Walton: The Bear

Day 253

Walton: The Bear

Soloists

English Chamber Orchestra

James Lockhart

My first encounter with Walton was playing Crown Imperial in youth orchestra and I got to know Facade when I was still at school. Since then I have heard most of the major works but The Bear was new to me. It is a chamber opera for 3 voices and a small orchestra and was first performed at the Aldburgh Festival in  1967. 

The obvious comparison is with Britten, and there are certainly some moments in the score which could be mistaken for Britten but Walton's score is more eclectic, with a lot of hints at other music, from French Cabaret, to English Music Hall and , apt for an opera set in Russian, more than a hint of Stravinsky. There are also passages which could have come straight out of Bernstein's Candide. Walton clearly had a lot of fun writing it. It is perhaps surprising that he took so long before writing an opera. Facade pointed out his gift for musical humour early in his career and there are plenty of witty moments elsewhere in his output.

I certainly enjoyed listening to this. Perhaps the decision to have two low male voices and a mezzo soprano made some passages a bit heavier going that they might otherwise have been but the opera moves along at a good pace and, as ever with Walton, the orchestration is virtuosic and always inventive. The score indicated quite a few places where there could be cuts and perhaps Walton was concerned that the opera was perhaps just a little too long for a one-act piece.  It was first performed in conjunction with Berkeley's Castaway but more recent revivals have coupled with with a variety of other pieces. It is perhaps too long as a curtain raiser but not long enough as a complete opera in its own right.