Barnett overture to The Mountain Sylph

Day 169

John Barnett

Overture to the Mountain Sylph

Victorian concert orchestra

Richard Bonynge

A busy day today so only time for a brief overture - in any case this is all that is recorded of John Barnett's 1834 opera The Mountain Sylph. John Barnett (1832-1890) had some early success, particularly with this opera from 1834 but rather faded away and largely retired from composition. This overture is short and rather attractive - it is very much in the style of Weber and if it were advertised as a hitherto unknown piece of Weber I don't think that many people would have been any the wiser. It builds to a nice climax but then winds down into a quiet ending - I assume to go straight into the action of the opera.

I don't suppose that there will ever be a chance to hear the whole opera - a pity as it would be intriguing to see whether Barnett kept up the high standard of the overture.