Tippett: The Midsummer Marriage / Davis, Herincx, Et Al

$37.99
Label
Lyrita
Release Date
October 1, 2006
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      SIR MICHAEL TIPPETT
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Chorus And Orchestra Of Royal Opera House
    • PERFORMER
      Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis
    Product Details ⌄
    Works ⌄

    1. Act I Scene 1: This way! This way! (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    2. Act I Scene 1: What's that? Surely music? (Men, Women)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    3. Act I: Prelude -

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    4. Act I Scene 2: Stop! Stop, Stop! (Mark)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Alberto Remedios

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    5. Act I Scene 3: O, Mark, who are they and Jenifer, Jenifer my darling (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    6. Act I Scene 4: What steps are those? - Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho (Jenifer, Men)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Joan Carlyle

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    7. Act I Scene 5: What sort of place is this d'you think? (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    8. Act I Scene 6: So you, so you are Mark's fine brood of friends (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    9. Act I Scene 6: So you, so you, so you're the company my daughter keeps! (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    10. Act I Scene 7 and 8: Here I am, Sir, what can I do? - Jenifer! Jenifer! my daughter Jenifer! (Jack, Women, Men, King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Stuart Burrows, Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    11. Act I Scene 8: Returning to the earth is cruel (Jenifer)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Joan Carlyle

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    12. Act I Scene 8: Come now with me and drop this childish masquerade (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    13. Act I Scene 8: Is it so strange (Jenifer)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Joan Carlyle

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    14. Act I Scene 8: You, you who were with me when she left me (Mark)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Alberto Remedios

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    15. Act I Scene 8: See by a heavenly magic in this glass (Jenifer)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Joan Carlyle

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    16. Act II Scene 1: Call - Crying as they're flying - Jack, don't lets go with all the others (Chorus, Bella)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Elizabeth Harwood

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    17. Act II Scene 1: What day is it? (Bella)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Elizabeth Harwood

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    18. Act II Scene 1: I'll lay the baby to my breast (Bella)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Elizabeth Harwood

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    19. Act II Scene 2: Strephon enters - Some of the trees appear to move

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    20. Act II: The Earth in Autumn

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    21. Act II: The Waters in Winter

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    22. Act II: The Air in Spring

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    23. Act II Scene 3: Ah! They'll kill him! (Bella)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Elizabeth Harwood

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    24. Act II Scene 3: King Fisher - Sun shines on a Midsummer day (Bella, Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Elizabeth Harwood

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    25. Act III Scene 1: Evening and Night - Ohay! Ohay! (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    26. Act II Scene 1: No! King Fisher summons you - Keep the holster close by you (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    27. Act III Scene 3: Now Bella, call the Ancients (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    28. Act III Scene 3 and 4: Do you accept my challenge? - See where we carry on our mighty shoulder (King Fisher, Men)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    29. Act III Scene 5: I needn't tell Madame Sosostris (King Fisher)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Raimund Herincx

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    30. Act III Scene 5: Who hopes to conjure with the world of dreams (Sosostris)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Helen Watts

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    31. Act III Scene 5: I alone cannot consult myself (Sosostris)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Helen Watts

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    32. Act III Scene 5: You who consult me (Sosostris)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Helen Watts

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    33. Act III Scene 5: I see a meadow (Sosostris)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Helen Watts

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    34. Act III Scene 6: She saw what happens in the soul (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    35. Act III Scene 7: Pride is virtue in a man of power (The Ancients)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: Stafford Dean, Elizabeth Bainbridge

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    36. Act III Scene 8: King Fisher's dead (A Man)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Performer: David Whelan

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    37. Act III: Fire in summer (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    38. Act III Scene 9: Was it a vision? (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    39. Act III Scene 9: O summer sun (Chorus)

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis

    40. Act III: The moonlight has faded out

      Composer: Michael Tippett

      Ensemble: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra

      Conductor: Colin Davis


It is as though Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire were not on show because no one could be bothered to clean it, or as though Wordsworth’s The Prelude had been allowed to go out of print. How can it have taken so long for this great and magical opera to appear on CD?

So many of the expressions of our age have frowned in their contemplation of it, or have turned away to cultivate arcane, private gardens. But here was Tippett in 1955 expressing joy, boundless optimism and faith in beauty and humanity; doing so, moreover, with such richness of imagery that even those who loved it at first hearing were a bit taken aback by its overwhelming abundance.

As so often with his pieces, it took a while to sink in, and for players and singers to get their fingers and their vocal chords around those springing rhythms and sinewy lines. The moment at which that happened was the moment of this recording and the performances that preceded it. Remedios and Carlyle are not simply managing those exuberant hocketings above the stave in their final duet; you would swear that they were enjoying them, and as they do so the image of love as a consuming flame is vividly projected. Burrows and the adorable Harwood are audibly moved by how much tenderness and innocence there is in their music, and they make a real and most touching couple. Herincx is wonderfully suave and bossy as King Fisher; Watts not only survives her forays into the bass-baritone register but makes an awesomely Sibylline figure of Sosostris. And Davis, raptly in love with this score and communicating that to his singers and players so effectively that one is never aware of them gritting their teeth and counting beats as though their lives depended on it, reveals again and again the opera’s magical sonorities. It is a superb performance: after it one can hardly read those early reviews (“incomprehensible libretto”, “too much counterpoint”, “half an hour too long”) without laughing. The recording, too, communicates a real sense of live performance.

A masterpiece, in short, and one that can be listened to again and again without exhausting its exuberant generosity.

Michael Oliver, GRAMOPHONE (1/1996) Review of original CD release