Carlisle FLOYD (b. 1926)
Wuthering Heights - A musical drama in a prologue
and three acts (1958) [139:25]
Libretto by the composer, after the novel by Emily Brontë
Catherine Earnshaw (Cathy) - Georgia Jarman (soprano); Heathcliff - Kelly
Markgraf (baritone); Nelly - Susanne Mentzner (mezzo); Edgar Linton - Vale
Rideout (tenor); Isabella Linton - Heather Buck (soprano); Hindley Earnshaw
- Chad Shelton (bass); Mr. Earnshaw - Matthew Burns (bass); Joseph - Frank
Kelly (tenor); Lockwood - Aaron Short (tenor)
Servants, Party guests - Florentine Opera Chorus
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra/.Joseph Mechavich
rec. 9 & 11 January 2015, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, Harris Theater,
Brookfield, Wisconsin, USA
REFERENCE RECORDINGS FR-721 SACD [69:51 + 69:52]
The ninetieth birthday of US composer Carlisle Floyd fell
in June 2016. His lifetime's creative obsession lies in opera. The
latest Floyd project, Prince of Players, enjoyed a successful run
at Houston Grand Opera in March 2016. His other operas are Susannah
(1955 - recorded by Erato, conducted by Nagano and with Jerry Hadley in the
cast), Markheim (1966, on VAI), Of Mice and Men (1970, on
Troy Albany), Flower and Hawk (1972), Bilby's Doll
(1976), Willie Stark (1981) and Cold Sassy Tree (2000, Albany).
Floyd is committed to having commercial recordings of all his operas released
during his lifetime. Florentine Opera, who are responsible for this Wuthering
Heights project, have plans to make recordings of Willie Stark
and Bilby’s Doll.
The premiere of Floyd's Wuthering Heights took place in Santa
Fe, New Mexico on 16 July 1958. There's a link in this set to a downloadable
PDF facsimile of the 1958 libretto with stage directions. The conductor in
1958 was John Crosby and the cast included the late Phyllis Curtin as Cathy
and Robert Trehy as Heathcliff. The work, in revised form, saw light of day
at the New York City Opera in 1959 with a cast that had Phyllis Curtin returning
as Cathy alongside Patricia Neway and Richard Cassilly.
While there have been numerous film adaptations of 'Wuthering Heights'
surprisingly few full-scale musical treatments have appeared. Floyd's,
at twenty minutes more than two hours, is certainly a big opera. There is
a full blown four-act Bernard Herrmann opera (1966) recorded by the composer
for Pye/Unicorn and more recently, successfully and accessibly, a French version,
Les Hauts de Hurlevent on the Accord label. Paul Conway tells me
that the late Arthur Butterworth intended a grand opera based on the novel
but only a few pages were completed. This is sad as I can think of few composers
more aptly equipped. There have been several musicals: Heathcliff,
a 1996 entry by John Farrar, Cliff Richard and Frank Dunlop and two others,
one each by Bernard J Taylor and Catherine McDonald.
Floyd's opera is both spectral and emotionally intense; there's
nothing of the musical about it. The writing has about it a florid brilliance
entirely in keeping with the themes of love in vain, betrayal and striving
for the unattainable. It is by no means a chamber opera and the emotions are
played out on a grand scale - Puccinian really.
This major Reference Recordings project is Wuthering Heights'
first recording and presentationally no corners have been cut. The sound is
deep stage and stunning. The libretto is there, profiles of the artists and
an introduction by the composer. Add to this a synopsis of the plot, a profile
of the composer and a list of the members of the orchestra. There's
a separate booklet for the libretto which sensibly sits at the back of the
case and avoids the main booklet being too thick for what is a fairly dinky
single width case. That said, not everything is perfect in paradise. The libretto
is not keyed into the CD tracks and on page 6 of the main booklet the names
of the characters have in a couple of instances been cut short.
Tracking is good but not generous. There is a track for each scene and main
component of the opera. The Prologue is tensely atmospheric, strong on foreboding
and impelled by iterations of rhythmic cells. Scene One is very affecting
with intriguing melodic material. The following scene is smokingly emotional
and rises to a torrid march (10:20). Scene One of Act Two introduces a heart-easing
melody of great beauty over an understated rocking figure (7:40). Cathy's
voice soars high and not for the last time was I impressed with Georgia Jarman's
precision of enunciation achieved without compromising passion and heat. At
8.34 the trumpets delightfully limn in the contours. The Act 2 Interlude inexorably
charts a tragic trajectory. Scene Two of Act Two is notable for the building
of long-range tension. When Edgar implores "Marry me Cathy" the
effect is very touching. This is writing in the school of Puccini. It is also
reminiscent at this point of the voluptuous moments in Copland's under-estimated
opera The Tender Land.
The second part of Act Two, Scene Two starts on CD 2. Here the torment and
superheated writing is further fuelled. The soprano's earlier word
clarity begins to lose focus and you need the libretto. Jarman sings the paint
off the walls; and I don't mean this in a bad way (10:40); I do hope
that she discovers Vittorio Giannini's massive Scena, The Medead,
it would suit her admirably and we need a first recording. Back to Wuthering
Heights: At 11:06 the perfervid writing for soprano and orchestra emotes
the character's torment.
In Act Three, Scene One the chorus are in the middle background with their
singing 'lifted' by staccato horn punctuation. The poignant
effect recalls Hanson's Merry Mount in its tension-building.
At 6.40 remission from torrid passion arrives with a gentle and appealing
melody. This soon melts into an emotionally complex waltz which had me thinking
of Prokofiev, Ravel and Barber. In fact Barber's
Vanessa
is an apt travelling companion for the Floyd work, as is Menotti's
contemporaneous Maria
Golovin. Later operas which also share the manner and mood are Edward
Thomas's Desire
Under The Elms and Daniel
Catán's Florencia
en el Amazonas. At 11:07 Heathcliff's words "I did it all
for you" recall Scarpia's ecstatically contained lust in the Te
Deum at the end of Act One of Tosca.
In Act Three, Scene Two, Isabella's "He's taken my hand"
is all tenderness in the singing of Heather Buck. She is torn and buffeted
backwards and forwards with Heathcliff's words of Isabella ("…
those pale blue eyes") as he almost taunts Cathy. In Act Three, Scene
Three there is some peace at the start but we sense the tragic direction of
travel at the words "let me smell the air". A measured trudging
motion in the orchestra (6:40) signals accelerating intensity. The words "Kiss
me, caress me" are movingly shaped but Floyd is not done with our emotions
yet. At 11:30 there is yet more melting singing but this time with a penetrating
emotional wind-chill. Gothic darkness is finally subdued (13:00) with tolling
writing for orchestra that had me thinking of Howard Hanson's Sixth
Symphony. Tellingly the work ends in aptly triumphant bitterness.
John Quinn has said of another Floyd opera (Susannah) that "Floyd
offers, very successfully, what I’d term American verismo."
I'd go with that for Wuthering Heights also.
The conductor Joseph Mechavich has already conducted Susannah, Of
Mice and Men and Cold Sassy Tree so he is no stranger to Floyd's
way with drama and music. Everything here, from soloist to chorus to orchestra,
is fluently treated; nothing is in the least tentative. This is a princely
production all round.
Rob Barnett
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