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Opera of the Phantom | Walter Hall, Toronto
Opera of the Phantom | Walter Hall, Toronto
Songs of the supernatural
date: November 26, 1989
The current runaway success of the musical “Phantom of the Opera” encouraged us to devise a sequence of songs dealing with all aspects of the supernatural, taken from English, French and German repertoire and separated by suitable poetical readings. Britten’s realisation of Purcell’s “Saul and the Witch at Endor” proved a solid and entirely serious centrepiece. After a venturesome performance of Saint-Saëns’s “Danse macabre” as a piano-duet, we launched into ghoulishly lighthearted territory, beginning with Mary Lou Fallis in Codman’s “The Fairy Song”, leading into an extract from the 19th century “Phantom of the Opera” and swiftly concluding with “Ding-Dong, The Witch is Dead!” from “The Wizard of Oz”.
| Song | Artist | Composer | Poet |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Song of Enchantment (Tit for Tat) | McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Britten, Benjamin | Mare, Walter de la |
| Nachtwandler, Op.86/3 | Braun, Russell, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Brahms, Johannes | Kalbeck, Max |
| Nächtens, Op.112/2 | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Braun, Russell, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Brahms, Johannes | Kugler, Franz Theodor |
| Walpurgisnacht, Op.75/4 | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Brahms, Johannes | Alexis, Willibald |
| Die Geister am Mummelsee (Mörike-Lieder) | Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Wolf, Hugo | Mörike, Eduard |
| Nixe Binsefuss (Mörike-Lieder) | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Wolf, Hugo | Mörike, Eduard |
| Der Fischerknabe | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Liszt, Franz | Schiller, Friedrich von |
| Erlkönig, Op.1/3 | Braun, Russell, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Loewe, Carl | Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von |
| The Choirmaster’s Burial (or The Tenor Man’s Story), Op.52/5 (Winter Words) | Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Britten, Benjamin | Hardy, Thomas |
| The New Ghost (Four Poems by Fredegond Shove) | McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | Shove, Fredegond |
| Saul and the Witch at Endor | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Braun, Russell, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Purcell, Henry, real. Britten, Benjamin | anon.., after Samuel I 28 |
| Is my team ploughing? (A Shropshire Lad) | Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| The Ash Grove | McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Welsh folksong, arr. Britten, Benjamin | anon. |
| The Lover’s Ghost (Four English Folksongs) | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Braun, Russell, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | anon. |
| Colloque sentimental (Fêtes galantes II) | Braun, Russell, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Debussy, Claude | Verlaine, Paul |
| Danse macabre, Op.40 | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Saint-Saëns, Camille | n/a |
| The Fairy Song | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Codman, Stephen | Roscoe, William |
| Fantasia (Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV542) | Ubukata, Bruce, organ | Bach, Johann Sebastian | n/a |
| Ding-Dong, The Witch Is Dead! (The Wizard of Oz) | Fallis, Mary Lou, soprano; McWatt, Anne, mezzo; Butterfield, Peter, tenor; Braun, Russell, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano; Ubukata, Bruce, organ | Arlen, Harold | Harburg, Edgar Yipsel |