Vaughan Williams: The Poisoned Kiss / Hickox, Bbc National
This is the premiere recording of Vaughan Williams's opera The Poisoned Kiss. This romantic extravaganza contains some of the composer's finest music, and a sense of fun runs through the delightful score. Vaughan Williams began writing The Poisoned Kiss, his fourth opera, in 1927. He was also working on Sir John in Love and had begun sketching the first scenes of Job. he was at the height of his musical powers, yet The Poisoned Kiss has remained unperformed, unrecorded and unknown. The reason for this neglect lies mainly in the rather dated text and the lengthy sections of spoken dialogue (some of which is omitted in this recording). It did not help that the composer and the librettist were uncertain about the balance between comedy and drama in the opera, a dilema that led to major revisions of the work by Vaughan Williams in 1936 and again in 1956-57. In the final version the composer's lyricism dominates the humour and we are treated to an extraordinary wealth of expressive and heart-felt music whcih does not deserve to be ignored. Recorded in: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea 3-6 January 2003 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Matthew Walker (Assistant)
Product Description:
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Release Date: November 25, 2003
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UPC: 095115502020
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Catalog Number: CHSA 5020(2)
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Label: Chandos
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Number of Discs: 2
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Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Conductor: Richard Hickox
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Orchestra/Ensemble: Adrian Partington Singers, BBC National Orchestra of Wales
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Performer: Anne Collins, Emer McGilloway, Gail Pearson, Helen Williams, James Gilchrist, Janice Watson, John Graham-Hall, Mark Richardson, Neal Davies, Pamela Helen Stephen, Richard Suart, Roderick Williams