Sullivan's The Beauty Stone (1898)

Some background to the opera that has just been recorded by Chandos (CHAN 10794(2)).

The story is laid in the Flemish town of Mirlemont in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The plot for this romantic musical drama opera came from a German gothic legend which was reworked by Joseph Comyns Carr and Arthur Wing Pinero. Despite both being eminent in their own field they had little experience of writing for a musical drama and Sullivan had a number of difficulties in setting the piece.

Presented by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre, London, on the 28 May 1898 with favourite Savoy performers like Walter Passmore, Rosina Brandram, Henry Lytton and Ruth Vincent it had vital elements to ensure its success. Without the humour usually associated with their previous appearances, the Savoy audiences had some difficulty in accepting the characters in this new work and the production played for

a paltry 50 performances.

The critics felt that the authors had lost their way and they wondered how Sullivan managed to provide such a lovely score for such misshapen lyrics. The extreme length of the piece did not help. Today, the collector can re-evaluate this neglected work and discover the beauty of its score and the good music that lies between its pages. The running time was extremely long for a Savoy production (four hours on the first night) which caused the cutting of chunks of dialogue and music before the Chappell vocal score was printed: the dialogue was further reduced when the Carl Rosa Opera Company decided to take the work touring. In the recording the vocal score numbering has been sensibly retained by Chandos and the extra music, originally cut, is denoted by suffixes 'A', 'B', etc.

A comprehensive book of notes with the full libretto can be found here.

The cast:

Toby Spence -

David Stout -

Stephen Gadd -

Richard Suart -

Alan Opie -

Elin Manahan Thomas -

Catherine Wyn-Rogers -

Madeleine Shaw -

Rebecca Evans -

Olivia Gomez -

Sarah Maxted -

Llio Evans -

Philip

Guntran

Simon

Nicholas

The Devil

Laine

Joan

Jacqueline

Saida

Loyse

Isabeau

Barbe, Peppin, Baldwyn of Ath

Knights, Dames, Pages, Aldermen, Soldiers, Townsfolk, Country-folk, Dancers, Lute-players, Serving-men, and the rest

BBC National Chorus of Wales/BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor - Rory Macdonald

Recorded at the BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales, 29 January - 3 February 2013

Sample tracks:

1 - Act II Sc 2: Yet their praise is nought to me (Loyse) CD 1, track 15  

2 - Act III Sc 1: What laggard steed doth carry (Saida)  CD 2, track 21