Welsh National Opera Company
Welsh National Opera Chorus
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Brian Balkwill conductor
LYRITA REAM.1147
Grace Williams’ solitary stage work is based on a short story by Guy Maupassant, En famille, and it is presented here in an excellent live broadcast recording from 1966.
In tone and atmosphere it is perhaps reminiscent of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with an assortment of grasping relatives and the supposed death of an elderly matriarch, sung with great relish by the veteran British singer Edith Coates. Unlike Gianni Schicchi, there is no love interest and Grandmama is not actually dead, much to the chagrin of the family. Coincidentally The Parlour was on two occasions performed with another work from Puccini’s Il Trittico, Il Tabarro.
One remarkable feature of the work is the fact that Williams wrote her own libretto and made an excellent job of it, using some very sophisticated rhyme schemes, but without making anything sound forced or unnatural. The structure is in two scenes which frame a brief interlude and the drama unfolds during the course of one summer’s day in 1870 in a house in a Victorian seaside town.
The cast is drawn from the best of the English language singers of opera from the time when British singers rarely sang in any tongue other than their own. The pace is fast; there are few moments of repose and Williams contrives to provide vocal lines which successfully mimic the speed and energy of speech. Jean Allister sings the role of Aunt Genevieve, Mama’s sister. Her many years with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company had clearly made the clear projection of the text second nature to her, but all the cast match her and are thoroughly engaged in the drama.
Williams uses a surprisingly large orchestra, but with great subtlety. The balance between the orchestra and the voices sounds completely natural, as does the recorded mono sound, which after 60 years seems remarkably fresh.
This is a most enjoyable release of a short British opera which deserves to be much better known and Lyrita should be thanked for affording us the opportunity to hear such a rarity.
Review by Martyn Strachan