Balfe The Bohemian Girl

 Day167

Balfe The Bohemian Girl

Soloists

National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland

Richard Bonynge

The Bohemian Girl is the best known of the three operas making up the English Ring, not least because there is a Laurel and Hardy film which is, very loosely, based on the opera. It survived in the repertoire into the mid 20th century - oddly enough Sir Thomas Beecham only conducted two operas at Covent Garden after the war - Die Meistersinger and The Bohemian Girl. Like the other two operas in the set (if you can call it that) a few numbers had a life outside the stage, particularly from this opera I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls, which was a staple of the drawing room recital. There is a famous recording of it by Joan Sutherland at her most languorous - it sounds beautiful but there are no consonants and so she might as well be singing in any language you care so name.

The opera has all of the problems I referred to yesterday with Maritana, but alas none of its redeeming features. I found it a very poor piece of work - tedious and uninspired. Balfe may have been able to conjure up a good tune or two but he seems to have no idea how to go about writing an operatic scene. He doesn't use harmony to drive the action forward when necessary and there is a complete lack of any drama - some of it is simply comic where it is not supposed to be. He falls back on cliches and worn out gestures and seems to have very little imagination of his own.  I find it astonishing that such a poorly written piece could have been such a popular work throughout the late Victorian era and beyond. Had I not been determined to hear it all the way though for this project I would certainly have given up on it well before if it finally ground to a halt.