Search - Vaughan Williams, Davies, Lpo :: Riders to the Sea / Epithalamion

Vaughan Williams operatic masterpiece

Rodney Gavin Bullock | Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre | 12/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"None of Vaughan Williams' five operas have entered the repertoire despite the fact that they all contain glorious music. 'Sir John in Love' ought to be staged from time to time but 'Riders to the Sea' is a masterpice with a fatal, programming fault: it is too short. Lasting only 30-40 minutes, it is almost impossible to fit into a company's evening schedule. Happily, this length might well suit the domestic listener who has a short time at the end of the day and does not want to embark on a three hour marathon.
The composer does not call it an opera but a 'setting' of a one act play of the same name by the Irish playright, J.M.Synge. It is the story of a fishing family on an island off the west coast of Ireland. The mother, Maurya, has already lost her father, husband and some of her sons to the sea and the action starts with the finding of a drowned man whose clothes fit the description of those belonging to her son Michael. Her worst fears are confirmed yet her remaining son, Bartley, insists on going to the horsefair on the mainland despite her pleading. He, too, is drowned and Maurya is left with her two daughters. The sea has taken virtually everything from her but, surprisingly, Maurya rises above her grief - "They are all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me."The music and text are closely integrated in a symphonic way. The score calls for a sea machine which is used in an atmospheric way similar to the way RVW uses the wind machine in Sinfonia Antartica. There are no numbers and the atmosphere is somewhat grim throughout, as can be imagined. It needs close listening to reveal all its secrets. Maurya's final, long aria is very beautiful and emotionally very powerful and the opera ends in unexpected repose.The three Chaucer Rondels, 'Merciless Beauty', is here recorded with tenor and string trio. The disc is completed by the cantata 'Epithalamion', which is something of a rarity. Epithalamion is a song or poem in praise of the bride and bridegroom and the composer's cantata derives from a masque he wrote in 1939 based on poems by Edmund Spenser. The dances were removed to produce the work which is for baritone, chorus, piano, flute and string orchestra. Lasting for over half an hour, it is a considerable work in the composers most lyrical vein and it ought to be better known.All the performances are first rate, particularly Helen Watts as Maurya. The recording of the opera dates from 1971 but wears its age lightly. The other recordings date from 1987."