A 20th Century Opera Collection - Maxwell Davies - Taverner - Knussen

Taverner
Opera in two Acts
Libretto: Peter Maxwell Davies

John Taverner: Martyn Hill
Jester: David Wilson-Johnson
White Abbot: Quentin Hayes
King: Stephen Richardson
Cardinal: Stuart Kale

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen

Amazon Review:

This is a wonderful work, Maxwell Davies's finest opera, and one of the great operas of the late twentieth century. The story is a remarkable one: the Tudor composer John Taverner became caught up in the Reformation, abandoned music, and became a persecutor. It turns out that the historical record does not quite bear this out, but it does not matter: the story becomes the basis of a profound exploration of the theme of betrayal. As the composer put it: "Taverner betrays what is best in himself, and for the highest possible motives." He wrote his own libretto, constructing it out of actual historical documents, passages from the Bible and his own invention. It is a remarkable and impressive piece of work in its own right, far superior to, say, that for John Adams's Doctor Atomic which was assembled in the same way. The two acts balance each other, the first with Taverner's rise from near condemnation to his conversion, represented in an amazing dream sequence which includes cameo appearance by Antochrist and God the Father. In the second half he ends up condeming his former persecutor to death by burning. In between comes scenes between a King, unnamed but clearly based on Henry VIII, and a Cardinal, based on Wolsey but changing into Cranmer in the second half.

The music can be characterized as beginning like Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex rewritten by Schoenberg of the expressionist period. The two court scenes have 'background' music, superficially in a Renaissance idiom but in fact distorted like the pub piano in Berg's Wozzeck. The climax comes to a Mahlerian threnody. The music is haunting and many of the phrases have stayed in my mind for years (I attended the premiere in 1972).

The performance is a studio one, carefully prepared and well balanced. We must hope that one day one of Edward Downes's Covent Garden performances will also be issued, but meanwhile there is no competition for this. Some of us have waited many years for this, and its appearance is a cause for rejoicing.

Stephen J. Barber




Tracklist:

CD1
1. Act 1 Scene I: Courtroom
2. Transition
3. Act 1 Scene II: The Chapel
4. Transition
5. Act 1 Scene III: The Throne Room
6. Act 1 Scene IV: The Throne Room
7. Act 1 Scene IV: The Throne Room (Bar 243)
8. Act 1 Scene IV: The Throne Room (Bar 467)
9. Act 1 Scene IV: The Throne Room (Bar 648)

CD2
1. Act 2 Scene I: The Courtroom
2. Transition
3. Act 2 Scene II: The Throne Room
4. Transition
5. Act 2 Scene III: The Chapel
6. Transition
7. Act 2 Scene IV: The Market-Place In Boston, Lincolnshire

Pass: leverkuhn

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