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Amazon.co.uk Review
For those open to its message, hearing The Midsummer Marriage in 1955 must have been like an outburst of Technicolor in the often grey Britain of the post-war era. After a decade of downbeat realism on the stage, such a visionary statement must have come as a real shock. Even now, its vigour and sensuality can seem too much of a good thing over two-and-a-half hours, packing in a great deal of activity within the Jung-inspired scenario of self-realisation. Pick up what's crucial of this simply by getting to know the music which, drawing on a range of influences across four centuries, has all the passion and ecstasy of Tippett's work through the 1950s. This recording, taken from a run of live performances in 1970, does it proud. From a first rate cast, Alberto Remedios and Elizabeth Harwood stand out, as does Helen Watts as the mysterious Sosostris. Colin Davis gets playing of real energy from the ROH forces. We need Midsummer Marriage's life-enhancing qualities more than ever. --Richard Whitehouse
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Colin Davis directs the definitive performance of the Midsummer Marriage. Based on Covent Garden's second production of the Opera (it give the premiere), it is a performance which throughout communicates with huge conviction, intensity and Tippett's strange but compelling modern myth. If you treat the story as a mixture of "the Magic Flute", "The Tempest", "Midsummer Night's Dream", English folk tales and a 1950s domestic drama, you won't be far off. The libretto has its silly moments but they are swept away by the overall conception. Singers, chorus, orchestra and most of all, Sir Colin Davis, leave one with no doubts about the greatness and universality of this work. Having bought the LPs (on Phillips) many years ago, the release by Lyrita on CD was greatly welcome. Highlights are difficult to choose in such a wonderful recording, but try Sosostris' aria in the last Act, Mark's Act I aria and the climax of Act III in the final ritual dance where Mark & Jennifer are mystically transfigured to music of power, not to mention considerable vocal vigour. Outstanding.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Oh how wonderful to hear this again. What a masterpiece and what a performance! The two leads - Alberto Remedios and Joan Carlyle - sing this rapturous music beautifully (one thinks of Handel's lyrical writing for voice). And the rest of the cast are marvelous, too.
The Midsummer Marriage is a unique opera ... the summation of Tippet's most lyrical and accessible phase. Dismissed by some as just so much hippy nonsense it rather demonstrates how Tippett was supremely in touch with (and able to anticipate and predict) our collective unconscious. It starts with a group of friends gathering in some mysterious rural place in the early morning mist for a rather unconventional wedding. The musical setting of this is masterful. What happens next is perhaps dream or perhaps Jungian psychodrama. As a drama it echoes The Magic Flute (and perhaps A Midsummer Night's Dream).
But it is the music that makes it really special - ardent, lyrical, ecstatic ... and even humorous ... by turns. I know it all by heart and cannot resist singing along. I doubt there will ever be a performance as good as this one ... or perhaps one day there will be. But this is just so perfect that I almost fear hearing it realised differently (as if it might somehow shatter the dream).
The Midsummer Marriage is a unique opera ... the summation of Tippet's most lyrical and accessible phase. Dismissed by some as just so much hippy nonsense it rather demonstrates how Tippett was supremely in touch with (and able to anticipate and predict) our collective unconscious. It starts with a group of friends gathering in some mysterious rural place in the early morning mist for a rather unconventional wedding. The musical setting of this is masterful. What happens next is perhaps dream or perhaps Jungian psychodrama. As a drama it echoes The Magic Flute (and perhaps A Midsummer Night's Dream).
But it is the music that makes it really special - ardent, lyrical, ecstatic ... and even humorous ... by turns. I know it all by heart and cannot resist singing along. I doubt there will ever be a performance as good as this one ... or perhaps one day there will be. But this is just so perfect that I almost fear hearing it realised differently (as if it might somehow shatter the dream).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This must be the most life affirming joyous work composed in the 1945/1950 period. Criticism is always about the plot, really the plot is fine as a vehicle for this lyrical outpouring. Why this work is not performed in Opera Houses all over the world is a mystery to me. It certainly worked well on the stage when I saw the Covent Garden revival of 2005, I do hope that conductors like Andrew Davis and Mark Elder who know how to perform this music take over the mantle from Colin Davis
This performance is as other reviewers say superlative and I cannot imagine it being bettered
This performance is as other reviewers say superlative and I cannot imagine it being bettered
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