Lord Byron (opera)

Lord Byron is an opera in three acts by Virgil Thomson to an original English libretto by Jack Larson, inspired by the historical character Lord Byron. This was Thomson's third and final opera. He wrote it on commission from the Ford Foundation for the Metropolitan Opera (Met), but the Met never produced the opera. The first performance was at Lincoln Center, New York City on April 20, 1972,[1] by the music department of the Juilliard School with John Houseman as stage director,[2] Gerhard Samuel as the conductor and Alvin Ailey as the choreographer. A performance of a revised version, by the composer, took place in 1985 with the New York Opera Repertory Theater.[3][4]

The composer himself had great affection for this opera.[5] The premiere production received mixed reviews,[6] with one particularly negative from Harold C. Schonberg, including this description:

...a very bland score, distressingly banal (all those waltzes!) and frequently gagglingly cutesy.[7]

The opera has not yet received a full-scale professional production. Monadnock Music performed the opera in September 1991.[8]

  1. ^ "Lord Byron". US Opera. Christopher Hapka. 1996–2009. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  2. ^ Rodney Lister, Review of recording of Lord Byron. Tempo (New Ser.), 186, pp. 34-35 (September 1993).
  3. ^ Tim Page, "Revised Lord Byron Returns". New York Times, 1 December 1985.
  4. ^ John Rockwell (9 December 1985). "Opera: Thomson's Byron". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  5. ^ John Rockwell, "Virgil Thomson, Composer, Critic and Collaborator With Stein, Dies at 92". New York Times, 1 October 1989.
  6. ^ Anthony Tommasini (30 January 2000). "How Long, in Opera, Is Too Long?". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  7. ^ Mellers, Wilfrid, "Up and down the Aisle" (Autumn 1998). The Musical Times, 139 1864: pp. 53-57.
  8. ^ Bernard Holland (2 September 1991). "Review/Opera; Tackling Thomson's Sprawling Lord Byron". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-30.