The Stage Works - A Masterpiece and a Problem Opera

Last on:

28 Aug 2008 12:00 BBC Radio 3

Donald Macleod focuses on two completely contrasting operas. The tragic one-act opera Riders to the Sea, a setting of Synge's play, is set in a tight-knit fishing community in Ireland where the women are left to grieve when all their men-folk have been taken by the sea, and, as perhaps the most successful of all Vaughan Williams's operas, has been called 'the English Pelleas and Melisande'. The Poisoned Kiss, meanwhile, is a complicated fairy tale. After more than nine years of wrangling over the libretto with Evelyn Sharp, Vaughan Williams still was not happy with it - significantly it is one of the few works in progress the composer wouldn't show to his great friend, Holst.

With Rue my Heart is Laden (Along the Field)
Ruth Golden (soprano)
Nancy Bean (violin)
Koch 3-7168-2H1 - Tr 26

Riders to the Sea (excerpt)
Linda Finnie (Maurya)
Lynne Dawson (Cathleen)
Ingrid Attrot (Nora)
Northern Sinfonia
Richard Hickox (conductor)
CHAN 9392 - Trs 7-8

The Poisoned Kiss (excerpt from Act 3)
Empress ...... Anne Collins
Adrian Partington Singers
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox (conductor)
CHAN 10120 - CD 2 Trs 14 to 21

Job (excerpt)
London Symphony Orchestra
Adrian Boult (conductor)
EMI CDM 7 69710 - Trs 7-9.

Broadcast:

1. 28 Aug 2008
   12:00
   BBC Radio 3