Jim - I am finally getting down to reading Oliver Soden’s excellent biography and it’s perking my interest in Tippett again. I was immensely lucky to be living in Cardiff when WNO did The Midsummer Marriage and I saw 4 performances - three with different Jennifers (Gomez, Flott, Suzanne Murphy) over a period of two seasons! During New Year, I kept thinking of The Mask of Time. Fingers crossed the BBC are on the case! I doubt anyone else could afford it!
I’m so delighted that this production is a success. I still have my VHS copy of BBC broadcast of the opera around the time of its world première. You’re absolutely right about his faith in humanity, generosity of spirit and sense of justice overcoming weaknesses in his libretti. I’ve always found his music, including his larger scale operas and oratorios to appeal on a primal, emotional level in a way few other composers manage to achieve.
I feel it’s time for another of his works to be rehabilitated: The Mask Of Time. I was lucky enough to attend one of its first performances in Manchester with the Hallé in the late 80s in the presence of the composer and I purchased the LP box set of the world première recording as soon as it came out. Only this year did I finally track down a CD issue of the same performance. Like New Year it’s a work that attempts to simultaneously address the cosmic/universal and the personal, reflecting on humanity’s place in it all. I realise while writing this that the same could be said of A Child Of Our Time.
Thank you for your thoughtful and perceptive review of New Year, which will be appreciated by all those who worked so hard to bring it to life. It is amusing that Tippett could be so eloquent with words, despite his tortured texts and inability to complete a sentence in conversation. Somehow, his generosity wins through, and that has been reflected in BOC's venture. On to the next adventure! Nicholas
Thanks Nicholas. It’s a tricky one and I had almost no memory of the Glyndebourne pfs though I saw it twice at the festival and on tour. Still a perplexing opera but the music really grows on one - that for me was the revelation of the BOC production. Kudos to Keith Warner for taking it on & doing it on an appropriately epic scale! Hugh
Jim - I am finally getting down to reading Oliver Soden’s excellent biography and it’s perking my interest in Tippett again. I was immensely lucky to be living in Cardiff when WNO did The Midsummer Marriage and I saw 4 performances - three with different Jennifers (Gomez, Flott, Suzanne Murphy) over a period of two seasons! During New Year, I kept thinking of The Mask of Time. Fingers crossed the BBC are on the case! I doubt anyone else could afford it!
I’m so delighted that this production is a success. I still have my VHS copy of BBC broadcast of the opera around the time of its world première. You’re absolutely right about his faith in humanity, generosity of spirit and sense of justice overcoming weaknesses in his libretti. I’ve always found his music, including his larger scale operas and oratorios to appeal on a primal, emotional level in a way few other composers manage to achieve.
I feel it’s time for another of his works to be rehabilitated: The Mask Of Time. I was lucky enough to attend one of its first performances in Manchester with the Hallé in the late 80s in the presence of the composer and I purchased the LP box set of the world première recording as soon as it came out. Only this year did I finally track down a CD issue of the same performance. Like New Year it’s a work that attempts to simultaneously address the cosmic/universal and the personal, reflecting on humanity’s place in it all. I realise while writing this that the same could be said of A Child Of Our Time.
Thank you for your thoughtful and perceptive review of New Year, which will be appreciated by all those who worked so hard to bring it to life. It is amusing that Tippett could be so eloquent with words, despite his tortured texts and inability to complete a sentence in conversation. Somehow, his generosity wins through, and that has been reflected in BOC's venture. On to the next adventure! Nicholas
Thanks Nicholas. It’s a tricky one and I had almost no memory of the Glyndebourne pfs though I saw it twice at the festival and on tour. Still a perplexing opera but the music really grows on one - that for me was the revelation of the BOC production. Kudos to Keith Warner for taking it on & doing it on an appropriately epic scale! Hugh