Sir Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
The Midsummer Marriage, Opera in 3 Acts
Robert Murray (tenor) : Mark
Rachel Nicholls (soprano) : Jenifer
Ashley Riches (bass-baritone) : King Fisher
Jennifer France (soprano) : Bella
Toby Spence (tenor) : Jack
Claire Barnett-Jones (mezzo-soprano) : Sosostris
English National Opera Chorus
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Edward Gardner
rec. live, September 2021, Royal Festival Hall, London
Booklet with notes and texts
Reviewed as a 16/44 FLAC download
London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO0124 [3 CDs: 158]

After I had submitted my review of the recently issued Tippett Symphony 2 and Piano Concerto CD from the LPO and Gardner, I was asked to write another for the orchestra’s previous record of this composer’s The Midsummer Marriage which was released in 2022 but wasn’t reviewed here. As an opera lover and an admirer of Sir Michael Tippett, I didn’t need asking twice for an opportunity to revisit those Gramophone award-winning discs and reappraise them after a couple of years on the shelves.

It was a bold choice of Ed Gardner to open the 2021/22 season, his first in charge of the LPO and the first after most Covid restrictions were lifted, with The Midsummer Marriage. The symbolist opera of the early 1950s needs proper study and preparation, a strong cast and a firm hand in charge to make the right impression on an audience. In this review, I hope to convince you that the LPO and Gardner with his young singers pulled it off handsomely and that if you did miss hearing these CDs at the time, then delay no longer.

The piece had gestated in his head since 1939, but Tippett only really got down to serious work on the piece after the war, then spent at least six years on it up to about 1952. Covent Garden premiered it in January 1955 with a cast including Joan Sutherland, Richard Lewis and Otakar Kraus (in the roles of Jenifer, Mark and King Fisher respectively, a listing I will use in the next few paragraphs). The premiere was recorded and has been available on various labels for years. In my version, the announcer (BBC Third Programme) is a constant presence commentating on the staging even whilst the orchestra play. Public (and cast) were bewildered at first but by the end of the run, performances were sold out and the opera was revived a couple of seasons later. The scenery and costumes were by Barbara Hepworth and it was conducted by John Pritchard. Incidentally, from 1940, when Tippett became Director of Music at Morley College in Lambeth, he had worked closely with émigré Walter Goehr and I have read that he helped guide Tippett a great deal in orchestration etc. Goehr championed Tippett on early records and if you don’t know his work (he has a large discography on strange record-club type labels) you really should get to know it. I mention this as, by rights, it sounds as if Walter Goehr really should have had the premiere.

I hope readers won’t mind if I next take them around the performance history of the piece. After all, it is one of our national treasures and there isn’t likely to be another recording for a while. A couple of radio outings and a Proms performance of Act 2 only in the 1960s preceded the next Royal Opera staging in 1968. This time, Colin Davis led proceedings with a cast of Joan Carlyle, Alberto Remedios and Raimund Herincx. Revived in July 1970 (with the same cast) it was taken to Wembley Town Hall and recorded by Philips. That record (review) (review) subsequently acquired and released on CD by Lyrita is how many of us would have got to know our Midsummer Marriage. It is a fine account and although the new version is wonderful, the old is still essential. Incidentally, the Davis recording has a few small cuts in Acts II and III. These were made, with Tippett’s approval, for the 1968 Royal Opera House production; Edward Gardner has observed the same cuts. There was a gap until 1996, when Covent Garden next staged the opera conducted by Haitink with Cheryl Barker, Stephen O’Mara and John Tomlinson. This was revived under Hickox in 2005 with Will Hartmann, Amanda Roocroft and Tomlinson again. Both Haitink and Hickox performances were broadcast by BBC Radio 3 so may appear one day, who knows?

Other British outings included a memorable Welsh National Opera version new in 1976 that had Richard Armstrong in charge and Felicity Lott, John Treleaven and Raimund Herincx. WNO took this to the Proms in 1977, so it was also broadcast. Not to be outdone ,Opera North under David Lloyd-Jones did it in Leeds in 1985 with Rita Cullis, Donald Stephenson and Philip Joll. This would have toured in the usual way. I am indebted to Paul Brownsey, one of our readers, who reminded me that this same Opera North production re-surfaced in Scotland (and Newcastle) in Scottish Opera’s 1988 performances conducted by John Pryce-Jones with a cast including Marie Slorach, Quade Winter and Neil Howlett. In 2013 at the BBC Proms Sir Andrew Davis gave it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Erin Wall, Paul Groves and David Wilson-Johnson.

Finally, there was a video film made (by Channel 4?) under the direction of Elijah Moshinsky. Here David Atherton leads the London Sinfonietta and a cast that includes Philip Langridge, Lucy Shelton and David Wilson-Johnson. It is available in low-definition on YouTube. I have tried to sample it but I just can’t cope with these films of opera. Sorry; of course, others may feel differently.

As I have laid out above, Tippett’s opera has hardly been neglected by his compatriots. When Ed Gardner stepped onto the stage at the Royal Festival Hall to begin the performance he spoke briefly to the audience about why he had chosen the piece to start his tenure. He does so again in the excellent booklet provided by the LPO label. The notes are further enhanced by a fantastic essay by Tippett’s biographer Oliver Soden that really digs deep into the piece and its meanings.

What to say of this work? It is a piece of symbolism and surrealism. A fantasy dream-like world of the seen and unseen, light and darkness and rebirth. Many have compared it to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Let’s do that: there is a Royal couple Mark and Jenifer whom we might link with Tamino and Pamina. We have the common people Bella and Jack whom we could see as Papageno and Papagena. There are priests too, here, called the Ancients. Mozart’s Queen of the Night though has changed gender and in The Midsummer Marriage is definitely King Fisher the Father of Jenifer.

Mozart’s Zauberflöte is full of hidden meaning and Tippett’s creation is no different. Ultimately as in 1791 Mozart had Tamino and Pamina undergo trials of truth and knowledge so Tippett in post-war, ration book Britain embraces the concepts of his friend the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung in the idea that to be truly complete as a person one must know both their dark and light sides.

At the start of the opera we are in a magic wood at dawn. It appears we are about to witness the runaway wedding of orphan Mark and Jenifer daughter of business tycoon King Fisher. The forest is home to some curious characters, the Ancients, who appear and disappear from a temple. Jenifer arrives not in bridal veil but dressed for another ritual. She ascends the stairs to the temple. She is searching for truth not love. Mark, distraught, escapes down into the darkness of a cave. King Fisher arrives and assuming Mark has Jenifer in the cave seeks entry. The gates are locked to him and even after summoning mechanic Jack (Bella’s Honey) to secure entry by force he is impotent. After some time, Jenifer and Mark reappear only to switch places in their paths to enlightenment.

The roles of Jenifer and Mark are, shall we say, challenging. High-lying tessitura makes the soprano role fearsome. Rachel Nicholls does really well. She has good diction too. “Up, up I climb to paradise” she sings, as she ascends the staircase and into the stratosphere of the soprano range. I remember she was a fresh-sounding Brünnhilde in the Hallé’s Siegfried with Mark Elder in 2018 (review) and assumed the role for English National Opera, too, in their last traversal of Die Walküre. Her partner Robert Murray struggles a little more but is successful in the final reckoning, I think. “As stallions stamping” (track 16) is very difficult. His instrument is rather exposed and there is a suggestion of a voice not fully equalised over the full range, with a gear-change in the middle. Am I being a little too harsh here? 

The long first act (63 minutes in this account) has its comic moments. The audience chuckle as Susan Bickley (an Ancient) asks if King Fisher should not address her directly rather than by proxy “Should he not speak to us himself? He’s easily in hearing”. King Fisher gets a great capitalist aria (tracks 9 and 10) where Ashley Riches is given free rein to set out his view on the state of events and does so with aplomb. The other more Earthly couple, Bella and Jack, are marvellously portrayed by Jennifer France and Toby Spence. They are a winning pair. Great diction (again) and fresh sounding they will really come into their own in Act 2. Jenifer’s aria “Is it so strange” (track 14) and its preceding fanfares come across marvellously in this recording. Gardner and the LPO balance the sound expertly and never dominate.

The forest of magical confusion is again the setting for the central act, the shortest of the three (35 minutes) and given a whole CD to itself in this presentation. It is in this act that we get our ballet (which Covent Garden wanted) in the form of three out of the four Ritual Dances. Perhaps I should mention an important character in the opera I haven’t referred to yet: Strephon, attendant to the Ancients, is a silent role but he leads the dances and has a lot to do in this act. Conversely the only principal singers we will hear are Bella and Jack.

As we found out in Act 1, Jennifer France and Toby Spence are perfect in these roles. The LPO provide a haze of shimmering afternoon heat in the orchestra and there are ample opportunities for principal players especially in the woodwind section to come to the fore. Bella, her heart beating with love for Jack asks him if it is a leap year, for that is when a girl may ask a boy to marry her. These tender moments (listen to the flute adding to the atmosphere at track 3 – 4:47) accompany their idyllic plans as they talk of the “little Jack” or “little Bella” they are hoping for. “Rock you to sleep” (track 4 – 0:59) is Jack’s lovely lullaby refrain and both soloists are adorable in their scene together.

Strephon begins to mark out the ground for the masque that must begin. These Ritual Dances are heralded by the majesty of the full orchestra and even if you don’t know the opera you may have heard them as they have a separate existence as an independent concert piece. In Act 2 we get three dances. In The Earth in Autumn Strephon plays a hare to a girl dancer’s hound. The Waters in Winter have Strephon as fish and the girl as otter. Finally in The Air in Spring Strephon is the injured bird about to be victim to the predatory hawk. The dances come over really well in this performance and just as William Glock (Director of the BBC Proms 1960-72) did at the Proms in the 1960’s, programming Act 2 is a great way of introducing yourself to this work if you are new to it.

When Tippett was in charge at Morley College he became a great advocate for early music. The English madrigalists Weelkes and Gibbons, Tallis and Purcell were introduced to his choirs and the London audiences lucky enough to be there. In 1946 at Central Hall, Westminster, he gave with Walter Goehr the first UK performance of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610. Sure, the LCC and the Arts Council were generous in those days in terms of funding these kinds of projects, but it was still a notable achievement. Tippett even took his Morley College choir into the Abbey Road studios in October 1948 to set down Tallis’ Spem in Alium on two red-label HMV 10-inch records. I used to collect 78’s but this set never came my way. I can’t imagine there are many still about and I would love to find a copy one day (DA 1921/22). I mention this as there are so many places in the score where we can hear the influence of this music on Tippett. The rhythmic bounce, the harmonic invention. Tippett is of course completely original yet as David Cairns says in his notes to the Lyrita set, reflecting on Hans Sachs’ monologue “Was duftet doch der Flieder” in Die Meistersinger, his music is both old and new.

In Act 3, King Fisher in an act of desperation brings in Madame Sosostris, a clairvoyant, to force the issue. Neither the force of his influence, nor his money has been able to bring Jenifer back and he is plain out of ideas. In the original announcements for the performance, I believe Sosostris was scheduled to be sung by the great Felicity Palmer. In the end we hear Claire Barnett-Jones and she is more than acceptable in this super role. Ashley Riches reminds me of Klingsor in Parsifal as he addresses the strange form of black veils covering the form of Sosostris at her first appearance and calls on her to find Jenifer.

In the first performances of 1955 Sosostris was sung by the Mexican Oralia Domínguez who was a great Mistress Quicklyin Falstaff for Glyndebourne and Covent Garden. Karajan also chose her for his Erda in both Rheingold and Siegfried. The all-knowing Erda has definite parallels with Sosostris. “Who hopes to conjure with the world of dreams” she sings, in a deep slow voice rising to the powerful “I am what has been, is and shall be”. It is a real test of an aria. Domínguez has the deep chest voice and the gravity of resonance for the role but obviously the sound is a little dull and faded. Helen Watts in the Philips/Lyrita recording has a smaller instrument but her diction is clearer, albeit with a hint of her Welsh accent. She does get a little overwhelmed by the brass at the apex of the aria but is lovely in the second gentler part “You who consult me”. Claire Barnett-Jones has the voice for the role and delivers in spades. Her assumption of Sosostris loses nothing in comparison to the great Helen Watts and that is praise indeed.

I know I am speaking anachronistically but after spending an hour with the aria I wondered what the likes of Clara Butt, Ernestine Schumann-Heink or perhaps Kathleen Ferrier (three great contraltos of the past) would have made of the role. Sosostris sees Jenifer but the picture she paints is not one King Fisher wants to hear, especially the bit about her lying in the flowered field as the manly youth rears rampant with symbol erect! Yes; Tippett leaves little to the imagination.

After Jack and Bella have rejected King Fisher’s yoke and found themselves, they exit to their own destiny leaving King Fisher to unveil Sosostris himself in order – he thinks – to free Jenifer. No mortal being has ever torn off her sacred veils and in doing this he reveals an incandescent bud that opens with giant leaves to reveal Mark and Jenifer in transfigured state (now you weren’t expecting that were you?). King Fisher tries to kill Mark with his pistol but as Mark and Jenifer turn their gaze toward him the great power they hold in union causes him to suffer a heart attack and die.

Strephon begins to prepare a ritual bonfire. This fourth and final Ritual Dance with chorus is climatic and a fitting culmination to the trials Mark and Jenifer have undergone. The LPO and Choir supplemented by the Chorus of ENO are superb and the sound captured by their team in the Royal Festival Hall breathtaking.

Ed Gardner’s tenure at the ENO was not fairly represented on disc. We have a DVD of his Death in Venice (from the 2013 revival) and Verdi’s Macbeth from the same year with Latonia Moore and Simon Keenlyside on a Chandos CD. He did so much more of the mainstream repertory and rarities like Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin and Martinů’s Julietta. It is great that the LPO label has released this recording and therefore preserved the interpretation for future generations.

David Cairns wrote that Tippett had a reputation as an eccentric who reached for more than he could grasp. His vision worked out through the 1940s and early 50s was certainly immense. It was his misfortune that by the time The Midsummer Marriage finally got to the stage, fashions in opera had changed. Peter Grimes had ushered in a new appetite for verismo and realism in English Opera and the grand tradition Tippett was writing in seemed old-fashioned to some. At the distance of almost seventy years since its premiere we can look back now and see what a masterpiece it was. There is no better place to illustrate this than the final chorus, a dazzling blaze of glory in this account “All things fall and are built again and those that build them again are gay!”. The final act has timing of 61 minutes.

If you did miss it on its release in 2022 do try and hear this CD; you won’t be disappointed. Let me finish by taking you back to January 1955 and the premiere. It is hard to believe this but literally the month before The Midsummer Marriage opened, the Royal Opera had premiered another work by another British composer, Walton’s Troilus and Cressida. Richard Lewis was the tenor for that one, too. Ed Gardner has already proved himself to be a wonderful conductor of Walton. Can we hope one day that he might give us this with his LPO? If he did, I don’t think you would have to wait two years for my review…

Philip Harrison 

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Other cast
Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano) : She-Ancient
Joshua Bloom (bass) : He-Ancient
John Findon (tenor) : Dancing Man
Paul Sheehan (bass-baritone) : Half-Tipsy Man
Robert Winslade Anderson (bass) : A Man
Sophie Goldrick (mezzo-soprano) : A Girl