Loder Raymond and Agnes

 Day 168

E Loder Raymond and Agnes

Soloists

Richard Bonyge

 This is not part of the so-called English Ring - the third part of that will come tomorrow. It is instead one of the most intriguing of all English romantic operas.  Loder was well connected musically - he studied with Beethoven’s friend and colleague Ferdinand Reis - but has somehow disappeared almost completely from English, let alone European, musical history. He wrote several operas but this is the only one which has been performed since his death and is the only one one which is recorded. It had a fairly successful premiere in Manchester (1855) and had a few performances in a secondary opera house in London. After that it disappeared completely until a chance discovery of the vocal score by the scholar Nicholas Temperley let to a revival at Cambridge in the 1960s, where several leading operatic critics heaped praise on the score. Since then it has not been revived until this recent recording.

It is a fine opera. Loder had a real sense of dramatic flair and knew how to balance action and reflection. The harmonic language is well developed - certainly for an English opera of the time - and the melodic lines are attractive. Yes there is a bit of blood and thunder and rum-it-tum, but not much of it and instead we get orchestral accompaniments of real insight and invention. There are some splendid ensembles, particularly in the Act 2 finale and some affecting recitative. The musical language owes much to Weber and Rossini, with touches of Auber and Meyerbeer but it is never derivative 

This was a real find. I had know about the opéra from reading reviews of the Cambridge revival but I had never heard any of the music before. It is astonishing that this work was completely forgotten whereas the mediocre (to put in generously) Bohemian Girl, which dates from around the same time, held the stage for 100 years.  One can only imagine that the history of opera in England might have been quite different if this opera had been taken up property at Covent Garden and the big international opera houses of Europe - it certainly would not have been out of place on any of those major stages. Instead it was only a chance discovery of the score that prevented it being completely forgotten.