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English Opera

8K views 28 replies 12 participants last post by  adriesba 
#1 ·
What are some of your favourite operas in the English language? I know for some, English is perhaps an awkward language for opera, but nonetheless many great pieces have been composed.

I shall start with a few. Perhaps the greatest of all English operas ever written. :p

Handel, Semele (1744)

Handel, Hercules (1744)

Both are categorised in his oeuvre as "oratorios" (historical reasons) but oratorios they ain't.

Does anyone have the following version of Hercules by William Christie (2006)?

 
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#3 ·
Yep. Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is a fine piece. Lots of very good versions around.

I haven't listened to Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress entirely yet. Shall do soon.
 
#4 ·
English operas... written by a German composer who was profoundly impacted by the Italians.:D

I quite like Delius' A Village Romeo and Juliet.

Britten might be the greatest native English opera composer: Peter Grimes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Death in Venice.

Thomas Adès seems promising... although I have only just heard bits of Powder Her Face, and only heard The Tempest once all the way through.

While I quite like Purcell, I wasn't sold on Dido and Aeneas... should I give The Faerie Queene a shot?
 
#5 ·
While I quite like Purcell, I wasn't sold on Dido and Aeneas... should I give The Faerie Queene a shot?
Absolutely. It's wonderful. Just keep in mind that it is a masque, not opera, therefore it is very different, it is a synthesis of different genres that doesn't follow the usual operatic language.

I love many of the above quoted (Peter Grimes and The Rake's Progress are among my favorites, and Porgy and Bess is very special), and I'd add The Ghosts of Versailles.
 
#9 ·
Yep. I've got Venus and Adonis directed by Rene Jacobs on the Harmonia Mundi Gold label. Nice.
 
#8 ·
"English language" operas? Accck! I missed that. Surely add Porgy and Bess, Albéniz' Henry Clifford and Merlin, Glass' Einstein on the Beach and Waiting for the Barbarians, Victor Herbert Babes in Toyland, Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Menotti's The Consul, Amahl and The Night Visitors, The Medium, Louis Andriessen's Rosa - The Death of a Composer, Tobias Picker's Therese Raquin, Jake Heggie Dead Man Walking, Three Decembers, James MacMillan The Sacrifice,...
 
#10 ·
Wow, wow! Slow down. I don't know several of them. Which ones are your favourites, as an English language opera?
 
#12 ·
Wow, wow! Slow down. I don't know several of them. Which ones are your favourites, as an English language opera?

Porgy and Bess is a clear favorite.
I also quite like any of the Britten operas and as I already noted, Delius' A Village Romeo and Juliet.
I have a thing for Minimalism (which may be connected with my love of Indian music) and so I quite like Glass' Einstein of the Beach and Waiting for the Barbarians
Another I failed to mention is Harry Partch' Delusion of the Fury... which in many ways is far more innovative (and challenging) than anything by Schoenberg, Berg, Cage, Ligeti, Glass, etc...
Of the less-well-known I quite like the operas by Menotti, Floyd's Susannah and Picker's Therese Raquin.
Louis Andriessen's may be a bit too "out there"... along with Glass and Reich's Dr. Atomic, Death of Klinghoffer, and Nixon in China... but I quite like it.
 
#13 ·
I like Dido and Aeneas, Semele, A Village Romeo and Juliet, Sāvitri, Troilus and Cressida, The Midsummer Marriage, Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave, Death in Venice and The Rake's Progress.

Janet Baker recorded some of those mentioned and I'm especially partial to her recordings!

I wonder why English is considered awkward as an opera language, since most of the popular music is sung in English. Could someone explain that to me?
 
#16 ·
I wonder why English is considered awkward as an opera language, since most of the popular music is sung in English. Could someone explain that to me?
No, I can't, I'm also puzzled. In my opinion, the most unsuited language of those in common operatic use is very clearly French, and by a wide margin, with all these nasal sounds. In fact, every time I watch a French opera, I'm in constant fear the singers might hurt themselves. (Apologies to our French friends here, but it's not your fault.)
 
#14 ·
Vaughan-Williams is an underrated opera composer. Try the Chandos recordings of Sir John in Love and Pilgrim's Progress to get an idea of what he was able to accomplish.

Britten probably has the most interesting selection, with Peter Grimes being in my opinion one of the best operas ever. I also like Albert Herring, Billy Budd, Death in Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream etc.

For American I would add Moore's Baby Doe, Davis' X, Tania, Amistad, Previn's Streetcar.
 
#19 ·
A linguistically minded friend recently complained of a famous tenor in a performance of Carmen pronouncing Carmen like "car men" in English...

How about the "th" as in the article "the"? I "th"ink "th"at could be difficult for a non-native English singer.
 
#21 ·
A linguistically minded friend recently complained of a famous tenor in a performance of Carmen pronouncing Carmen like "car men" in English...
I believe that the right way to sing Carmen in the original language - French, of course, in spite of the Spanish name and subject - *is* to stress the last syllable.

Like they sing right before the Habanera:

Carmen! sur tes pas nous nous pressons tous!
Carmen! soi gentille, au moins répond-nous...

Remember?
 
#27 ·
I have been meaning to check out the Bohemian Girl so I might give it a whirl. However I have been burned by English Opera before, great sounding plots dull operas.

Case in point
Mcfarren's Robin Hood
Wallace Lurline
Sullivan Ivanhoe

Obviously Britten's works are good but I do admit to struggling with his style a bit.

For a lesser known (or at least recommended work) I will add Edward Loder's Raymond & Agnes. A gothic story of lust and violence with a villian caught by his own trap.

There is a fantastic studio recording on Retrospect Opera, conducted by Richard Bonynge with Mark Milhofee, Majella Cullagh and Andrew Greenan. There are some wonderful moments for the evil Baron Lindenberg (Bass Baritone?).

It has all the dialog which for me is great as I love that they treat the piece almost as serious Gilbert and Sullivan. The opera is usually catchy the easiest comparrision is with Der Freischütz, it is on the lighter side of opera but certainly an opera as opposed to an operetta.

The recording also comes will full track by track libretto. Though the diction of the cast is usual good.
 
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