose 2015 recording of Ethel Smyth’s 1-acter The Boatswain’s Mate had somehow missed
my net until now. This piece, premiered in 1916, is, of course, from a
different era and in a different fach to that of brief nineteenth-century pieces
such as Jessy Lea (Macfarren) or Ages Ago or the parlour operettas
of Virginia Gabriel and her ilk, and, for me, falls somewhere between German’s Tom Jones and Britten’s Albert Herring in ambition and tone.
Albeit on a smaller scale.
This afternoon, I
have listened to The Boatswain’s Mate
in toto for the first time. Because Retrospect, all power to them, have issued
it in an in toto version. Dialogue and music.
It is an odd
piece. Wiser than I have pontificated on its merits and shape (and the
excellent booklet with the record, plus Smyth’s voluminous writings, will help
one understand all that), all I need to say here is, I feel the original tale
was as odd a choice for operaticisation as Albert
Herring. I would have expected a jolly little tale like this to have been
illustrated more in the Cox and Box or
The Zoo style. But it has been handed
half-an-operatic treatment. Only half, because the first part is music and
dialogue (ie comic opera), the second part sung through. Personally, I much
prefer the second part, even though Smyth’s libretto (or whoever’s, but that’s
another story) is nicely colloquial and sparky in its dialogue, if
super-conventional in action. The story is simple. The retired Mate of the
title sets up a fake robbery to kid a widder inkeeperess into his arms. The
plan backfires and the lady gets sweet on the bloke who ‘played’ the robber. You
can imagine the original tale, dramatised, as a 20 minute curtain-raiser on a
programme at a minor Victorian theatre. But Ms Smyth’s music shifts it into a
different and more pretentious dimension. My problem with this is that you
don’t quite know where you are. Opera? Musical comedy? Comic opera? It is definitely
not necessary to fit a work such as this into a conventional box, but … well, whatever
it is, it’s a lively little entertainment.
The recording has
been carefully and lovingly done. The ‘reduced’ orchestrations are quite
outstanding (I worry to think how overwhelming the ‘full’ ones must have been!)
and delightfully played, and the performances of the three and a half players
are all in keeping. I liked best the tenor, Edward Lee, who sang with open,
English tones and natural-sounding words. Elsewhere we had a little bit of woof
and incomprehensible lyrics.
But Retrospect has
seen fit to let us hear, as a bonus, the original cast recordings. The sound,
of course, is rather ‘archival’, but we hear exactly the ‘right’ voices.
Courtice Pounds, somewhere between singing on the music-halls, and starring as
Ali Baba in Chu Chin Chow and
Schubert in Lilac Time is Benn, the
Mate, the incomparably crisp-and-clear baritone Frederick Ranalow (who actually
recorded a stunning Tom Jones) is the
fake thief, and the New Zealand soprano Rosina Buckman – between an Isolde and
a Musetta – who was a favourite recording artist, partly indeed because of her
precise diction, was the widder. Like other archival recordings, these might
not make easy listening, but they tell us definitively what this music was
written to sound like.
The 2-disc set
finishes triumphantly with a restored period recording of the overture to
Smyth’s The Wreckers. All I can say
is, can I please hear the rest of The
Wreckers!
This is a grand
project, well conceived and carried out. It brings a work, and a composer,
which and who shouldn’t be forgotten or abandoned, back into the public eye.
That is the kind of ‘retrospecting’ I like and admire, and I look forward
eagerly to Retrospect Opera’s next offering.
PS: I discover that The Wreckers was recorded in 1994, by the same conductor. Hello, ebay...
The Boatswain's Mate can be got through www.retrospectopera.org.uk/CD_Sales.html
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