Macfarren's Robin Hood at last

[edurban]

Finally, it cometh, in October:

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.660306-07

Can we also hope for Helvellyn?

David

[Mark Thomas]

The recording notes (available at the Naxos site) make for especially interesting and mouth-watering reading.

[albion]

Feared by the bad, loved by the good ...

[Mark Thomas]

Oh John, that dates you (and me)...

[albion]

Let's hope it's as successful a release as Wallace's Lurline, and that VONW continues to thrive. Robin Hood was a sensible choice for the first foray into Macfarren's operatic output. I've got a folio copy of the complete vocal score and am really looking forward to hearing the orchestral details not present in the VS (alluded to in the background notes provided on the Naxos site).

Can we also hope for Helvellyn?

David

I'd personally prefer (by the tiniest margin) to see She Stoops to Conquer resurrected as a priority, but certainly to have any Macfarren opera recorded complete is incredibly valuable.

[eschiss1]

all these composers seem rather scandalously schooled (hrm, sorry, mistook what thread I was in. ack!!..) in any event... er... I mean...never mind.  Really good recording prospect (and selection of overtures in the other thread) I say even from my ignorance, and to look forward to!

[albion]

As the nights begin to draw in and the chill wind whistles round the eaves, what better way to spend a quiet evening in -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Puzzles-Alexander-MacFarren-composer-Heritage-Images/dp/B003G9I1Z8/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315727876&sr=1-3

- hours of fun for all the family, trying to distinguish between various shades of brown.

[jerfilm]

Good grief - $36.44 for a 300 piece puzzle???   That's 12 cents a piece......  How to make it last....??   Speaking of browns, we once had a 500 piece puzzle that was nothing but potato chips spread out on a flat surface.  And not even a picture to go by.

We digress.  Sorry......Jerry

[albion]

Well, tonight's the night!

Bottles of knock-down wine from Tesco's finest range at the ready and dust blown off the enormous Cramer, Beale & Chappell vocal score (at 35/- circa 1870, what a bargain), I'm about to enter the Greenwood in the company of Macfarren and his Merry Men. 

Oh, the joys of mid-Victorian opera - 'unsung' (at least in this household) no more!

[semloh]

Albion - what a real delight to hear about your anticipation of this release. I think it confirms perhaps one of the very few sensible things Nietzsche ever said, as footnoted by one of our number - "A world without music would be a mistake!"

I wish I had somewhere here in Northern Australia to buy these CDs... I have to buy them on line from the UK and that means 30-50% extra for postage in the case of cheapies like Naxos. Blimey, I wish had shares in British Telecom, or whatever the GPO is called nowadays! But this CD is another example of a rush of 'too-good-to-miss' CDs from Naxos, so maybe I had better bite the bullet and use a pay-per-download source!

I am looking forward to hearing your reactions when you finally get to hear it!

[eschiss1]

That Nietzsche quoted always has me searching for one by Pettersson about how we enter the world without music but when we leave it...

[albion]

Albion - what a real delight to hear about your anticipation of this release. I am looking forward to hearing your reactions when you finally get to hear it!

If Wallace's Lurline is cake and champagne, Macfarren's Robin Hood is most definitely bread and ale. Gone is the harp-festooned luxury and easily-assimilated melody of the former, replaced with – what, exactly?

There is a bluff open-heartedness in the musical idiom which suits the story and setting down to the ground. The lack of surface allure may seem somewhat stark to listeners on first hearing, but on repetition little melodic motifs catch the attention and the folk-like character of many of the tunes begins to etch them in the mind. There is colour in the orchestration, but it seldom pushes its way forward for prime attention.

From the opening of the overture to the final chorus, we are in no doubt that this is most definitely a self-conscious attempt to continue and advance a specifically English operatic style, with its evocative horn calls, simple diatonic melodies and occasional 'rustic pipe-and-tabor' approach. The influence of Weber is shown in several extended scenas, but for the most part this is very much a 'ballad' opera in the honourable English tradition.

There is quite a substantial quantity of purely orchestral music in the opera, with lengthy character-entrances, Entr'actes and a section of country dances in Act II; and there is considerable work for the chorus to do – several numbers are effectively unaccompanied part-songs (there is a particularly lengthy one towards the end of the last act which, beautifully sung though it may be, perhaps outstays its welcome as a second verse is taken). This is a long opera on two discs filled to capacity, but I was so fascinated by what Macfarren was clearly trying to do (and largely succeeding) that my attention was held throughout.

The performance is, on the whole, extremely capable: if you can listen past the occasional violin frailty or lack of absolute choral precision there is more than enough good work on display to ensure that the opera comes to life. Although the impression is of simple melodies, this is not easy music to sing – Macfarren's vocal lines often have unexpected interval leaps and turns to catch the unwary: the soloists acquit themselves well in this completely unfamiliar music. The one concession to the public's appetite for show involves Marian's occasional coloratura trilling and swooping up and down scales (in the Act III finale she literally stops the show with an extraordinary display of vocal gymnastics) – otherwise, it is remarkable how little Macfarren relies on operatic 'tricks' to tickle the ear.

Shaw's comment that Sullivan's Ivanhoe was no great advance on Macfarren's opera was, of course, an intentionally provocative piece of 'smart' journalism with very little substance but there are distinct links between these two composers. Sullivan's melodic talent and orchestral sophistication was leaps and bounds ahead of his predecessor, but to hear "Englishmen by birth are free" may well put you in mind of the (real or mock) patriotism in several Sullivan scores, and Sullivan's skilled economy of instrumentation may have at least some of its roots in Macfarren's lean, no-nonsense scoring. The first act opens with what develops (briefly) into a double-chorus, a structure later to become so characteristic in Sullivan's armoury.

Am I glad to have heard this recording, will I want to listen to it again, and do I now still want to hear Macfarren's other large-scale operas Charles II, She Stoops to Conquer and Helvellyn? Yes.

[semloh]

Albion - as I'm sure others will agree, this review is not only very informative but is also beautifully written. I really appreciate the opportunity to capitalize on the expertise of people such as yourself. Thank you!

[Lionel Harrsion]

Albion - as I'm sure others will agree, this review is not only very informative but is also beautifully written. I really appreciate the opportunity to capitalize on the expertise of people such as yourself. Thank you!

Well I'll agree for a start!

[albion]

Not being a regular listener to Classic FM I hadn't realised on 24th September David Mellor's CD of the week was "a wonderful recording of George Alexander Macfarren's finest opera, Robin Hood". Whatever reservations one may have about the radio station in general, Mellor's programme is one of their better productions and this is great exposure for this work in particular and the genre as a whole.

, but then