Holst: At the Boar's Head & Vaughan Williams: Riders To The Sea

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Both of these operas remain on the fringes of the repertoire, so any new performance or recording is worthy of note, and particularly when prepared with such obvious care and affection as here — Gramophone Magazine, February 2017 More…

Release Date: 21st Oct 2016
Catalogue No: DUX130708
Label: Dux
Length: 93 minutes

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Holst: At the Boar's Head, Op. 42, H. 156

Work length55:06

$15.00

$19.50

Krzysztof Szumański (baritone), Adam Zdunikowski (tenor), Mateusz Stachura (baritone), Jonathan Lemalu (bass-baritone), Eric Barry (tenor), Paweł Kołodziej (bass), Nicole Percifield (soprano), Kathleen Reveille (mezzo-soprano), Gary Griffiths (baritone)
Sinfonietta Warszawskiej Opery Kameralnej
Łukasz Borowicz
Recorded: 18 March 2016
Recording Venue: Live recording, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Poland

Of All the Birds (Bardolph, Peto, Gadshill, Falstaff, Prince)

Track length3:33

$1.00

$1.30

Are Not You a Coward? (Falstaff, Poins, Prince)

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.30

I Am a Rogue (Falstaff, Prince, Gadshill, Peto, Poins)

Track length5:20

$1.00

$1.30

We Two Saw You Four (Prince, Poins, Falstaff, Hostess)

Track length3:56

$1.00

$1.30

I Know You All (Prince, Falstaff, Poins)

Track length5:16

$1.00

$1.30

Do Thou Stand (Prince, Falstaff, Hostess)

Track length9:44

$2.00

$2.60

I' Faith, Sweetheart (Hostess, Doll, Falstaff, Prince, Poins)

Track length4:13

$1.00

$1.30

Devouring Time (Prince, Falstaff, Doll)

Track length4:15

$1.00

$1.30

Devouring Time (Hostess, Prince, Poins, Falstaff, Doll)

Track length1:42

$1.00

$1.30

How Now! What News? (Prince, Bardolph, Falstaff, Hostess, Doll, Peto, Poins)

Track length2:45

$1.00

$1.30

Harry Is Valiant (Falstaff, Peto, Gadshill, Bardolph, Pistol, Doll, Hostess)

Track length7:10

$2.00

$2.60

For God’s Sake (Doll, Pistol, Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, Gadshill, Hostess)

Track length2:37

$1.00

$1.30

Now Comes in the Sweetest Morsel (Falstaff, Doll, Hostess, Bardolph)

Track length3:04

$1.00

$1.30

Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea, Op. 1

Work length38:23

$10.00

$13.00

Evanna Chiew (mezzo-soprano), Nicole Percifield (soprano), Kathleen Reveille (mezzo-soprano), Gary Griffiths (baritone), Anna Fijałkowska (mezzo-soprano)
Sinfonietta Warszawskiej Opery Kameralnej, Kameralny Chór Żeński Filharmonii Narodowej
Łukasz Borowicz
Recorded: 18 March 2016
Recording Venue: Live recording, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Poland

Where is she? (Nora, Cathleen)

Track length5:38

$1.00

$1.30

Isn't it turf enough you have for this day and evening? (Maurya, Cathleen, Nora)

Track length1:37

$1.00

$1.30

Where is the bit of new rope, Cathleen (Bartley, Cathleen, Nora, Maurya)

Track length4:37

$1.00

$1.30

He's gone now, God spare us (Maurya, Cathleen, Nora)

Track length3:08

$1.00

$1.30

Wait, Nora, maybe she'd turn back quickly (Cathleen, Nora)

Track length3:58

$1.00

$1.30

You didn't give him his bit of bread? (Cathleen, Maurya)

Track length2:36

$1.00

$1.30

I went down to the spring well (Maurya, Nora, Cathleen)

Track length2:57

$1.00

$1.30

Bartley will be lost now (Maurya, Nora, Cathleen, Woman, Chorus)

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.30

They are all gone now (Maurya, Nora, Chorus)

Track length5:17

$1.00

$1.30

And may he have mercy on my soul (Maurya, Chorus)

Track length4:06

$1.00

$1.30

About
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About

The opera – or rather the musical interlude – At the Boar’s Head was written in 1924. Gustav Holst composed it at his home in Thaxted, where – susceptible to illnesses since childhood – he was resting after collapsing, probably due to being overladen with work. This was because, by the time his health deteriorated, the composer had taught in a number of schools and played as an orchestra trombonist, devoting all his free time to composing. Imogen, Gustav’s daughter, mentioned the beginning of work on the opera: “He spoke of it as ‘an opera that wrote itself’. The content consists of loosely connected episodes from the tavern from whose name the title comes. In the ‘At the Boar’s Head’ tavern, Bardolph and company drink and sing, enter Falstaff, and from the doorway, he calls for a glass of sherry…….. Gustav Holst designed a thoroughly English piece, at the level of both the text and the music. ‘At the Boar’s Head’ combines the typical British sense of humour – sometimes displaying borderline good taste, if not downright vulgar – with music that simply cannot be mistaken. In Synge’s drama, the composer did not change a word, making only slight cuts. Nor did he have to make major reductions in the text of what after all is a very short, one-act drama. The composer rejected most of the elements that could have allowed the precise location of Maurya’s house to be identified (all that is left is a reference to the distant Connemara), and some prosaic conversations concerning the household. In this way he universalised the subject, removing fragments of life to leave only the naked drama of the loss.

Reviews

February 2017

Both of these operas remain on the fringes of the repertoire, so any new performance or recording is worthy of note, and particularly when prepared with such obvious care and affection as here

22nd December 2016

both come across convincingly thanks to their largely English-speaking casts plus a sympathetic if perhaps not optimally dramatic performance...Maurya’s grief and final liberation is conveyed by Kathleen Reveille in a powerful, tense-sounding mezzo-soprano, and the supporting singers are vivid.

Offer,Holst: At the Boar's Head & Vaughan Williams: Riders To The Sea

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