Boughton: The Immortal Hour

Opera no 73

Boughton: The Immortal Hour

Soloists

English Chamber Orchestra

Alan G Melville

I thought that this was a very interesting work. To be honest I was not expecting very much - just a peice of rather fey fairy whimsy with fairly unsophisticated music. There was some of that but there was also plenty of places where there was real invention and dramatic interest. The harmonic pallet is rich - Delius is the most obvious point of comparison - and the orchestration rich and sonorous - plenty of Cor Anglais throughout. At times it did wander rather aimlessly (another Delius trait) but in other places in commended attention. There were some particularly beautiful offstage choral effects - the end of the first act in particular stood out. But the end, also with an offstage chorus, was the most abrupt ending to any opera that I remember (even including Wozzeck!). The music just disappears - in fact I thought at first that there was a fault on my CD and I had to listen to it again just to make sure!

This opera had a huge impact when it was first performances in London, with an initial run of 216 performances. It is hard to imagine it being successful nowadays, tastes have changes, but perhaps in a very sympathetic production it could still hold the stage. Certainly it has much to commend it.