One might be surprised to see a work by
Grace Williams
on the
Lyrita
label, oriented as it is toward historical recordings;
Williams
turns up on recordings these days more often than she used to. However,
The Parlour
, a one-act opera, had some success when it was first performed by the forces heard here and others. This 1966 performance was recorded for broadcast by the BBC, but the opera has apparently never had a commercial release; it was thus an ideal choice for
.
is a comic opera of a sort. It is based on a story, En famille, by
Guy de Maupassant
, with a libretto by
herself.
Maupassant
's wry stories would make excellent bases for other operas;
wanted to write one based on the wartime tale Boule de Suif, which already had musical elements, but she never got the chance. The action is transferred from France to "a small seaport town" in Britain, and the story depicts a grandmother who is thought to be dead but turns out not to be, with results that reveal family stresses, to say the least. The performance featured a veteran contralto of the day,
Edith Coates
, as Grandmama, and the conductor,
Bryan Balkwill
, was another somewhat forgotten figure who was expert at keeping the action moving and controlling it in its energetic climax. The real highlight is the music of
, who apparently had no experience as a librettist but forged natural conversations and interactions between solo voices and ensembles. There are influences from
' friend,
Benjamin Britten
, but the voice remains fresh. It is ideal to have the opera in circulation again; an audience raised on television comedy would get it instantly, and the recording is especially commended to those who administer student operatic performance programs. ~ James Manheim