Sir Charles Villiers STANFORD (1852-1924)
The Travelling Companion - Opera in 4 Acts (1916)
John - David Horton (tenor)
The Travelling Companion - Julien Van Mellaerts (baritone)
The Princess - Kate Valentine (soprano)
The King - Pauls Putnins (bass-baritone)
The Wizard/Ruffian - Ian Beadle (baritone)
The Herald/Ruffian - Felix Kemp (baritone)
Two Girls - Tamzin Barnett & Lucy Urquhart (sopranos)
New Sussex Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Toby Purser
rec. 2018, Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, England
SOMM CELESTE SOMMCD 274-2 [66:47 + 57:12]
This world premiere recording of Stanford's 1916 opera The Travelling Companion, is another extremely enterprising and valuable release from SOMM and presented in their typically detailed and well-produced style. It seeks to dispel the oft-quoted, rarely substantiated, opinion that there was no significant British opera written between Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Britten's Peter Grimes, which was always a sweeping generalisation, choosing to ignore the works of major composers such as Delius, Holst or Vaughan Williams and many others. The excellent recordings released by Retrospect Opera have widened the net of works worthy of consideration and this work reinforces that further.
In his liner notes - as usual, full of detail and valuable insights - Jeremy Dibble makes a strong case for the importance and quality of Stanford's final opera, elaborating on a career where Stanford worked long and hard at not only producing works for the stage himself, but also encouraging the British government and associated institutions to take seriously the idea of funding and founding a national opera. Dibble crowns it "Stanford's operatic masterpiece" and lists the various awards and performances it achieved through to the 1930s. What is not clear is how many stagings - if any - it received post-War.
Clearly, a couple of hearings for the purpose of writing a review cannot allow a fraction of the insight or understanding of those who have known and studied the score for far longer. That being said, I must say I found the work to be something of a disappointment. Knowing Stanford's skill both as an orchestrator and a writer for the voice, I was expecting something more gripping. The sheer craft of the work is not in doubt - Dibble points out the use of various leitmotifs to denote characters and emotions as well the symphonic form of each of the four Acts, but for me what it severely is much in terms of subtle characterisation and dramatic tension. Dibble notes that the major roles are archetypes; the John/hero/tenor is an Everyman, the Princess/repressed heroine/soprano is just that - a victim waiting to be saved. The vocal lead group is completed by the titular Travelling Companion/Wanderer-figure/baritone and Wizard/baddie/baritone. To my ear, the listener struggles to feel that these roles as written transcend that archetypal function and as such you do not care that much for them whether in danger or in love.
Of course, the repertoire is full of fairytale/folk-type operas both that predate and postdate this work. I am not that keen on making direct comparators but it did strike me that dating from this same year - 1916 - is Korngold's Violanta written when he was just 19. In his prodigious youth, Korngold finds more drama, concision, brilliance and memorability than the old master Stanford - and that is even before one starts to consider similar fairytale works from Germany in particular, let alone note that Elektra was premiered in the UK in 1910. Turandot from the following decade of course also uses the fairytale form and the threat of death if a riddle is not solved as the key narrative impellent, but again Puccini's instinctive mastery of dramatic flow and compelling characterisation dwarfs Stanford. The Travelling Companion runs for just over two hours of music. I wonder if Stanford had written this as a fast-paced, two Act, hour-long thriller the impact would have been greater. For example: the threat of the Wizard, who by holding the princess under a spell brings about the death of her suitors, finally appears in person in Act III Scene 2. His presence is immediately dissipated by a strangely extended Goblins' Dance [CD 2 track 3] that lasts for a thumb twiddling, watch glancing nine minutes. It is as though Stanford is looking back to the balletic divertissements of French Grand Opera or a Verdian Witches' Ballet (remember that Verdi had his evil spirits dancing nearly 70 years before Stanford). Once the Wizard appears, he manages to survive barely fifteen minutes of stage time before having his head lopped off, which leaves just time for the anticipated powerful riddle-solving and emotional coming-together of hero and heroine in Act IV. But lo and behold, that Act is the shortest of the four, with almost no tension generated at all. John is asked the riddle, very quickly he answers it (having pulled the wizard's head quite literally out of the bag); general rejoicing, happily ever after, the end. The one 'twist' is that the supernatural Travelling Companion bids John farewell and leaves as the opera ends on a reflective, indeed pensive, note.
The most notable music is that motivically linked with "death" and "the companion". It has a solemn brooding quality that is both impressive and effective. It is curious to see from the orchestral list that Stanford employs no trombones but does use four horns. A more 'standard' pit orchestra of the time might have deployed pairs of each brass instrument - as Stanford does with the woodwind. In the latter case, extra colour is provided by the second playing doubling on piccolo, cor anglais, bass clarinet and contra bassoon. Dibble makes a strong case for Stanford's use of the chorus but again I struggle to hear any level of individuality, let alone originality. Look no further than Rutland Boughton's Queen of Cornwall from 1923 for a British composer seeking to use the chorus is a more imaginative way or earlier to Ethyl Smyth's The Wreckers from 1904 for a score with a dynamic energy that this one singularly lacks.
Stanford's choral group are a very standard affair, by turns happy villagers, happy goblins and happy courtiers. Indeed, the emotional landscape of the entire piece seems to lean more towards the gentle rolling hills of Merrie England-esque certainties than the psychological peaks and crags of fin de siècle Vienna and beyond. As a work, this has left me almost wholly unmoved. Given Stanford's undoubted skill with orchestra and voice I was expecting something far more compelling, especially since the librettist was the same Henry Newbolt who had provided him so effectively with the libretti for his enduringly popular Songs of the Sea and Songs of the Fleet. The 600 lines provided for this opera are pretty standard fair. For example, the chorus celebrate the climax of the work with, "The man has come that keeps his head, And madam has lost her own instead! And that's the end of the story! And that's the end of the story! A wedding! A wedding! Hurrah! Hurrah!". As an aside, I find Dibble's contention that the use of the chorus in any way pre-echoes Britten's use in Peter Grimes to be a positive spin too far. The Borough's inhabitants are a far more dangerous and unpredictable mob.
The committed and dedicated version here was recorded at a single live performance in December last year. Whether or not there were any patching sessions from rehearsals is not clear. New Sussex Opera have a policy of giving leading roles to young professional singers supported by a small professional orchestra. The chorus are an amateur group auditioned for each production. Given the live nature of the recording, SOMM have done a remarkably good job balancing pit and stage. Just occasionally the perspectives between voices and instruments change with one gaining brief dominance over the other. There is some noise from stage movement but nothing that I found overly distracting - audience applause is retained only at the very end of the complete work.
All the principal singers perform with conviction and skill. If I enjoyed Julien Van Mellaerts' contribution most as The Travelling Companion it was simply because he has the most consistently interesting and memorable music to sing and his warm mellifluous voice was very well suited to the role. David Horton as John is suitably ardent and impassioned and Kate Valentine as The Princess makes the most of the rather two-dimensional role. The chorus are enthusiastic but not very refined vocally. The professional orchestra employed was presumably a scratch band booked for this production/performance. As mentioned, by using just double wind and no trombones there is almost a classical scale to the orchestra (a harp and wind machine not withstanding) but the strings would have benefitted either from a couple of extra rehearsals or another desk per section. As it stands the playing is a little scrappy under pressure and tonally not ideally warm. There being no other version to compare it with, Toby Purser's conducting seems to make as much of the score as he can; the orchestral set pieces - the Overture and previously mentioned Goblins' Dance - are as colourful as probably possible but neither lingers long in the memory and some of the brass playing suffers from less than ideal intonation.
SOMM's presentation is reliably good - in the booklet alongside Dibble's passionate advocacy are a synopsis as well as the usual artist biographies and a full English-only libretto. Recently I have been revisiting or discovering quite a lot of Stanford's music. The SOMM discs of the string quartets is very fine both as music and performances, as is their disc of his part-songs. That said, the Lyrita premiere of his Mass 'Via Victrix' impressed me far less than it did other reviewers. To balance that, I found I enjoyed the cycle of his symphonies on Naxos as well as the same label's Stabat Mater much more than I remembered previous versions, so in all probability others will find this to be an operatic 'missing link' and a compelling piece of sung drama.
For all the excellence of the presentation and commitment of the performance here, this seems fated to remain a foot-note in the history of British opera.
Nick Barnard
Previous review: Michael Cookson
