Walton: Troilus and Cressida

Opera 79

Walton: Troilus and Cressida

Soloists

Opera North

Richard Hickox

The only music from this opera I knew was the big soprano solo At the Haunted End of the Day, which featured in the wonderful documentary of the same name broadcast in the 1980s celebrating the life and work of Walton. 

This was another opera written in the shadow of the operatic successes of Benjamin Britten and it has never quite established its own place in the repertory. Walton tinkered with it several times, including creating a revised version for mezzo soprano in the title role to enable Janet Baker to perform the role. This record restores the soprano tessitura. The music is vintage Walton - it has the swagger of Belshazzar’s Feast and the warm lyricism of works like the violin and viola concertos.  There is real dramatic flair to the score. The correspondence between Walton and the librettist Christopher Hassall has been published and is absolutely fascinating. Hassall had written the book for several of Ivor Novello’s musicals and Walton gently (and sometimes not so gently) coaxed the author into an understanding of what makes a successful opera libretto. 

The score probably did seem a little old fashioned to the critics of the time who often seemed in thrawl to Britten. One can understand that but now with the passing of several generations we can see that both composers in their very different ways had written operas of the highest quality. It does seem odd that Troilus and Cressida has not established itself as part of the 20th century British operatic tradition.