Customer Reviews

John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By rights, this 1955 version of John Gay's much-adapted 1728 'ballad opera' should sound antiquated beyond redemption: the musical version used is Frederick Austin's well-worn, prettified (& verbally expurgated) 1920 arrangement, subjected to the indignity of being blown up from chamber ensemble to full orchestra; Sir Malcolm Sargeant's tempi are impossibly 'inauthentic' (ie. slow); there are numerous cuts even beyond Austin's omissions; & the 2 separate casts, of opera singers & actors, recorded in different months, are not always convincingly 'matched up.' Yet it's one of the most enjoyable recordings I know of.
A quick scan of the cast list(s) will tell you why: the singers include Elsie Morison, John Cameron, Monica Sinclair, Ian Wallace, Owen Brannigan & Alexander Young & the actors Zena Walker, John Neville, Rachel Roberts, Eric Porter & Paul Rogers. In other words, these are top pros & strong audio personalities who grab their every opportunity. The musical performance is sumptuous & sheer pleasure to listen to, the actors & dialogue 'production' brisk, funny & sharper than you might expect. And the sound for both music & dialogue is of demonstration quality, one of the best of the period.
Those who find this version too musically ponderous or dramatically reactionary can find antidotes in the Bare Baroque Basics one by Jeremy Barlow & The Broadside Band (Hyperion), word & note complete, & the radical & often inspired 1948 Benjamin Britten arrangement (complete on Argo, abridged with the original cast on Pearl). They'll be missing some good 50s fun, though.
They'll also be missing the only available excerpts (15 numbers) from Edward German's tuneful 1907 operetta 'Tom Jones.' This really IS 'cleaned up' 18th century, genteel beyond the call of duty, but for those who respond to musical theater of the period, highly recommended. The 1966 recording is lively & accomplished. As Miss Jean Brodie would say, For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like. And a good thing too.

Bottom Line: Fabulous performance of both works, but only Tom Jones is eminently satisfactory.

This recording of The Beggar's Opera received a rosette in the Penguin guide, which I can certainly understand. It was recorded in 1955 -- one of the first stereo recordings ever -- and even today the sound is quite fine. The performance is also outstanding. Owen Brannigan, Monica Sinclair, Elsie Morison, John Cameron, and Alexander Young are all favorite singers of mine; this recording is further evidence why. All perform convincingly in their various roles, though Brannigan and Young don't have as much to do as I might have wished.

The Beggar's Opera is a "ballad opera," meaning it is more of a play punctuated with frequent songs rather than a series of musical numbers punctuated with dialogue. Often the dialogue is longer than the song which precedes it. Well, rather than risking having a flat performance of the spoken words, EMI chose to put various actors in the cast to speak the dialogue. This choice is dramatically compelling, though somehow the actors chosen to play Morison and Brannigan's characters (Polly & Mr. Peacham respectively) sound *nothing* like the singers. No matter, it all works regardless.

Well, then were is my reservation? That is in the opera itself. This is NOT Gilbert and Sullivan -- their operas were, as John Wellington Wells would say, "compounded on the strictest principles." The Beggar's opera is anything but compounded on the strictest principles. Though the Beggar warns us at the beginning that there is not an honest man or woman in his opera, it doesn't really prepare us for some of what goes on. Mrs. Peacham frequently uses an s-word to characterize her daughter (possibly the most morally upright person in the opera), Macheath is an almost polygamist womanizer, and Lucy is completely unwilling to give up Macheath to his wife. If none of this bothers you, the rest of this opera's moral failings will not either.

My fix to this problem was to use a sound editing program (Audacity) to cut out all of the dialogue in which most of this low-character is presented. The music itself has much charm that I wouldn't miss -- plus I want to get my money's worth. The musical numbers rarely last much beyond a minute and a half. They range from very good to just awkward (Polly and Lucy's duet "I'm bubbled, I'm bubbled" comes to mind as one of the weaker numbers).

But on to the coupling. This is what keeps me from regretting buying this CD. This performance of excerpts of Edward German's Tom Jones is fabulous. Granted, some of Sophia's songs are a bit on the sappy side, and Honour's Green Ribbon song seems to go on *forever* (as delightful as it is for the first two minutes), but on the whole this is truly excellent light music. "West country lad" is a rollicking song I'd not be without (and Frederick Harvey's is among the most virile baritone voices I've heard). The Waltz Song is lovely as performed by the sweet-voiced Cynthia Glover. The concluding "Hark! the merry marriage bells" puts a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan's finales to shame. All the performers exhibit great dedication and enthusiasm in this fabulous recording (if only they had recorded the whole thing!).

If your only interest is in Tom Jones, a complete recording has recently been released by Naxos: Edward German: Tom Jones.

Bottom line: The Beggar's Opera, performed as well as it is, is only a so-so piece best consumed without some of the morally-objectionable dialogue, but Tom Jones, a more enjoyable work, is given such a delicious performance that it balances out the flaws of the first half of the program.