Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love

 Opera 16

Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love

Soloists

Northern Sinfonia

Richard Hickox

I’ve never quite got on with Vaughan Williams. There are some very special moments across his wide output (the first few bars of the Sea Symphony and the end of the fifth symphony are two that come to mind) but otherwise find that he falls into cliched patterns too often and that after a while all of his music starts to pick the same (heretical view I know).

Vaughan Williams wrote six operas over his long lifetime but none of them have ever held a place in the repertory. This one waited over 20 years for its first professional performance after being first performed by amateurs and performances since then have been very rare. I can understand why. Some of it seems very quaint and old fashioned with a fair bit of ‘hey, nonny no!and it tended to meander along pleasantly but unmemorably for much of the time. You would find some interesting dramatic moments but then these would fall back into the folksong mode which to me quickly becomes cloying. 

Although one can understand why an English composer wanted to write a full length opera featuring Falstaff it was always going to be an uphill struggle when Verdi had already worked miracles with his own opera. 

So that concludes this little series of Falstaffian operas. The two by English composers didn’t really appeal. I enjoyed the others - perhaps the Nicolai most of all. You can see why it is the only one which has retained a place in the repertoire.