Hugh the Drover

Last updated
Hugh the Drover
Opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams
LibrettistHarold Child
LanguageEnglish
Premiere
14 July 1924 (1924-07-14)
His Majesty's Theatre, London

Hugh the Drover (or Love in the Stocks) is an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams to an original English libretto by Harold Child. The work has set numbers with recitatives. It has been described as a modern example of a ballad opera. [1] Contemporary comment noted the use of humour and the role of the chorus in the work, in the context of developing English opera. [2]

Contents

History

According to Michael Kennedy, the composer took first inspiration for the opera from this question to Bruce Richmond, editor of The Times Literary Supplement, around 1909–1910: [3]

"I want to set a prize fight to music. Can you find someone to make a libretto for me?"

Vaughan Williams worked on the opera for a number of years, before and after World War I. The work did not receive its first performance until 4 July 1924 at the Royal College of Music, London, in performances described as "private dress rehearsals". The "professional premiere" was at His Majesty's Theatre, London, on 14 July 1924. The opera's first performance in the United States took place on 21 February 1928 under the auspices of the Washington National Opera, a semi-professional company not related to its present namesake. Tudor Davies created the role of Hugh in both these productions.

The opera was performed by the professional Canadian Opera Company in Toronto in November 1929, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, with a live radio broadcast from the Royal York Hotel on 13 November 1929. In the broadcast, hockey broadcaster Foster Hewitt provided narrative for the fight sequence. These Toronto performances were conducted by Sir Ernest MacMillan, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1931 to 1955, and featured American tenor Allan Jones in the title role of Hugh. Jones would soon become a Hollywood star. [4] Vaughan Williams continued to revise the libretto and the opera over the remainder of his life. The final version was performed in 1956 and published in 1959.

Roles

Synopsis

Place: The Cotswolds
Time: 1812.

Act 1

The outskirts of the town

A fair is taking place; the people of the town have turned out; vendors hawk their wares. A showman presents an effigy of Napoleon Bonaparte and rouses the crowd to a fever-pitch of patriotic zeal.

Mary, the daughter of the local constable, appears with her aunt. Her father wants to marry her to John the butcher, a crass, overbearing man whom she does not love. When John roughly takes Mary’s arm to walk through the fairgrounds with her, she resists. He threatens her in turn, but when a troop of morris men passes through, the crowd follows along and John is pulled along with them, leaving Mary alone with her aunt.

As Mary sings of her dreams of freedom, a young man appears and tells her of his life on the open road. He is Hugh the Drover, a driver of animals, who makes his living by providing horses for the army. Mary is fascinated by his words, and Hugh tells her that he was fated to love her. The two declare their love for each other and embrace.

The crowd returns and the showman organises a prizefight, inviting all the men to challenge John the butcher. Hugh agrees to box, but only if the prize is Mary herself. He beats John in the match, only to have John spitefully accuse him of being a French spy. The crowd turns against Hugh and he is led off to the stocks.

Act 2

The town square, early morning

A troop of soldiers has been sent for to take Hugh into custody. Meanwhile, he remains a prisoner in the stocks.

Mary stealthily comes to rescue him, having stolen the key to the stocks from her father. She frees him, but before they can escape, they hear John and his comrades approaching. Each refuses to leave without the other, and they both get into the stocks (which are large enough to hold two), draping Hugh's cloak over their bodies. When they are exposed, Mary's father disowns her and John refuses to marry her.

The soldiers arrive, and their sergeant recognises Hugh as an old friend who once saved his life. Instead of arresting him, they acclaim him as a loyal Briton – but take John the butcher for a soldier and march off with him.

Hugh and Mary reaffirm their love. Hugh asks Mary to join him, and she at first is hesitant, as is Aunt Jane to lose her. However, Mary finally says 'yes', and she and Hugh bid the town farewell to begin their life together.

Recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Vaughan Williams</span> English composer (1872–1958)

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jake Heggie</span> American opera composer and pianist

Jake Heggie is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.

<i>Dalibor</i> (opera) Opera by Bedřich Smetana

Dalibor is a Czech opera in three acts by Bedřich Smetana. The libretto was written in German by Josef Wenzig, and translated into Czech by Ervin Špindler. It was first performed at the New Town Theatre in Prague on 16 May 1868. The opera received criticism at the time for being overly influenced by German opera, including that of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin.

Sarah Elizabeth Royle Walker is an English mezzo-soprano.

<i>The Power of the Fiend</i>

The Power of the Fiend is an opera in five acts by Alexander Serov, composed during 1867-1871. The libretto is derived from a drama by Alexander Ostrovsky from 1854 entitled Live Not As You Would Like To, But As God Commands. The opera was premiered posthumously on 19 April 1871 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg conducted by Eduard Nápravník. Among the performers were Darya Leonova as Spiridonovna and Mikhail Sariotti as Yeryomka. Although in many ways it is more far-reaching than Serov's previous two operas, this work was not a success.

Jack Hamilton Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There!, and The Sweet Bye and Bye.

Daniel Steven Crafts is an American composer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, but has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mary Jarred was an English opera singer of the mid-twentieth century. She is sometimes classed as a mezzo-soprano and sometimes as a contralto.

<i>Sāvitri</i> (opera) Chamber opera

Sāvitri is a chamber opera in one act with music composed by Gustav Holst, his Opus 25, to his own libretto. The story is based on the episode of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahābhārata, which was also included in Specimens of Old Indian Poetry and Idylls from the Sanskrit. The opera features three solo singers, a wordless female chorus, and a chamber orchestra of 12 musicians. Holst had made at least six earlier attempts at composing opera before arriving at Sāvitri.

Nicholas Eliot Spence is a Scottish operatic tenor who performs in opera, oratorio and recital in both the UK and internationally.

The Washington National Opera Association, founded in 1919 as Washington Community Opera, was a low-budget opera company, comprising professional principals supported by amateurs, active in Washington, D.C., until 1936.

Tudor Davies was a Welsh tenor.

Godfrey Ridout was a Canadian composer, conductor, music educator, and writer.

John Noble was an English baritone. He was Ralph Vaughan Williams's favourite in the title role of the composer's opera The Pilgrim's Progress.

Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE is a British baritone and composer.

This is a summary of 1925 in music in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Philips</span> British composer (born 1969)

Julian Philips is a British composer. Philips' works have been performed at major music festivals, including The Proms, Tanglewood, Three Choirs Festival, at the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall and by international artists such as Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, Sir Thomas Allen, the Vertavo String Quartet, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, the BBC orchestras and the Aurora Orchestra.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ William Kimmel, "Vaughan Williams' Choice of Words". Music & Letters, 19(2), 132–142 (1938).
  2. ↑ Maisie Radford, "A Comparative Study of Indigenous Forms of Opera". Music & Letters, 7(2), 106–113 (1926).
  3. ↑ Michael Kennedy, Liner notes to Hyperion recording of Hugh the Drover. Hyperion Records, 1994.
  4. ↑ McPherson, Jim, "Mr. Meek Goes to Washington: The Story of the Small-Potatoes Canadian Baritone Who Founded America’s 'National' Opera," The Opera Quarterly, volume 20, no. 2, Spring 2004
  5. ↑ Hugh Ottaway, Review of recording of Hugh the Drover. Musical Times, 120(1642), 1011 (1979).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.