Howard Hanson: Merry Mount

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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Uncle Dave Lewis
Howard Hanson composed only one opera, "Merry Mount," first heard in an out-of-town tryout in Ann Arbor in 1933 and produced at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on February 10, 1934. Critical and audience response to "Merry Mount," which included a sizeable radio broadcast audience that also tuned into the premiere, was overwhelmingly positive, but posterity has not been kind to this work. Hanson extracted a popular orchestral suite from "Merry Mount," and later in life presented a couple of cut-down concert performances of the opera. Here, conductor Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony, and an expert cast, including soprano Lauren Flanigan and baritone Richard ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Uncle Dave Lewis
Howard Hanson composed only one opera, "Merry Mount," first heard in an out-of-town tryout in Ann Arbor in 1933 and produced at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on February 10, 1934. Critical and audience response to "Merry Mount," which included a sizeable radio broadcast audience that also tuned into the premiere, was overwhelmingly positive, but posterity has not been kind to this work. Hanson extracted a popular orchestral suite from "Merry Mount," and later in life presented a couple of cut-down concert performances of the opera. Here, conductor Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony, and an expert cast, including soprano Lauren Flanigan and baritone Richard Zeller, present the first complete modern recording of "Merry Mount" for Naxos, as recorded at a live concert performance held in Seattle in honor of Hanson's centenary in 1996. "Merry Mount" is an American opera that deserves hearing; the music is exceedingly well-crafted, serious, and the dramatic structure and story are involving. Schwarz, who has recorded the suite from "Merry Mount" as part of his Hanson edition for Delos, is deeply dedicated to this production, and the choral singing is outstanding, particularly that by the Northwest Boychoir. Stylistically Hanson's music is very direct and wedded to the ebb and flow of the tale told, which is anything but "merry," being a dark narrative of ascetic Puritans, lusty Cavaliers, hostile Indians, star-crossed love, and demonic possession taken from Twice Told Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot summary included in the booklet is rather dense and reproduced in tiny print; however, the opera is in clearly understandable English, so English speakers might just want to toss the book aside and listen. The sound is better than adequate in reproducing the performance and making the singing clear, although one could wish for a little more response in the low end.
Time Out New York
The music is thoroughly American. Hanson's famous Symphony No. 2, "Romantic," had received its premiere four years earlier, and its gently pulsing and turning strains regularly rise from the orchestra pit when the characters are at their most vulnerable.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 5/29/2007
  • Label: Naxos American
  • UPC: 730099691222
  • Catalog Number: 8669012
  • Sales rank: 129,338

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1–31 Merry Mount, opera in 3 acts, Op. 31 - Howard Hanson & Christopher Ball (123:44)
    Composed byHoward Hanson
    Conducted byGerard Schwarz
    Performed byChristopher Ball, Lauren Flanigan, Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Girls' Choir, Seattle Symphony Chorale, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Richard Zeller, Charles Austin, Joe Crnko, Jerome Wright, Joachim Schneider, Gene Buchholz, Fred K. Dent, Rosy Freudenstein, Paul Gudas, Diana Huber, Daniel Jessup, Barry Johnson, Gino Luchetti, Walter MacNeil, Louise Marley, Nan Beth Walton
    1. 1Act 1. Prelude
    2. 2Act 1. Be as a lion, dread Jehovah... From plots of Hell and witcheries
    3. 3Act 1. Ah - I deny thy Christ
    4. 4Act 1. A savoury discourse, good Master Bradford
    5. 5Act 1. Last night came One that paced a-down the stairway of the sky
    6. 6Act 1. My son, Thou'rt over-ripe for marriage!
    7. 7Act 1. The willow keep to thatch our sleep
    8. 8Act 1. Plentiful Tewke hath catched the preacher!
    9. 9Act 1. Gi' you good night, sir...
    10. 10Act 1. Scratch a Roundhead, find a rebel...Thrones of Earth be idle things
    11. 11Act 1. Right rev'rend priest, our holy joy... Respect the Sabbath day
    12. 12Act 1. Marigold! Lady!... Let us be lions of Jehovah
    13. 13Act 2. Scene 1. Prelude - I wind and I wind, My true love to find
    14. 14Act 2. Scene 1. From forth the hill... I christen 'Merry Mount' - Maypole Dance
    15. 15Act 2. Scene 1. Long Live the Lady
    16. 16Act 2. Scene 1. Marigold! When the morning stars together sang
    17. 17Act 2. Scene 1. Methinks I see th'infernal rendezvous of Satan and his bond-slaves
    18. 18Act 2. Scene 2. O pity me! Thou alone of women Canst heal this tortured heart
    19. 19Act 2. Scene 2. Let them strike twice, And I will come to thee!
    20. 20Act 2. Scene 2. Hale her to the village, A prisoner...
    21. 21Act 2. Scene 2. Almight Father, My King and my God
    22. 22Act 2. Scene 2. Chorus of Mystic Voices
    23. 23Act 2. Scene 3. Alleluia! Alleluia!
    24. 24Act 2. Scene 3. Now thou art mine
    25. 25Act 2. Scene 3. Rise up, my love my fair one
    26. 26Act 3. Scene 1. Prelude
    27. 27Act 3. Scene 2. Gird you with Sackcloth
    28. 28Act 3. Scene 2. Never more shall prayer ravish these lips!...
    29. 29Act 3. Scene 2. Woe, woe! Lost sheep are we
    30. 30Act 3. Scene 2. No witch am I; But one that long ago was happy
    31. 31Act 3. Scene 2. Ay, even now thy lover frets at Hellgate - Death to the Witch
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Gerard Schwarz Primary Artist
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