A Village Romeo
and Juliet was the fourth opera
that Frederick Delius composed, and
many consider it to be his finest achievement,
alongside A Mass of Life.
Delius wrote his own libretto in English
and the story, freely adapted from the
19th century novel by Gottfried
Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem dorfe,
is set in Switzerland. Although the
score is dated 1900-1901, the work was
subsequently modified, most significantly
with the addition of the famous A
walk to the Paradise Garden, the
peerless orchestral interlude that takes
us from scene five to scene six. (Although
this is often played as a separate concert
piece, the relevance and impact of this
wonderful music is diminished if one
is not aware of what has come before
in the opera). The first performance
of A Village Romeo and Juliet was
in Germany in 1907 and it reached London
three years later. Although it is performed
quite often in continental Europe, many
unfortunately will have never had the
opportunity of seeing the opera performed
on the stage. It is amazing to consider
that in the UK neither the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden, nor the so-called
English National Opera have ever performed
this beautiful work... However, I digress!
A Village Romeo
and Juliet has been relatively well-served
by a number of recordings made over
many decades. The first recording, made
by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1948 for HMV/EMI,
is the version that we have here on
Naxos. The second, and perhaps the finest,
was made in 1972, again for HMV/EMI,
with Meredith Davies [review]
conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(Beecham's orchestra as was also used
on his own recording). This second recording
was also made at the Abbey Road studios
and had the classic combination - never
surpassed in the recording studio -
of Christopher Bishop as producer and
Christopher Parker as balance engineer.
It boasts an even better cast than Beecham’s
version, including Robert Tear, Elizabeth
Harwood and John Shirley-Quirk. The
only problem with Davies’ recording
is that it does not stick to the English
version which one finds in the vocal
score published by Boosey and Hawkes.
It uses a new version of the libretto
by Tom Hammond, especially commissioned
for the Sadler's Wells revival in 1962
(and again conducted by Davies), to
coincide with the hundredth anniversary
of the composer's birth. I personally
find this libretto extremely irritating
with many of the changes made seeming
totally unnecessary and inferior to
the albeit rather dated original version.
Alas, as was HMV/EMI's custom, the LP
set was quickly deleted, I believe in
the late seventies, thus leaving no
commercial recording available of this
work, a scandal of monumental proportions.
Then, somewhat surprisingly, Argo released
their version with Sir Charles Mackerras
conducting the Austrian ORF Symphony
Orchestra with the Arnold Schoenberg
Choir and the excellent combination
of Arthur Davies and Helen Field in
the two star roles, ably supported by
the American Thomas Hampson as the Dark
Fiddler. This is an excellent version
and is now only available as the soundtrack
of the version filmed in the Czech Republic
in the 1990s and now available on DVD
[review].
(Mackerras had previously conducted
the work on the stage in Zurich). It
was only belatedly in 2002 that the
second HMV/EMI version with Meredith
Davies was reissued on CD, over 20 years
after the original LP recording was
deleted. Also now available is a previously
unreleased transcription of Beecham’s
1948 broadcast of the work, which he
made just prior to the recording.
The original Beecham
1948 recording was subsequently re-issued
on LP and then on CD by EMI in 1992
(and deleted some years later). This
was transferred from 78s by Anthony
Griffith and then digitally re-mastered
by Michael Dutton and John Holland.
Interestingly, the version here on Naxos
comes from original recordings from
the collections of David Lennick, Douglas
Lloyd and Claude Arnold with the transfers
and production done by David Lennick.
Listening to the two re-mastered recordings
side by side, one notices a considerable
difference in the quality of the sound
and more particularly, the volume of
background noise. The opening of a Village
Romeo and Juliet is preceded by
a loud swishing noise on the Naxos recording
which is totally absent on the EMI version.
Not only is the surface noise more prominent
but the sound is also harder and harsher.
This makes it very difficult to compare
with the other later recordings by Davies
and Mackerras. Almost more than any
other composer, we need to hear the
detail of the orchestration and the
subtlety of the sound world that Delius
creates which one finds rather difficult
on transfers from 78s such as the one
here. Further to the poor sound quality,
I have to say that in this particular
recording, Beecham does not really seem
to get to the heart of the music as
he does in most of his other Delius
recordings. In many places, the performance
sounds rather rushed and sometimes jagged,
and on occasion he does not seem to
capture the elation which the music
suggests, such as when the church bells
ring merrily after the dream wedding
sequence... they sound much more funereal
in the Beecham version! Furthermore,
the quality of the soloists leaves a
lot to be desired. When one considers
that Sali and Vreli are supposed to
be teenagers, Rene Soames and Lorely
Dyer at points sound closer to people
about to pick up their old-age pensions!
Although this is unfairly misrepresentative,
it is perhaps due partly to some of
the rather dated enunciation, characteristic
of vocal works recorded in the years
just after the Second World War. I also
noted some unnecessary cuts in this
version (for example, page 105 in the
vocal score, the three bars before 23
are deleted for no obvious reason).
On the plus side, there are some very
touching moments. In the passage at
mark 27 in the vocal score, where Vreli
sings "Come sit beside me here stay
by me through the night" the pace is
considerably slower than in the other
versions, but how poignant it sounds
and how moving!
As an added bonus this
two-CD set also contains an excellent
performance of The Song of the High
Hills recorded in November 1946.
However, the sound is again rather harsh
and in some places the performance rather
hard-driven. We also have the Prelude
to Irmelin and the Intermezzo and Serenade
from Hassan. However, the biggest bonus
is the final scene from Delius’ third
opera, Koanga which is beautifully
played and includes the wonderful orchestral
interlude that leads into the epilogue
sequence with the planter’s daughters
having listened to this story of Koanga
and Palmyra as told to them by one of
the workers. A similar extract is available
on David Lloyd-Jones' Delius orchestral
disc, also on Naxos in a modern recording.
With the HMV/EMI CD
reissue no longer available, those wishing
to have the Beecham version in their
collection will have to go for this
Naxos historical recording, despite
the fact that the recorded transfer
is inferior to the EMI transfers made
in 1992. However, I would strongly recommend
the reader purchasing either the Mackerras
or the Meredith Davies recordings before
they too, in their turn, are no longer
available, as both the sound quality
and the interpretation are superior
to this Beecham recording.
Em Marshall
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas
Beecham