Boughton: The Immortal Hour

Roderick Kennedy (bass), Patricia Taylor (contralto), Anne Dawson (soprano), David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Valery Hill (soprano), Roger Bryson (bass-baritone), Maldwyn Davies (tenor)

English Chamber Orchestra, The Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Alan G Melville

The Immortal Hour is part of theatrical folklore: in London in the early 1920s it ran, unprecedentedly, for 216 consecutive performances and, shortly afterwards, for a further 160 at the first... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: CDD22040
Label: Hyperion
Series: Dyads
Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Boughton: The Immortal Hour

Work length2:04:02

$62.00

$77.50

David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Roger Bryson (bass-baritone), Patricia Taylor (contralto), Anne Dawson (soprano), Maldwyn Davies (tenor), Roderick Kennedy (bass), Valery Hill (soprano), Roger Bryson (narrator)
English Chamber Orchestra, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Alan G Melville

Act 1 Scene 1. No 01. Prelude

Track length2:05

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 02. By dim moon-glimmering coasts and sad sea wastes (Dalua)

Track length1:30

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 03. Though you have travelled from one darkness to another (Voices in the Wood / Dalua)

Track length2:40

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 04. And if I tread the long, continuous way (Dalua / Voices in the Wood)

Track length1:24

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 05. I have come hither, led by dreams and visions (Dalua / Voices in the Wood)

Track length1:49

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 06. Hail, Son of Shadow! (Spirit Voice)

Track length2:14

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 07. I am old; more old, more ancient than the gods (Dalua)

Track length1:17

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 08. Brother and kin to all the twilit gods (Spirit Voice)

Track length2:17

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 09. [The sound of mocking laughter is heard from the wood]

Track length1:27

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 10. For Lu and Œngus laugh not (Dalua)

Track length2:57

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 11. Fair is the moonlight (Etain)

Track length3:31

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 12. Hail, daughter of kings (Dalua / Etain)

Track length1:36

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 13. Have you forgot the delicate smiling land (Dalua)

Track length0:51

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 14. I have forgotton all (Etain / Dalua)

Track length3:33

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 15. A king of men has wooed the Immortal Hour (Dalua / Etain)

Track length3:26

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 16. Led here by dreams (Dalua / Etain)

Track length3:44

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 17. I will go back to the country of the young (Etain)

Track length0:39

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 18. Sir, I am glad. I had not thought to see one here (Eochaidh / Dalua)

Track length2:50

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 19. I have come to this lone wood (Dalua / Eochaidh)

Track length1:26

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 20. Look, O king … I see a fountain (Dalua / Eochaidh)

Track length2:42

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 21. There is no backward way for such as I (Eochaidh / Dalua)

Track length2:50

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Act 1 Scene 1. No 22. I have heard you calling, Dalua (Eochaidh / Dalua)

Track length1:59

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 01. I've seen that man before who came tonight (Manus / Maive)

Track length2:16

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 02. Yes woman, yes, I know (Manus / Etain / Maive)

Track length3:06

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 03. But sometimes. Tell me, have you heard (Etain / Manus / Maive / Eochaidh)

Track length1:22

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 04. Good folk, I give you greeting (Eochaidh / Etain / Manus)

Track length1:38

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 05. Good sir, brave Lord! (Maive / Manus / Eochaidh / Etain)

Track length3:19

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 06. At last I know why dreams have led me hither (Eochaidh)

Track length1:44

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 07. And your name, fair lord? (Etain / Eochaidh)

Track length1:54

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 08. Truly, I now know full well (Eochaidh)

Track length2:28

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 09. I, too, am lifted with the breath (Etain / Eochaidh)

Track length1:15

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 10. Who laughed? (Eochaidh / Manus / Maive / Etain)

Track length0:39

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 11. Dear lord, sit here (Etain / Eochaidh)

Track length1:35

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Act 1 Scene 2. No 12. How beautiful they are (Spirit Voices)

Track length1:13

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Act 2. No 01. By the voice in the corries (Druids)

Track length4:02

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Act 2. No 02. The bells of youth are ringing (Maidens)

Track length1:32

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Act 2. No 03. But this was in the old, far-off days (Warriors)

Track length1:55

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Act 2. No 04. Hail, Eochaidh, high king of Eiré, hail! (Bards / Maidens / Warriors)

Track length1:54

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Act 2. No 05. Green fire of joy, green fire of life

Track length1:46

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Act 2. No 06. Etain, speak, my queen (Eochaidh / Etain)

Track length1:51

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Act 2. No 07. No, no my queen (Eochaidh)

Track length2:33

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Act 2. No 08. I, too, have heard strange delicate music (Etain)

Track length1:15

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Act 2. No 09. The queen! (Warriors / Maidens / Druids)

Track length3:04

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Act 2. No 10. Hail, Eochaidh, King of Eiré! (Midir / Eochaidh)

Track length1:52

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Act 2. No 11. I am a king's first son (Midir)

Track length1:50

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Act 2. No 12. Dagda, lord of thunder and silence (Druids)

Track length0:42

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Act 2. No 13. Fair lord, my thanks I give (Eochaidh / Midir)

Track length1:27

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Act 2. No 14. Have not great poets sung (Midir / Eochaidh)

Track length1:13

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Act 2. No 15. In the days of the Great Fires (Midir)

Track length3:09

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Act 2. No 16. Hear us, Œngus, beautiful, terrible, sun-lord (Eochaidh)

Track length1:03

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Act 2. No 17. But now, fair lord, tell me the boon you crave (Eochaidh / Midir)

Track length2:06

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Act 2. No 18. I have seen all things pass and all things go (Old Bard)

Track length2:25

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Act 2. No 19. Welcome my queen (Eochaidh / Etain)

Track length1:46

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Act 2. No 20. This nameless lord (Eochaidh / Etain)

Track length2:31

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Act 2. No 21. How beautiful they are (Midir)

Track length1:25

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Act 2. No 22. I have heard, I have dreamed that song (Etain)

Track length1:47

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Act 2. No 23. I am a song in the land of the young (Midir)

Track length3:12

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Act 2. No 24. I am a small green leaf in a great wood (Etain / Eochaidh / Midir)

Track length2:15

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Act 2. No 25. O do not leave me, Star of my Desire! (Eochaidh)

Track length0:40

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Act 2. No 26. Hasten, lost love, found love! (Midir / Etain)

Track length1:08

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Act 2. No 27. In the land of youth there are pleasant places (Spirit Voices)

Track length1:12

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Act 2. No 28. My dreams! My dreams! (Eochaidh / Spirit Voices)

Track length1:11

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Reviews
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Reviews

2010

The Immortal Hour is part of theatrical folklore: in London in the early 1920s it ran, unprecedentedly, for 216 consecutive performances and, shortly afterwards, for a further 160 at the first of several revivals. Within a decade it had been played a thousand times. Many in those audiences returned repeatedly, fascinated by the otherworldly mystery of the plot (it concerns the love of a mortal king, Eochaidh, for the faery princess Etain and the destruction of their happiness by her nostalgic longing for the Land of the Ever Young) and by the gentle, lyrical simplicity of its music. In the bleak aftermath of 1918, with civil war in Ireland, political instability at home and the names of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin emerging from obscurity into the headlines, what blessed escapism this blend of Celtic myth and folk-tinged pentatonic sweetness must have been. Boughton's score still has the power to evoke that world, immediately and effortlessly.
It's quiet, sweet music, muted in colour and softly plaintive, and whenever the plot demands more than this the opera sags. Midir, the visitant from the Land of the Ever Young who lures Etain away from the mortal world, really needs music of dangerously heady, Dionysiac incandescence, but Boughton's vocabulary can run to nothing more transported than the prettily lilting Faery Song and some pages of folksy lyricism with a few showy high notes. No less seriously the music has little dramatic grip. Despite all this, The ImmortalHour does have a quality, difficult to define, that's genuinely alluring. It's there in the touching purity of Etain's music (and how movingly Anne Dawson sings the role).
It's there in the moments of true darkness that the music achieves: Dalua, the tormented Lord of Shadow conjures up something of the sombre shudder of the supernatural world.
The performance could hardly speak more eloquently for the opera. Alan G Melville allows the music to emerge from and retreat into shadowy silences; all the principal singers are accomplished and the superb chorus has been placed so as to evoke a sense of space.

Boughton: The Immortal Hour

2 CDs

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