Youtubeko deskribapena:
'A Village Romeo and Juliet' - the opera by Delius.
Classed as a 'Lyric drama in six scenes after Gettfried Keller'.....
This film is by Petr Weigl in 1991 - all the cast listed at the end on the credits.
Thomas Hampson as the Dark Fiddler -
ORF Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras from a previous recording.
A DVD is, I understand, commercially available.......
There is a few seconds missing from the initial scene, but this does not spoil the story....
There will be annotations added to this video.
Keller's original inspiration was based on a newspaper report of a true story
'A youth of nineteen and a girl of seventeen fell in love. They were children of poor parents who, having long been bitter ememies, refused their consent to the lovers' marriage. On 15 August the two young people went to an inn where the poor folk of the neighbourhood were making merry, and stayed dancing there until one in the morning, after which they left together. The following day their bodies were found in a nearby meadow'.
The first British performance of the opera was in 1910 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden under Sir Thomas Beecham it was performed again ten years later.
Delius would have been comfortable with the story of these doomed lovers mirrored in nature and the sense of loss and regret for things that might have been! Yet somehow love triumphs as the lovers exit this world together.... I wonder if Delius as an atheist would really have considered their death as an absolute void .......So much is left to the imagination! The spiritually evocative 'The Walk to the Paradise Garden', could imply so much more! Yet, let's not forget, The Paradise Garden was actually the name of an interesting pub! Make mine a pint of absinth!
