Stanford: The Critic

[Mark Thomas]

Very many thanks to britishcomposer for uploading a recording of Stanford's penultimate opera The Critic to the Downloads Board, here. It's from a broadcast of a recent performance of the work at the Wexford Festival Opera and I've just returned from seeing the festival's final performance of it last weekend.

I must say that it's a very odd piece. Stanford based it on a 1779 comedy by Sheriden which lampoons contemporary theatre productions by showing rehearsals for a new, very bad, opera. There's a lot of spoken dialogue from three non-singing actors; the German broadcast (or britishcomposer!) omits the 11 minutes of their discussion with which the opera begins, but not their frequent interjections during the rest of the work. The opera which is being rehearsed celebrates Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) and its language is appropriately archaic - similar to Shakespeare's English. So The Critic has a splendid Stanfordian, lushly romantic, orchestral score as a background for the opera-within-an-opera's vaguely 18th century vocal setting of 16th century English, frequently interrupted by the actors' rather jarring comments in an 18th century idiom. There is certainly some comedy in it, but not enough to outweigh all these conflicting elements. In many ways it's a very clever and imaginative piece of work, and it's difficult to imagine a better case being made for it than the splendid Wexford performance, but everyone I spoke to there shared my "curate's egg" opinion of it, although this review has a more positive take on the work. This Stanford enthusiast, though, was slightly disappointed.

It was my first visit to Wexford and, for anyone ignorant of it, I can't recommend it highly enough. It specialises in staging infrequently performed operas; The Critic's companion pieces were Mascagni's Le Maschere and Donizetti's Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali, two more operas-within-operas, though  neither of them as rare as the Stanford work. Both were treated to imaginative and persuasive performances and Donizetti's farce was a hoot. The standard of singing (mostly from young singers at the beginning of their careers) was first rate and the stagings were modern but without a hint of Germany's awful regie-theater irrelevancies.  Apart from the three main operas on offer, during the day there are also hour-long recitals and free 15 minute pop-up performances given around the town every day by the opera soloists. I saw a terrifically intense semi-staged performance of I Pagliacci and L'elisir d'amore was also on offer. There's even a whole tranche of "fringe" events, not to mention the legendary Irish "crack" in the bars of this bustling town. It makes for a hugely enjoyable week for any opera enthusiast.

[britishcomposer]

the German broadcast (or britishcomposer!) omits the 11 minutes of their discussion with which the opera begins

Mark, I am sorry! I did the editing in haste and hadn't listened before posting. I will check later this week and report if it was my fault or not.

[Mark Thomas]

Matthias, No problem. I really wouldn't bother, it's only an overlong conversation which sets up the opera which follows. It can all be seen on a video of the Wexford performance on YouTube.

[John Boyer]

Your *first* visit to Wexford?  You, the very model of a modern major traveller -- and a musical one at that?

It sounds much like Glimmerglass in their heyday.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, John, one does one's best .

The parallels with Glimmerglass are certainly there, but the operas they're featuring nowadays are rather more mainstream, whereas Wexford's raison d'être is very relevant to us here as it's dedicated to showcasing unsung operas.

[Justin]

Mark,

I haven't watched it yet on YouTube but heard the first 20 minutes. Would you classify this as an opera or more like a musical play? It reminds me a bit of "The Dollar Princess" given the amount of dialogue.

[Mark Thomas]

I think it's unique. Although music predominates, the play and musical elements are thoroughly mixed and interdependent, but it's not a traditional opera comique by any means. I'm not sure there's a standard classification which fits it.

[Alan Howe]

Here's the YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtmERJf2eT8

[britishcomposer]

At last I managed to check my broadcast recording. Deutschlandfunk Kultur obviously decided against broadcasting the complete conversation at the beginning of the opera. You can still listen to the original broadcast here:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/charles-villiers-stanfords-oper-the-critic-vom-wexford-festival-dlf-kultur-c0ef545b-100.html

I hadn't noticed that Wexford had uploaded the opera to YouTube. I wouldn't have bothered to provide the truncated broadcast then. But I am glad that no music is missing!