Sir Richard Rodney Bennett
The Mines of Sulphur
Duration: 180'
Libretto von: Beverley Cross
Übersetzer: Kurt Herrmann
Roles:
Jenny
Sopran / Rosalind
Mezzosopran / Leda
Alt / Boconnion
Tenor / Fenney
Tenor / Tovey
Bariton / Tooley
Bariton / Braxton (Sherrin)
Bassbariton / Trim
stumme Rolle
Instrumentation details:
3·2·3·2 - 4·2·3·1 - timp., perc. (3), xyl., vib., glock. - hp., cel., pno., hpsd. - str.
Bennett - The Mines of Sulphur
Audio preview
Work introduction
Part eerie
ghost story, part murder mystery, Sir
Richard Rodney Bennett’s opera The Mines of Sulphur made a
triumphant eleventh hour addition to Glimmerglass Opera’s 2004 festival season in
Cooperstown, New York. Commissioned by Sadler’s Wells in 1965,
Bennett’s opera with its richly coloured score was widely acclaimed at the time
of its première but fell into eclipse shortly after. It was such a wonderful surprise to witness a new life for this work,
says the composer, and in such a
marvellous new production. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Glimmerglass
music director Stewart Robertson remembered the opera from his student days in Glasgow and suggested it
when the scheduled première at the festival of a commissioned work was
postponed. The gothic tale takes place in an 18th-century English country house
where the wealthy landowner, Braxton, has been murdered by a vagabond trio of
outcasts. A travelling band of actors arrives unexpectedly seeking shelter and enacts
a play that reveals the treachery. But who are these actors really and what
else have they wrought upon the household? As Shakespeare wrote in Othello, Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons…[and]
burn like the mines of sulphur. A riveting climax ensues.