Bennett: The Mines of Sulphur

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CHSA 5036

Multiple Set of 2 CDs

Bennett: The Mines of Sulphur

Release Date: June 2005

Composer (b. 1936)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

Solo bass-baritone - Braxton
Kristopher Irmiter

Solo mezzo-soprano - Rosalind
Beth Clayton

Solo tenor - Boconnion
Brandon Jovanovich

Solo baritone - Tovey
James Maddalena

Solo mezzo-soprano - Leda
Dorothy Byrne

Solo tenor - Fenney
Brian Anderson

Solo baritone - Tooley
Michael Todd Simpson

Solo soprano - Jenny
Caroline Worra

Solo silent part - Trim
Andew Gorell

Orchestra
Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra

Conductor
Stewart Robertson

Venue
Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York

Engineer
John Newton

Engineer
Dirk Sobotka

Engineer
Stephanie Jacobson

Producer
Blanton Alspaugh

Genre:
Opera
Contemporary

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The Mines of Sulphur

SIR RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT

(b. 1936)

premiere recording

The Mines of Sulphur

107:08

An Opera in Three Acts

Libretto by Beverley Cross

Dedicated to Benjamin Britten

COMPACT DISC ONE

Act I

No. 1. Introduction

1:25

No. 2

(Rosalind enters. . .) -

'Slut! You slut!'

2:54

Braxton, Rosalind

No. 3

(The main door opens slowly and Boconnion enters cautiously. . .) -

'Easy and quietly'

2:22

Boconnion, Tovey, Rosalind, Braxton

No. 4

(Boconnion moves off into the shadows.)

'The key!'

1:53

Boconnion, Tovey, Rosalind

(They gaze in wonder at the contents of the open chest.) -

'You see! What did I tell you?'

1:06

Rosalind, Boconnion, Tovey

No. 5

'Old goat!'

4:23

Boconnion, Rosalind

No. 6

(Tovey returns, carrying logs and wine. . .) -

'''The cup it is white and the ale it is brown. . .'''

2:23

Tovey, Boconnion

No. 7

(Rosalind appears above. She is transformed. . .) -

'Am I beautiful?'

2:12

Rosalind, Boconnion, Tovey

(From the distance we hear the sound of a horn. . .) -

'A horn!'

0:53

Boconnion, Rosalind, Tovey, Sherrin

No. 8

(Sherrin enters, blinking, into the light. . .) -

10.

'Good evening, sir'

5:58

Sherrin, Boconnion, Rosalind, Tovey, Leda, Fenney, Tooley

No. 9

(The players wander round the Hall. . .) -

11.

'I once played Romeo, in Chester'

3:37

Fenney, Sherrin, Tooley, Leda

No. 10

(Rosalind enters. She moves slowly round the Hall. . .) -

12.

'It looks very well on you'

7:13

Jenny, Rosalind

Act II

13.

No. 11 Overture

1:05

No. 12

(Enter, from the lower doors, the two Flunkeys. . .) -

14.

'Good morning, your Excellency!'

0:45

Tooley

No. 13. Recitative

15.

'Item: A fountain in the Palladian style'

1:46

The Count

No. 14. Duet

(Hugo, the valet, enters with the Count's clothes and a basin. . .) -

16.

'Good morning, your Excellency'

2:54

'This morning I was passing the square' -

Hugo, the Count

No. 15. Aria

17.

'O when will I a lover know'

4:04

Haidee

No. 16

(The Count and Hugo appear below. . .) -

18.

'Well?'

1:52

Hugo, the Count, Mrs Traxel

No. 17

(She calls up to the balcony.) -

19.

'Haidee!'

4:03

Mrs Traxel

No. 18. Interlude

(Mrs Traxel leads the way into the house. . .) -

20.

'Your eyes are shining, Rosalind'

1:22

Boconnion, Rosalind, Tovey

No.19

21.

(Enter Trim and Tooley to prepare the bed. . .) -

2:27

56:42

COMPACT DISC TWO

No. 20. Nocturne I

1:09

No. 21

(A cock crows and the lights fade up on the bed. . .) -

'Good morning, my doves'

2:19

Mrs Traxel, Haidee, Hugo

No. 22

'Hugo!'

2:02

Haidee, Hugo

No. 23. Nocturne II

1:49

No. 24

(The lights fade up. . .) -

'I said to the cook: who does he think he is?'

2:07

Tooley, the Count

No. 25. Nocturne III -

'In the moonlight they are beautiful'

1:46

The Count

No. 26

'Get up! and quickly, do you hear me'

1:14

The Count, Haidee, Hugo

No. 27

'Stop! Make them stop!'

1:47

Tovey, Boconnion, Rosalind, Sherrin, Leda

No. 28

'We must get away from here'

1:23

Rosalind, Boconnion

No. 29

10.

'I am very sorry, Colonel Boconnion'

1:00

Sherrin, Rosalind, Boconnion, Leda, Tooley

11.

'Well now, Colonel'

2:28

Tooley, Boconnion, Leda

12.

'You would do better to save your new coat'

2:05

Tooley, Boconnion

Act III

No. 30

(The players move slowly back and away from Boconnion.) -

13.

'Back! Back against the wall where I can watch you'

1:48

Boconnion, Sherrin, Tooley, Leda, Rosalind

No. 31

'This house is made of wood' -

Boconnion

No. 32

14.

'What will you gain by killing us'

3:22

Sherrin, Tooley, Boconnion

(Tovey returns.) -

'All correct, Colonel' -

Tovey, Boconnion, Rosalind

No. 33

'I want to leave this house' -

Rosalind

No. 34

15.

'We must wait till morning'

4:21

Boconnion, Leda, Fenney

'Ah! The poor little mute' -

Boconnion

No. 35

(Trim obeys. He dances jerkily and awkwardly.) -

No. 36

(Boconnion stalks arrogantly along the line of frightened actors.) -

16.

'This mute!'

2:39

Boconnion

17.

'I lived as a boy in a village by the sea'

2:19

Boconnion

'Tovey! Bring down the girl' -

Boconnion, Tovey, Leda

No. 37

(Rosalind wanders away from the others.) -

18.

'I want to leave this house'

1:54

Rosalind, Jenny, Boconnion

'Tovey! Into the cellar with them' -

Boconnion, Rosalind

No. 38

19.

'All correct, Colonel'

0:55

Tovey

(Boconnion turns back to Jenny. . .) -

20.

'What was your question, in the play?'

1:17

Boconnion, Jenny, Rosalind

No. 39

21.

'Once, once long ago some actors came riding'

4:24

Jenny

No. 40

(The horn sounds, far beyond the house.) -

22.

'The horn! Their horn!'

2:16

Tovey, Boconnion, Rosalind, Jenny

(Boconnion lifts his arm to strike.) -

23.

'Then look! Soldier, look!'

3:57

Jenny, Tovey, Rosalind, Boconnion

50:26

Solo: Kristopher Irmiter bass-baritone - Braxton

Solo: Beth Clayton mezzo-soprano - Rosalind

Solo: Brandon Jovanovich tenor - Boconnion

Solo: James Maddalena baritone - Tovey

Solo: Kristopher Irmiter bass-baritone - Sherrin

Solo: Dorothy Byrne mezzo-soprano - Leda

Solo: Brian Anderson tenor - Fenney

Solo: Michael Todd Simpson baritone - Tooley

Solo: Caroline Worra soprano - Jenny

Solo: Andew Gorell silent part - Trim

Orchestra: Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra

Conductor: Stewart Robertson

(live) 5, 7, 10, 13 & 16 August 2004

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Reviews

All credit then to Glimmerglass Opera for reviving the work in 2004. Stewart Robertson, Music Director at the upstate New York festival, conducts with complete authority and his orchestra reward him with a fine account of the score that walks an elegant tightrope between late Serialism and unabashed lyricism.

International Record Review

This performance by a respectable company under Stewart Robertson suggest that it’s time some UK company mounted a Bennett revival.

The Observer

As to the performance, it’s surely enough to note that the composer regarded both staging and performance a unsurpassable. As sound, performance, and a handsomely documented set, this is an outstanding issue.

Opera Now

Clarity of sound is always needed in Tippett, and this Super Audio CD from Chandos gives us a depth, range and detail that make his last orchestral piece ‘The Rose Lake’ glitter and beguile as never before. The changing colours of a Senegal lake gave Tippett the inspiration; though stuck in Swansea, Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales transport us, with bells, xylophone, and roto-toms cascading trhough music rich in echoes of the composer’s past.

The Times ‘The Knowledge’

Certainly the Mines doesn’t deserve the neglect it has suffered for more than a quarter of a century: this performance shows it can work on stage, and pack a real dramatic punch.

The Guardian

…everyone is well cast and directed – as Bennett’s own tribute indicates – in this astonishly assured first full-length opera which belongs in the repertoire.

Gramophone

This new ‘Rose Lake’ from Chandos seems to catch the work’s poetry even more clearly, and to make even more of a single majestic arch out of its mosaic of 12 sections, than does Colin Davis’s world premiere account. This is partly due to Richard Hickox’s firm and sympathetic direction, but also to the excellence of Chandos’s SACD recording, which provides superior delineation of Tippett’s complex textures, not least the passages of cloudy polyphony in the bass registers. The same virtues apply to the ‘Ritual Dances’, which receives an account of unusual vibrancy, culminating for once in its abandon, the BBC NOW here showing themselves a truly virtuoso band.

BBC Music Magazine

Stewart Robertson and his orchestra convey all the atmosphere of this sometimes Gothic thriller about murderous goings-on in a run-down West Country manor house. The cast is uniformly fine, but Brandon Jovanovich’s Boconnion and Dorothy Byrne’s Leda/Mrs Traxel deserve special mention.

The Telegraph

The work comes across strongly on disc: Richard Rodney Bennett’s style may be rooted in the serialism of the 1960s, but his sounds make for gripping music theatre and are for more interesting that the latter-day Puccini churned out by so many of his successors.

BBC Music Magazine

The American cast performs the opera with flair and conviction (and superb diction)…Stewart Robertson conducts a taut interpretation and the orchestra performs the Nocturne interludes with poetic evocation. First rate recording.

Sunday Telegraph

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Bennett: The Mines of Sulphur

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The Mines of Sulphur

SIR RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT

The Mines of Sulphur

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