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The Midsummer Marriage
(Mittsommerhochzeit)
opera in three acts
Edition: Performance material
Series:
The Midsummer Marriage
Product Details
Description
Like few other theatre works—The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Tippett’s first opera creates a wholly other place, one where human actions can be seen as in a tilted mirror. Since this is indeed an opera, the place, or dreamspace, is conjured by music: by luminescent music that, in its flowing abundance, radiant harmonies and evocative wind colourings, represents the natural world within which the characters have to integrate themselves.
The central couple, those whose marriage is at first subverted and then gloriously celebrated, are Mark and Jenifer: he a young man of the earth and the senses, she a young woman of lofty spirituality. Each is only half a person, and before they can be united they have to be made whole, have to find within themselves an understanding of the other. Overseeing their mythic initiation and psychic healing are two Ancients, votaries of a temple on a wooded hilltop.
As in the Mozart precedent, which the composer certainly had in mind, there is also a more workaday couple, Jack and Bella. The other principals are Jenifer’s businessman father King Fisher, who wants to stop the wedding for reasons of his own, and an Erda-like seer. There is also a dancer, Strephon, leading the exuberant ballet in which the orchestra completes the story of enlightenment and passion. It is ultimately a victory of love and, before love, self-knowledge. (Paul Griffiths)
Orchestral Cast
2(2.pic).2.2.2-4.2.3.0-timp.2perc(tub bells, tri, gong, cym, s.d, b.d)-hp.cel-str
Cast
Mark, a young man of unknown parentage · tenor - Jenifer, his betrothed, a young girl · soprano - King Fisher, Jenifer's father, a business man · baritone - Bella, King Fisher's secretary · soprano - Jack, Bella's boyfriend, a mechanic · tenor - Sosostris, a clairvoyant · alto - The Ancients, Priest and Priestess of the Temple · bass/mezzo-soprano - chorus of Mark's and Jenifer's friends (SATB) -
Dancers attendant on the Ancients and Strephon, one of the dancers · silent roles
Dancers attendant on the Ancients and Strephon, one of the dancers · silent roles
More Information
Title:
The Midsummer Marriage
(Mittsommerhochzeit)
opera in three acts
text by the composer
German translation by Claus H. Henneberg
Language:
German, English
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music Ltd., London
Year of composition:
1947 - 1952
Duration:
150 ′
World Premiere:
January 27, 1955 · London (UK)
Covent Garden, Royal Opera House
Pirmin Trecu; Michael Langdon; Edith Coates; Richard Lewis; Joan Sutherland; Otakar Kraus; Adele Leigh; John Lanigan; Julia Farron; Gordon Farrall; Andrew Daniels; Oralia Dominguez; · Conductor: Sir John Pritchard
Original staging: Christopher West · Choreography: John Cranko
(scenic)
Covent Garden, Royal Opera House
Pirmin Trecu; Michael Langdon; Edith Coates; Richard Lewis; Joan Sutherland; Otakar Kraus; Adele Leigh; John Lanigan; Julia Farron; Gordon Farrall; Andrew Daniels; Oralia Dominguez; · Conductor: Sir John Pritchard
Original staging: Christopher West · Choreography: John Cranko
(scenic)
Series:
Technical Details
Product number:
LSL 4026-01
Preview/Media Contents
Audio:
Performances
The Midsummer Marriage
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
September 25, 2021 |
London (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , Royal Festival Hall
The Midsummer Marriage
BBC Proms 2013
Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
August 16, 2013 |
London (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , Royal Albert Hall
The Midsummer Marriage
Conductor: Gil Rose
Orchestra: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
November 10, 2012 |
Boston (United States of America) , Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory
19.00 h
The Midsummer Marriage
Conductor: Michael Francis
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
September 11, 2012 |
Cardiff (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , BBC Hoddinott Hall
14:00
The Midsummer Marriage
Conductor: Andrew Davis
December 16, 2005 |
Chicago, IL (United States of America) , Lyric Opera
19.30 h
More from this series
The Midsummer Marriage
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