[1/14/2011] Flashback/preview, part 1: We haven't quite finished with Valerie Masterson yet (continued)

Caesar meets Cleopatra, and the queen begins to reel her man in with the wondrous aria "V'adoro, pupille" (sung here in a stunningly inapt whining English misrendering of the seductively worshipful Italian text). In this video based on John Copley's English National Opera production of Handel's Julius Caesar, soprano Valerie Masterson is Cleopatra; countertenor Tom Emlyn Williams (eek, that sound!), Nirenus; and mezzo Janet Baker, Julius Caesar. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts.


YES, OUR "MYSTERY" SOPRANO IS VALERIE MASTERSON

And we just heard her sing, from The Sorcerer, Aline's Act I entrance recitative ("My kindly friends, I thank you") and aria, "Oh, happy young heart" -- in other words, what she sings in response to the lovely choral greeting we heard the villagers offer in last Friday's preview. It's from the 1966 D'Oyly Carte stereo recording of The Sorcerer, conducted by Isidore Godfrey.

In last week's excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer we heard Valerie Masterson all too briefly as the heroine, Aline Sangazure -- but perhaps enough to suggest the difference it makes in a G&S opera when we have a singer of this quality. Aline doesn't have a lot of surefire music, and the usual run of mediocre operetta singer can make her music sound mediocre, which it isn't.

NOT TO BE MEAN OR ANYTHING, BUT HERE'S
MASTERSON AS ALINE AGAIN, AND TWO OTHERS

The point isn't to denigrate the other sopranos, who give the piece their best shot, but simply to demonstrate how -- at least to my ears -- the music itself sounds less substantial in their unfortunately less accomplished performances.

The Sorcerer: No. 6, Act I, Recitative and Aria, Aline, "My kindly friends, I thank you" . . . "Oh, happy young heart"

Valerie Masterson (s), Aline Sangazure; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

Muriel Dickson (s), Aline Sangazure; orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. EMI/Pearl, recorded 1933

Muriel Harding (s), Aline Sangazure; New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1953

Masterson actually established her career as principal soprano of the official G&S custodians, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, joining in time to record the small role of Melissa in Princess Ida, and then to record Aline in The Sorcerer, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Josephine in HMS Pinafore (the infamous Phase-4 recording, complete with seagulls), and Yum-Yum in The Mikado. (We've actually heard some of her Yum-Yum in an earlier G&S post.)

BY WAY OF A REFRESHER, HERE AGAIN IS THE
INCANTATION SCENE FROM THE SORCERER

Also, the link to the D'Oyly Carte stereo version of the scene became problematic at some point. It's fixed now, though, and the texts for the scene can also be found in last week's Saturday preview.

The Sorcerer: No. 13, Act I, Incantation, Mr. Wells, with Alexis and Aline, "Sprites of earth and air"

John Reed (b), John Wellington Wells; Valerie Masterson (s), Aline Sangazure; David Palmer (t), Alexis Pointdextre; D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

As I've pointed out, though, one of the great difficulties in casting the G&S operas effectively is that singers who can really realize Sullivan's music properly are too good to be "wasted" on G&S, and for better and worse, it wasn't long before Masterson was called to bigger and better things. Happily, she never cut her ties to Gilbert and Sullivan, and recorded quite a lot more before it was time to call it a career. (Unfortunately, a potentially incredibly important body of recordings she made have never been issued commercially, and very likely won't be. We'll come back to this.)

For tonight, I thought we'd hear a bit more of that opening scene of The Rhinegold, from the English-language cycle conducted by Reginald Goodall (originally recorded by EMI, now available on Chandos).


(2) THE RHINEGOLD AWAKENS

An increasing bright light penetrates down through the waters from high up on the central rock, gradually lighting up into a blindingly bright gleam of gold; a magical golden light breaks through the waters around.

WOGLINDE: Look, sisters!
The sunlight is greeting the gold.
WELLGUNDE: Thro' the wat'ry gloom
she calls to the sleeper to wake.
FLOSSHILDE: She kisses his eyelids,
tells them to open.
WELLGUNDE: See him smile now
with gentle light.
WOGLINDE: Thro' the floods afar
shine his glittering beams!
[They swim gracefully round the rock together.]
ALL THREE: Heia jaheia! heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la leia jahei!
Rhinegold! Rhinegold!
Radiant joy
we laugh in your your joyful shine!
Glorious beams
that glitter and gleam in the waves!
Heiajahei! heia jaheia!
Waken, friend!
Wake in joy!
Wonderful games
we'll play in your praise;
flash in the foam,
flame in the flood,
and floating around you,
dancing and singing
in joy we will dive to your bed!
Rhinegold! Rhinegold!
heia jaheia! heiajahei!
Wallala la la la heiajahei!
[With increasingly abandoned joy the maidens swim round the gold, which flickers radiantly through the water. ALBERICH's eyes are fixed on it.]

Valerie Masterson (s), Woglinde; Shelagh Squires (ms), Wellgunde; Helen Attfield (ms), Flosshilde; English National Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI (now Chandos), recorded live, March 1975


(3) IS THE RHINEGOLD GOOD FOR ANYTHING?

As Wellgunde informs the horny dwarf Alberich: "The world's wealth can be won by a man who, seizing the Rhinegold, fashions a ring, that ring makes him lord of the world." There's just one hitch. Kind of a lot is "required of him who'd master the gold":

WELLGUNDE: Surely you know
all that's required
of him who'd master the gold?
WOGLINDE: He must pronounce
a curse on love,
he must renounce
all joys of love
before he masters the magic,
a ring to forge from the gold.
WELLGUNDE: And that's a thing
that will never be
all men who live must love,
no one could ever renounce it.
WOGLINDE: And least of all he,
that lecherous dwarf,
all h ot desire,
panting with lust.
FLOSSHILDE: Well, I admit
we've nothing to fear.
I was nearly scorched
when he came near.
WELLGUNDE: A suplhur-brand
in the swirling waves,
inflamed with longing,
sizzling loud!
ALL THREE: Wallala! Wallaleia la la!
Loveliest Nibelung,
share in our joy.
In the golden radiance,
how handsome you seem!
Oh come, lovely one, laugh and be glad!
Heia jaheia! heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la leia jahei!
[They swim up and down laughing in the brightness. ALBERICH's attention is now completely absorbed by the gold.]

Valerie Masterson (s), Woglinde; Shelagh Squires (ms), Wellgunde; Helen Attfield (ms), Flosshilde; English National Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI (now Chandos), recorded live, March 1975


MOVING AHEAD WITH VALERIE MASTERSON

As I was trying to lay out some of the recorded material of Masterson's I have on hand, I realized that while it could easily fit into our usual format of two previews and a main post, I'd rather hold off on that main post, for several reasons. For one thing, I've only just ordered some additional stuff that seems likely to warrant inclusion. So at the moment i think we'll do another "flashback" tomorrow night and then suspend Valerie Masterson operations until we're ready for the main post.

For this Sunday I'm thinking we'll do some catching up on overture performances I haven't been able to offer you before. (Sometimes Sunday Classics is planned out with military precision, sometimes not so much. But then, if you've been reading the news from Afghanistan, you know that "military precision" is, shall we say, often overrated.


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