CHAN 9781(2) FRONT.qxd 26/7/07 3:35 pm Page 1 CHAN 9781(2) CHANDOS CHAN 9781 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 3:39 pm Page 2 Courtesy of The Britten–Pears Library Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) Paul Bunyan An operetta in two acts and a prologue, Op. 17 Libretto by W.H. Auden The Royal Opera Production Directed for the stage by Francesca Zambello Recorded ‘live’ during performances at Sadler’s Wells Theatre ...........................................Pamela Helen Stephen mezzo-soprano Three Wild Geese (in the Prologue) ..................................................Leah-Marian Jones mezzo-soprano {........................................................................Lillian Watson soprano Narrator (in the Ballad Interludes) ..............................................................Peter Coleman-Wright baritone The Voice of Paul Bunyan ....................................................................................Kenneth Cranham speaker Johnny Inkslinger, bookkeeper ................................................................................................Kurt Streit tenor Tiny, Paul Bunyan’s daughter ........................................................................................Susan Gritton soprano Hot Biscuit Slim, a good cook ..................................................................................Timothy Robinson tenor Sam Sharkey ........................................................................................Francis Egerton tenor two bad cooks Ben Benny } {...................................................................................Graeme Broadbent bass Hel Helson, foreman ..............................................................................................................Jeremy White bass Andy Anderson ..................................................................................Neil Gillespie tenor Pete Peterson ....................................................................................Neil Griffiths tenor Jen Jenson four Swedes ......................................................................Christopher Lackner bass Cross Crosshaulson }{...............................................................................Jonathan Coad bass Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden, John Shears, a farmer ........................................................................................Roderick Earle bass-baritone USA, 1941. 2 3 CHAN 9781 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 3:39 pm Page 4 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page 1 1 Introduction 2:45 157 2 2 Prologue 11:03 149 3 2a First Ballad Interlude 2:45 157 Western Union Boy..................................................................................................................Henry Moss tenor Fido, a dog ........................................................................................................................Lillian Watson soprano Act I 44:43 31 Moppet ..............................................................................Pamela Helen Stephen mezzo-soprano Scene 1 23:30 31 two cats Poppet } {.....................................................................................Leah-Marian Jones mezzo-soprano 4 3 Bunyan’s Greeting 2:25 161 ........................................................Leah-Marian Jones mezzo-soprano 5 3a Call of Lumberjacks 0:16 161 ........................................................................Timothy Robinson tenor 6 4 Lumberjacks’ Chorus 2:07 161 Quartet of the Defeated (Blues) ............................................................Peter Coleman-Wright baritone 7 4a Bunyan’s Welcome 0:25 165 { ....................................................................................Jeremy White bass 8 5 Quartet of Swedes 1:20 165 ............................................................................................................Jonathan Fisher bass 9 6 Western Union Boy’s Song 1:36 167 Three Lumberjacks ........................................................................................................Christopher Keyte bass 10 7 Cooks’ Duet 3:39 169 { ..............................................................................................................John Winfield tenor 11 8 Animal Trio 1:36 177 ........................................................................................Donaldson Bell bass 12 8a Bunyan’s Goodnight (i) 0:21 177 ......................................................................................Richard Hazell bass 13 8b Exit of Lumberjacks 0:54 177 Four Cronies of Hel Helson ..................................................................................Wyndham Parfitt bass 14 9 The Blues – Quartet of the Defeated 4:26 177 { ........................................................................................Bryan Secombe bass 15 10 Bunyan’s Goodnight (ii) 0:37 181 Chorus of Old Trees, Four Young Trees, Lumberjacks, Farmers and Frontier Women 16 10a Second Ballad Interlude 4:19 181 The Royal Opera Chorus Scene 2 23:30 31 Terry Edwards chorus director 17 11 Food Chorus 4:29 187 The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House 18 12 Chorus Accusation 0:38 193 19 Vasko Vassilev concert master 12a Slim’s Song 2:51 195 Richard Hickox 20 13 Bunyan’s Return 0:47 199 21 14 Inkslinger’s Song 4:59 199 22 14a Entrance of Chorus 0:32 101 23 15 Tiny’s Entrance 1:13 103 4 5 CHAN 9781 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 3:39 pm Page 6 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page 24 15a Tiny’s Song 4:39 105 25 16 Inkslinger’s Regret 2:11 109 26 17 Bunyan’s Goodnight (iii) 2:09 111 TT 63:29 111 Catherine Ashmore COMPACT DISC TWO [p. 00] Act II 44:43 [p. 31] Scene 1 23:30 [p. 31] 1 18 Bunyan’s Good Morning 2:55 115 2 18a Shears’s Song 0:44 117 3 18b Bunyan’s Warning 0:23 117 4 19 Farmers’ Song 1:54 119 5 19a Farmers’ Exit 1:06 119 6 20 The Mocking of Hel Helson 4:53 121 7 21 Fido’s Sympathy 0:36 125 8 22 Cats’ Creed 1:32 125 9 23 The Fight 1:16 127 10 Love Duet 2:27 129 11 Mock Funeral March 4:24 133 12 Hymn 3:15 137 13 24 Third Ballad Interlude 2:18 137 Scene 2 23:30 [p. 31] 14 25 The Christmas Party 9:58 141 15 26 Bunyan’s Farewell 2:15 149 16 27 Litany 7:05 151 TT 47:02 151 Peter Coleman-Wright as the Narrator 6 7 CHAN 9781 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 3:39 pm Page 8 for attractive, memorable melody, it also encouraged Paul Bunyan, and it is articulated with remarkable Britten and Auden: Paul Bunyan composer and librettist to align their work with the force of expression – verbal and musical – in the final tradition of profound seriousness which lay at the moments of the concluding Litany: heart of the American musical of the 1930s and early Every day America’s destroyed and re-created, Britten’s American Dream melodies appear as refreshing and seemingly 1940s. Admirers of more recent musicals might America is what you do, In many respects Britten’s Paul Bunyan, with a libretto spontaneous as anything written in his long career. To indeed be somewhat taken aback to learn of the America is I and you. by W.H. Auden, represents the quintessentially be sure, Britten’s melodic gift proved one of the most American musical’s deeper purpose, a purpose born America is what you choose to make it. ‘American’ work of the composer’s North American enduring aspects of his compositional technique and out of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Work Progress The three strophes of the Litany provide an years (1939–42). Yet to the legions of Britten’s survived intact to the end. But the naïve tunefulness Administration policies, which sought to revitalise the unexpected conclusion to the exuberance of the postwar admirers, whose enthusiasm was fuelled by of Paul Bunyan demonstrates unequivocally that economic and cultural life of a nation reeling from the Christmas Party scene – a juxtaposition of highjinks the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the Serenade for Britten’s gifts in this direction were there at the very years of the Great Depression. In the wake of the Wall and highly serious discourse. The Litany’s message is tenor, horn and strings and, above all, by Peter start of his stage career. The melodic richness of Street crash the American dream became for many a further emphasised by the trio of animals’ petitions, Grimes, Paul Bunyan remained – and continued to Paul Bunyan undoubtedly derives from the work’s nightmare that was all too real. presented in the form of an Anglican (!) chant remain – an unknown quantity, confined to the conception as a high school operetta and from an The social conscience that had played a central role reminiscent of Auden and Britten’s churchgoing days: composer’s bottom drawer following its withdrawal aborted plan to stage the first performances on in Britten and Auden’s collaborations of the 1930s is From a Pressure Group that says I am the Constitution, after the flawed premiere in New York in May 1941. Broadway. One has only to listen to the culminating a distinctive feature of Paul Bunyan, planting the From those who say Patriotism and mean Persecution, Even Britten’s closest collaborators had very little choral section from the Prologue, ‘But once in a while work firmly in the loosely politicised tradition of the From a Tolerance that is really inertia and disillusion… notion of the nature and scope of this ‘choral the odd thing happens’, with its expansive phrases American musical of the period. As the era of the From entertainments neither true nor beautiful nor witty, operetta’ until the composer was persuaded to revive and ‘blue’-note-tinged final cadence, or Tiny’s New Deal advanced, Broadway itself changed. From a homespun humour manufactured in the city, a few isolated numbers