Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Delius: Koanga

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Every year at this time I make sure to broadcast one of the seven operas of Frederick Delius (1862-1934), in part because I think the music of this, "The English Debussy" so beautifully evokes the mood of the lazy, hazy end of summertime. Since I began lyric theater broadcasting back in the Summer of 1982 I have gone through several complete cycles of the Delius operas.

This summer we come back to Koanga (1904), in which Delius fashioned a Creole tragedy for the lyric stage based upon American writer George Cable's book, The Grandissime. Delius introduced the element of conflict between Christianity and the Voodoo religion into the libretto he himself prepared. Delius spent a crucial period in his artistic development in the American Southland. He was tremendously inspired by the hymnsinging of the humble Black folk.

Koanga premiered in Germany with its libretto translated into German by Delius' wife Jelka. The English language libretto was never entirely satisfactory to begin with, and the opera has suffered for it. Koanga, for all its lush, humid atmospheric beauty, was quickly forgotten. The Washington Opera Society revived it in 1970 with a revised and improved wordbook. Two of the vocal principals in the staged revival sang for the world premiere recording released through EMI on Angel LP's in the United States in 1974. Baritone Eugene Holmes held forth in the title role as Koanga, the African prince and Voodoo priest. Soprano Claudia Lindsey took the role of the mulatto slave woman Palmyra. Bass Raymond Herincx portrayed Don Jose Martinez the plantation owner. Sir Charles Groves conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and John Alldis Choir.

In EMI's vaults there exists another previously unreleased live recording of Koanga made at the Camden Festival in England in 1972. Again Groves leads the London Symphony. This is in fact the earlier of the two potential world premiere recordings of the opera. Sonically it is slightly inferior, with its occasional audience noise, when compared to the later studio taping. It has, however, the excitement and immediacy of live performance in its favor, and it has the lead voices of Holmes and Lindsey. An Italian record label, Intaglio, obtained access to the Camden Festival tapes, and issued the 1972 English production of Koanga on two compact discs in 1993. This will be the sixth time in my broadcast cycles of the Delius operas that I have presented this work, the fifth time being on Sunday, August 30, 2009. Keep listening for a recording of Delius' masterpiece Seadrift (1908), a setting of the poetry of Walt Whitman, for chorus, orchestra and baritone soloist.