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Concept
The Immortal Hour
Summary
The Immortal Hour is an opera by English composer Rutland Boughton. Boughton adapted his own libretto from the play of the same name by Fiona MacLeod, a pseudonym of writer William Sharp.
The Immortal Hour is a fairy tale or fairy opera, with a mood and theme similar to Dvořák's Rusalka and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Magic and nature spirits play important roles in the storyline. The fairy people are not mischievous, childlike sprites, but are proud and powerful: immortal demigods who are feared by mortals and who can (and do) interfere with the lives of men and women. Alternatively, the progression of Etain into the mortal realm and her pursuit and redemption by Midir have similarities with the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
In this work, completed in December of 1913, Boughton combined Wagnerian approaches to musical themes and symbolism with a folk-like modal approach to the music itself, reflective of the Celtic origins of the tale, which is based on the Irish story Tochmarc Étaíne.
The Immortal Hour was first performed in Glastonbury on 26 August 1914, at the inaugural Glastonbury Festival which Boughton co-founded. Boughton himself sang Dalua, replacing a singer who had fallen sick. In 1921, Penelope Spencer was engaged by Boughton to stage dances and choruses for the Glastonbury Festival, some of which he incorporated into this opera. It was first performed with orchestra (as against piano) at the Winter Gardens 7-9 January 1915.
The opera ran in London for 216 consecutive performances in 1922, and for a further 160 performances the following year, and was staged in New York City in 1926.
It was revived at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in 1953. The first recording of the complete work, sponsored by The Rutland Boughton Trust, took place in 1983 and was released the following year by Hyperion Records (CDD22040) on CD and as a boxed vinyl set.
Dame Ethel Smyth in 1922 said "The Immortal Hour enchants me. The whole thing gripped me". In 1924, Sir Edward Elgar described the opera as "a work of genius".
Official source
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