Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Performer: Janice Watson, James Gilchrist, Roderick Williams, John Graham-Hall, Richard Stuart, Mark Richardson, Gail Pearson, Helen Williams, Neal Davies, Anne Collins, Adrian Partington Singers
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor: Richard Hickox
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN10120
Release: 2003
Size: 474 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
The poisoned kiss
CD 01
01. Overture
Act I
02. Opening Chorus: Secret are the sounds … (Dipsacus, Chorus)
03. Scene: What’s that? (Gallanthus)
04. Scene: Day is dawning (Angelica, Gallanthus)
05. Duet: It’s really time … (Gallanthus, Angelica)
06. Ensemble: Here we come … (Hob, Lob, Gob, Dipsacus, Chorus)
07. Duet and Chorus: I’m a sorcerer bold (Dipsacus, Angelica, Hob, Lob, Gob, Hobgoblins)
08. Duet: It’s true I’m inclined … (Amaryllus, Gallanthus)
09. Ensemble: Hush, lovely cobra (Tormentilla, Angelica, Amaryllus, Gallanthus)
10. Desist, lest you die! (Amaryllus, Tormentilla, Gallanthus, Angelica)
11. Duet: I know we see … (Amaryllus, Tormentilla)
12. Blue larkspur in a garden (Amaryllus, Tormentilla)
13. Ensemble: Who’s in my forest? (Dipsacus)
14. North wind, south wind (Dispacus, Hob, Gob, Lob, Tenors, Basses)
15. Angelica? (Tormentilla, Angelica)
16. O, come to our arms (Amaryllus, Gallanthus, Tormentilla, Angelica, Dipsacus, Hob, Gob, Lob, Chorus)
17. Song: O, who would be … (Tormentilla)
18. Finale: All is ready! (Dipsacus, Hob, Gob, Lob, Angelica, Tormentilla,Hobgoblins, Chorus)
Act II
19. Introduction
20. Here we come (Chorus)
21. Song and Chorus: By all the powers (Angelica, Chorus)
22. Trio: Ho there! (Lob, Hob, Gob)
23. Duet: It does not appear … (Angelica, Gallanthus)
24. Trio: If you want to escape (Third Medium, First Medium, Second Medium)
CD 02
Act II
01. Tormentilla! Tormentilla! (Chorus)
02. Song and Duet: There was … (Tormentilla, Angelica, Hob, Gob, Lob)
03. Ensemble: Twas here it bade … (Amaryllus, Hob, Lob, Angelica, Gob, Gallanthus, Chorus)
04. Serenade: Dear love, behold … (Amaryllus)
05. Duet: Sleeping or waking (Tormentilla, Amaryllus)
06. You must not kiss me (Tormentilla, Amaryllus, Hob, Gob, Lob, Chorus)
07. Finale: Too dark for me … (Tormentilla, Angelica, Gallanthus, Hob, Gob, Lob, Amaryllus, Chorus)
Act III
08. Introduction
09. Trio: Behold our mystic … (First Medium, Second Medium, Third Medium)
10. Ensemble: Monstrous vision! (Empress, First Medium, Second Medium, Third Medium)
11. Ballad: When I was young … (Empress)
12. Ensemble: You can leave us (Empress, First Medium, Second Medium, Third Medium)
13. Duet: Is my love alive? (Tormentilla, Empress, Amaryllus)
14. Love breaks all rules … (Empress, Tormentilla, Amaryllus)
15. Invocation: Imps and Demons (Empress, Chorus)
16. Ensemble: Come, O gentle powers (Empress, Tormentilla, Amaryllus, Dipsacus)
17. Duet: Can you, can you remember (Empress, Dipsacus)
18. Quartet: Love in a hut (Tormentilla, Empress, Amaryllus, Dipsacus)
19. Sextet: Horrid monster! (First Medium, Gob, Second Medium, Hob, Lob, Third Medium)
20. Duet: It’s the proper thing to do (Gallanthus, Angelica)
21. Finale: Love has conquered! (Tormentilla, Amaryllus, Gallanthus, Angelica, Mediums, Hob, Gob, Lob, Dipsacus, Empress, Chorus)
Written in the late 1920s when he was at the height of his powers, The Poisoned Kiss is Vaughan Williams’s forgotten opera: this is the first complete recording. The composer chose his friend Evelyn Sharp to write a libretto based on a short story by Richard Garnett about a beautiful princess who lives on poison. But the verse treatment is deplorable. Though the pair had in mind the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, the result is coy and self-conscious, never witty or pointed in a Gilbertian way. Vaughan Williams made revisions in 1936 and 1955, but there are still too many embarrassingly unfunny lines. This recording helps to rehabilitate the opera by eliminating virtually all the spoken dialogue.
Neither Vaughan Williams nor Sharp could work out the right balance between comedy and the central romance – the love between Prince Amaryllus and Tormentilla, brought up on poison by her magician father, Dipsacus.
Though planned as a light opera, the music has substance. The score is rich in ideas; each number is beautifully tailored, never outstaying its welcome. At almost two hours of music, it has to be said that the opera is too long (and it would be even longer with dialogue), but the inspiration never flags.
Charm predominates, with tender melodies like that in the Act 1 duet of Amaryllus and Tormentilla, ‘Blue larkspur in a garden’, and a surging emotional climax in the ensemble which crowns Act 2, when their love leads to the passionate poisoned kiss. There are direct echoes of Sullivan in the multi-layered ensembles and patter numbers, which come closest to achieving the lightness aimed at.
Whatever the shortcomings of the piece, no lover of Vaughan Williams’s music should miss hearing this wonderful set, with a strong and characterful cast superbly led by Richard Hickox, and with atmospheric sound enhancing the musical delights. Janice Watson as Tormentilla sings with sweetness and warmth, while giving point to the poisonous side of the character, and James Gilchrist makes an ardent Amaryllus.
Pamela Helen Stephen and Roderick Williams are totally affecting in their love music, and Neal Davies is firm and strong as the magician Dipsacus.