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We are grateful to Stephen Lloyd who writes as follows:-
I was most interested to read Paul Corfield Godfrey’s sympathetic review of the recording recently issued by Pristine of a live performance of Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet from the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London on 10 April 1962. In his review he refers to a pirate LP issue of a performance of this opera ‘at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford’ with the same soloists and conductor (Meredith Davies). In fact the Pristine CDs and the pirate issue on IGS LPs (IGS079/80) are of the same performance. This then new production received three performances in Bradford on April 3, 5 and 7 as part of the Delius Centenary Festival held in Delius’s birth town. It then went to London on April 10 and it was this performance that was broadcast live from the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The IGS discs confirm the date of performance as being that of the broadcast but the accompanying leaflet erroneously states that it was ‘a live performance from Bradford’, hence the confusion. No doubt those responsible for issuing the LP set in America had assumed that it was part of the Festival held in March and April 1962. I myself also recorded the broadcast (having to leave out two scenes as I couldn’t then afford to buy enough tape for the whole broadcast!) and I could probably confirm that we are dealing with one and the same performance if I were to dig out the whole tape, but I feel that is hardly necessary.
IGS also released on LP two other Delius operas: Fennimore and Gerda (IGS023, 3 sides) from a BBC broadcast in March 1962, Stanford Robinson conducting – without the spoken introductions, but the complete broadcast does exist, and Koanga from performances in Washington DC in December 1970 (IGS081-2), with the same two lead soloists who took part in the 1972 Sadler’s Wells performances (Groves) and the subsequent EMI recording. All these are listed in my Delius Discography on the Delius Trust/Delius Society website.
Back to the Village Romeo and Juliet performance, I agree totally with Paul Corfield Godfrey when he writes that ‘there is a real sense of magic in this performance’. The recording has great presence and one very soon disregards any shortcomings in the Sadler’s Wells Theatre’s acoustics. It is a performance that I frequently return to, especially for Elsie Morison’s Vreli.
PCG
Thanks very much for this. I took the information regarding the IGS issue on LPs (of which I have never seen a copy) from the information and discography provided in Volume Three of Opera on Record edited by Alan Blyth (page 306) which quite specifically attributes the performance to the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford. (This discography also mentions the other two IGS issues of Delius operas to which Stephen Lloyd refers.) The compilation of the discographies in that volume are ascribed to Malcolm Walker, but John Steane also reviews the set of Village Romeo and Juliet (pages 292-3) again describing the recording as originating from a 'live' performance (the quotation marks are his) at the Alhambra Theatre. I have however no doubt that, as Stephen suggests, the two performances are "one and the same" and that the ascription in Opera on Record derives directly from incorrect information supplied with the original LPs. Presumably Malcom Walker would confirm this.
Incidentally it is interesting that Opera on Record, while mentioning the Washington performances of Koanga (also reviewed by John Steane) omits any mention of the Camden Festival performance conducted by Sir Charles Groves which was at one time available on the Intaglio label INCD7442, 1993. I have heard this set (which includes incidentally one passage in Act Three Scene One where the performance threatens to fall apart altogether as Eugene Holmes suffers a severe memory lapse), and presume that this set is distinct from the previously available IGS LPs also with Holmes. The matter is to a large extent academic, since Groves' studio recording (with the excellent and thrilling Holmes again) comprehensively trumps his live performance, but this does appear to be quite distinct from the live performance reviewed by Steane which refers to the audience coughing "coming out loud and clear" which I don't remember noticing on the Intaglio discs. Mind you, I was less troubled than he was by the audience's "coughing spasms" on the recording under discussion, another factor which led me to assume that we were talking about two different performances; nor did I feel, as he did, that the recording was "restricted in spaciousness and clarity" although this could well have been the result of Pristine's excellent remastering of the tapes.
I would suggest that, rather than altering my original review, which was based as I say on the grounds of previously published and generally available information as well as some distinct areas of disagreement with John Steane's assessment of the set, this exchange of e-mails might well be appended to that review. It would act as a valuable corrective there not only to my own assumptions but also to the entry in Malcolm Walker's discography included in Opera on Record as well - assuming that my suggestion about the source of Mr Walker's description is correct.
See also the exchange of correspondence at the foot of my earlier review of the Mackerras set (which I wrote in November 2015) where I also referred to the performance on record as deriving from a Bradford performance.
Click here to go to November 2015 review.
PCG
I notice one other discrepancy in the information provided in Opera on Record. John Steane's review specifically refers to Donald McIntyre as singing the role of Manz, while Malcolm Walker's discography correctly identifies him as singing Marti. It is possible therefore that there was even greater confusion and ambiguity in the information provided with the IGS LPs than Stephen has suggested. PCG