At the Boar's Head
Encyclopedia
At the Boar's Head is an opera
in one act by the English composer Gustav Holst
, his op. 42. Holst himself described the work as "A Musical Interlude in One Act". The libretto
, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1
and Henry IV, Part 2
.
Holst devised the idea for this opera in 1924, whilst convalescing from an illness. During this period, he alternated between reading Henry IV, Part I and an edition of John Playford
's The English Dancing Master
, as well as folk melodies collected by Cecil Sharp
and others. Holst noticed that the rhythm and metre of Shakespeare's lines matched the tunes in the Playford, as well as the tunes that Sharp and others had collected. He then decided to set a number of those melodies to a story assembled from episodes set at the Boar's Head Inn from the two parts of Henry IV.
Three of the melodic passages are original, including a recitative for Prince Hal and a setting for the sonnets. Otherwise, Holst devised his score from reworking the collected folk tunes. Imogen Holst summarised the folk tunes which her father used in the score as follows:
The opera received its first performance at the Palace Theatre in Manchester
on 3 April 1925, by the British National Opera Company, with Malcolm Sargent
conducting. A performance at the Golders Green
Hippodrome followed on 20 April 1925, with the following singers among the cast:
Holst's opera was part of a double bill with Puccini
's Gianni Schicchi
. The first US performance was in February 1935 in New York City
, at the MacDowell Club, conducted and directed by Sandor Harmati
.
Contemporary audiences overall gave the opera a lukewarm reception. Imogen Holst
said of the opera that it contained "very little relief from the onslaught of the counterpoint". Hugh Ottaway has commented that another reason for the failure of the opera was that the music did not add sufficiently to the original texts.
. Throughout the story, the sound of door knocks bring reminders of events happening in the world outside the tavern, including the marching of soldiers to war.
The story begins in late afternoon, as Bardolph, Gadshill and Peto sing and drink in an upstairs room at the tavern. Falstaff arrives, followed by Prince Hal and Poins, whom Falstaff accuses of cowardice, for not assisting him in an attempted highway robbery earlier that day. Falstaff exaggerates the story, until Prince Hal says that he and Poins had stolen from Falstaff money that had prior been taken from unarmed travellers.
The Hostess announces the arrival of a gentleman from Court, whereupon Falstaff and the others leave. After Prince Hal delivers a soliloquy, Falstaff and the others return with news that civil war has begun. Falstaff advises Prince Hal to rehearse what he will say to the King before he returns to Court. Prince Hal practices with Falstaff in the role of the King, and later the two trade roles.
Doll Tearsheet arrives, and Prince Hal and Poins don disguises to be able to observe her and Falstaff's behaviour. Falstaff asks for a song, whereupon the disguised Prince Hal sings the Shakespeare sonnet "Devouring Time, blunt though the lion's paws". Falstaff is displeased and interrupts with the ballad "When Arthur first in Court began", and the two songs continue in parallel. A distant march precedes a communication from Bardolph to Prince Hal, who must go to the Court at Westminster. Prince Hal and Poins remove their disguises and leave to the shouts of the outside crowd.
Pistol calls to Falstaff off-stage, and then enters the inn, in spite of the misgivings of Doll and the concern of the Hostess for the inn's reputation. Pistol and Doll argue vehemently, and Pistol is ejected. Bardolph arrives with word that a dozen captains are searching all the taverns for Falstaff. Falstaff bids Doll farewell, but at the end, before all the men go off to war, Bardolph brings a last message for Doll Tearsheet to meet Falstaff one last time. The hostess pushes Doll through the door to the assignation at the close of the opera.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in one act by the English composer Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, his op. 42. Holst himself described the work as "A Musical Interlude in One Act". The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
and Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
.
Holst devised the idea for this opera in 1924, whilst convalescing from an illness. During this period, he alternated between reading Henry IV, Part I and an edition of John Playford
John Playford
John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...
's The English Dancing Master
The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master is a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English Country Dances. It was published in several editions by John Playford and his successors from 1651 until c1728...
, as well as folk melodies collected by Cecil Sharp
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...
and others. Holst noticed that the rhythm and metre of Shakespeare's lines matched the tunes in the Playford, as well as the tunes that Sharp and others had collected. He then decided to set a number of those melodies to a story assembled from episodes set at the Boar's Head Inn from the two parts of Henry IV.
Three of the melodic passages are original, including a recitative for Prince Hal and a setting for the sonnets. Otherwise, Holst devised his score from reworking the collected folk tunes. Imogen Holst summarised the folk tunes which her father used in the score as follows:
- John Playford, The English Dancing Master: 28 country dance tunes
- Cecil Sharp, published editions: 4 morris tunes, 1 traditional country dance
- Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time: 3 ballads
- G.B. Gardiner, manuscript collection: 2 folksongs
The opera received its first performance at the Palace Theatre in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
on 3 April 1925, by the British National Opera Company, with Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
conducting. A performance at the Golders Green
Golders Green
Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Although having some earlier history, it is essentially a 19th century suburban development situated about 5.3 miles north west of Charing Cross and centred on the crossroads of Golders Green Road and Finchley Road.In the...
Hippodrome followed on 20 April 1925, with the following singers among the cast:
- Norman Allin (Falstaff)
- Constance Wills (Doll Tearsheet)
- Tudor Davies (Prince Hal)
Holst's opera was part of a double bill with Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
. The first US performance was in February 1935 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, at the MacDowell Club, conducted and directed by Sandor Harmati
Sandor Harmati
Sandor Harmati was a Hungarian-American violinist, conductor and composer, best known for his song "Bluebird of Happiness" written in 1934 for Jan Peerce.-Biography:...
.
Contemporary audiences overall gave the opera a lukewarm reception. Imogen Holst
Imogen Holst
Imogen Clare Holst, CBE was a British composer and conductor, and sole child of composer Gustav Holst.Imogen Holst was brought up in west London and educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father was director of music...
said of the opera that it contained "very little relief from the onslaught of the counterpoint". Hugh Ottaway has commented that another reason for the failure of the opera was that the music did not add sufficiently to the original texts.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 3 April 1925(Conductor: Malcolm Sargent Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Falstaff | bass | Norman Allin Norman Allin Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice... |
| Prince Hal | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Tudor Davies Tudor Davies -Biography:Tudor Davies was born in Cymmer, near Porth, South Wales, on 12 November 1892. He studied in Cardiff and at the Royal College of Music in London. He served as an engineer in the Royal Navy during World War I... |
| Poins | bass | |
| Bardolph | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
|
| Doll Tearsheet | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Constance Willis |
| Peto | tenor | |
| Pistol | baritone | |
| Hostess | soprano | |
Synopsis
The opera observes classical unities of a single setting for the plot, with the events occurring in real time on a single day. The story focuses on the conversations between Falstaff and Prince Hal, and the characters who wander in and out of the Boar's Head Tavern in EastcheapEastcheap
Eastcheap is a street in the City of London. Its name derives from cheap, market, with the prefix "East" distinguishing it from the other former City of London market of Westcheap . In medieval times Eastcheap was the City's main meat market, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street...
. Throughout the story, the sound of door knocks bring reminders of events happening in the world outside the tavern, including the marching of soldiers to war.
The story begins in late afternoon, as Bardolph, Gadshill and Peto sing and drink in an upstairs room at the tavern. Falstaff arrives, followed by Prince Hal and Poins, whom Falstaff accuses of cowardice, for not assisting him in an attempted highway robbery earlier that day. Falstaff exaggerates the story, until Prince Hal says that he and Poins had stolen from Falstaff money that had prior been taken from unarmed travellers.
The Hostess announces the arrival of a gentleman from Court, whereupon Falstaff and the others leave. After Prince Hal delivers a soliloquy, Falstaff and the others return with news that civil war has begun. Falstaff advises Prince Hal to rehearse what he will say to the King before he returns to Court. Prince Hal practices with Falstaff in the role of the King, and later the two trade roles.
Doll Tearsheet arrives, and Prince Hal and Poins don disguises to be able to observe her and Falstaff's behaviour. Falstaff asks for a song, whereupon the disguised Prince Hal sings the Shakespeare sonnet "Devouring Time, blunt though the lion's paws". Falstaff is displeased and interrupts with the ballad "When Arthur first in Court began", and the two songs continue in parallel. A distant march precedes a communication from Bardolph to Prince Hal, who must go to the Court at Westminster. Prince Hal and Poins remove their disguises and leave to the shouts of the outside crowd.
Pistol calls to Falstaff off-stage, and then enters the inn, in spite of the misgivings of Doll and the concern of the Hostess for the inn's reputation. Pistol and Doll argue vehemently, and Pistol is ejected. Bardolph arrives with word that a dozen captains are searching all the taverns for Falstaff. Falstaff bids Doll farewell, but at the end, before all the men go off to war, Bardolph brings a last message for Doll Tearsheet to meet Falstaff one last time. The hostess pushes Doll through the door to the assignation at the close of the opera.
Recording
- HMV 7243 5 65127 2 6: Philip LangridgePhilip LangridgePhilip Gordon Langridge CBE was an English tenor, considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio....
(Prince Hal), John Tomlinson (Falstaff), Elise Ross (Hostess), Felicity PalmerFelicity PalmerDame Felicity Joan Palmer, DBE , is an English mezzo-soprano and music professor. She sang soprano roles until 1983....
(Doll Tearsheet), David Wilson-Johnson (Pistol), Peter Hall (Peto), Richard Suart (Bardolph), Michael George (Poins); Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; David AthertonDavid AthertonDavid Atherton OBE, is an English conductor.-Background:Atherton was born in Blackpool, Lancashire in a musical family. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School. His father, Robert Atherton, was the Music Master at St Joseph's College, Blackpool and was also a conductor...
, conductor