MARTHA - Nancy instructs the Huntresses

From the Bel Canto Opera production of Martha, Nancy, confidante of Lady Harriet (aka Martha) gives advice to the young nubile huntresses on the chase, how to hunt for and catch a man.

NANCY: Ladies fair, don't despair
Life is too amusing!
To be blunt, join the hunt -
men are there for choosing!
Set your cap at some chap who is worth the snaring.
Off you go; chase your beau withh unsparring daring!
Venus de Milo, with no arms,
caught her prey with her charms,
what an armless Greek can do...so can you!

If a girl seeks an Earl, or a life Baronial
Mount the steed! It may lead somewhere matrimonial!
If you ride...on the side...you will get there faster,
Stay in front! - Lead the hunt -
You might bag the Master!
If you spot a handsome stag - go out flat - never flag!
She who gets there first - with luck -
gets the buck!

HUNTRESSES: Yes, if you spot a handsome stag, then go flat out and never flag!
It's true that she who gets there first, with luck,
captures the buck!

Words © Tom Boyd

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bel
• canto
• opera
• martha
• von
• flotow
• boyd
• nancy
• sue
• black

[prejcush]

Much of the music of Martha actually belongs to a more tragic work. The ouverture is mostly held in minor keys especially a-minor the favorite of the german romantic composers. Lionels rejection of the remorseful Lady Harriet is also dark. Martha is certainly not a trivial work but a masterpiece in its own genre that skillfully blends light and shadow like Schuberts impromptus. Turning it into nothing but a silly vaudeville might please an english audience but shows no respect for the work.

[hughdrover]

Your idea that Martha is a tragic work and masterpiece in the German romantic tradition is quite unique. Germans call it eine romantisch-komische Oper and the acclaimed authority Kobbé wrote Flotow was French in his musical training, and both the plot and score of Martha were French in origin. This accounts for its being so typically French and not in the slightest degree German". In fact it achieved its greatest popularity when sung by Caruso in Italian, and was thereafter seldom performed.

[hughdrover]

No respect? Of this 2002 English production of MARTHA, one critic wrote: "Thank you Bel Canto Opera for introducing us to a work full of the most enchanting melodies, to singing of the highest quality and to a musical and dramatic spectacle to savour". For an opera company to revive a dusty, rarely performed and all-but-forgotten Victorian opera by a little-known composer and make it accessible and enjoyable to a modern audience surely shows the ultimate respect for the work.

[prejcush]

I am sorry but Martha is not a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. It is not supposed be funny, it is a tragic story that almost ends sad. I don't think that this company or the performers are very well aquainted with thw german romantic tradition.

[hughdrover]

prejcush, Martha is a light, trivial work by a minor composer who borrowed the plot from a French ballet, and borrowed the best tune from an Irish air. A romantic comedy of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl repents, boy rejects girl, girl wins boy over; a story about as tragic as Bridgit Jones' Diary. Nancy's song about hunting for men is fairly amusing in German, but much wittier in English - but then the English are famous for their humour and the Germans are famous for not having any.

[prejcush]

If it is a light trivial work why then bother to give it at all? I admit that the opera has some absurd moments but making it into a complete screwball comedy adds no new dimensions to the piece. From a continental point of view this work rooted in the romantic german tradition turns in to a strange chimera when sung in english by artists brought up with the tradition and style of the Savoy operas. There is positively more Zauberflöte and Freischütz in Martha than Gilbert and Sullivan.

[hughdrover]

Trivial operas can well be worth putting on, as charming, tuneful and amusing evenings of entertainment e.g. The Elixir of Love, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, The Barber of Seville etc. But enough about Martha. You've made your point that you see it as a dark tragedy whereas others see it as a light comedy. We'll leave it there as we're getting repetitious.

[traubloch]

Sue Black is terrific.