The Foresters

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Birch trees in Sherwood Forest

The Foresters is a set of incidental music in nine movements composed in 1891 by Arthur Sullivan for a play written by Alfred Tennyson called The Foresters, or, Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

1 The play
2 Roles
3 Musical numbers
4 Recording
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

[edit] The play

Sullivan and Tennyson had worked together before, on a song cycle for tenor, The Window, written and composed in 1867-68, but not published until 1871. Ten years later, Tennyson started work on a play based on the Robin Hood legend, but the project was not taken up by Henry Irving, to whom Tennyson offered it, and not until 1891 did Tennyson find a producer willing to stage the play. The American impresario Augustin Daly offered to produce it in New York.

The text, consisting of a mixture of blank verse and prose, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson’s suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose. Daly made numerous changes to Tennyson's text, cutting dialogue, moving events from one act to another, and reassigning songs and dialogue to different characters. Henry Widmer, Daly's musical assistant, may have contributed some music to the score.^[1] Sullivan completed the score by December 1891 and the play opened in New York on March 17, 1892. It was a success and was then played in seven other major American cities. An English production opened at the new Daly's Theatre, in London, on October 3, 1893^[2], by which time the author had died. Despite the respect in which Lord Tennyson was held, the play received poor notices and ran for only seventeen performances. Sullivan’s music, by contrast, was well reviewed.

Sullivan’s biographers, and scholars of his work, have been unanimous in censuring Tennyson’s text. Gervase Hughes wrote, "How did the author of The Idylls of the King come to put his name to such puerile rubbish?" Arthur Jacobs called the piece "perhaps the oddest of all the stage works which [Sullivan] was invited to undertake." Percy Young scoffed, "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever." But they did not praise Sullivan’s score either: "One of Sullivan’s lamest... resourceless in magic" (Young); "[not] even one memorable number" (Jacobs). Recent critics, however, have praised Sullivan's contribution. ^[3]

[edit] Roles

Robin Hood and Maid Marian (poster, ca. 1880)

Vocal ranges noted for roles that sing parts in the incidental music:

Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon
King Richard, Coeur de Lion
Prince John
Followers of Robin Hood:

Little John

Will Scarlet (tenor)

Friar Tuck

Much

A Justiciary
Sheriff of Nottingham
Abbot of St. Mary's
Sir Richard Lea
Walter Lea, Son of Sir Richard Lea
Maid Marian, Daughter of Sir Richard Lea (mezzo-soprano)
Kate, Attendant on Marian (soprano)
Titania (soprano)
Fairy (soprano)
Old Woman
Retainers, Messengers, Merry Men, Mercenaries, Friars, Beggars, Sailors, Peasants, etc.

[edit] Musical numbers

The nine musical numbers, with the opening lines of text for each, are:
Act I (‘The Bond’ )

Song sung by Kate, attendant to Maid Marian

The warrior Earl of Allendale,

He loved the Lady Anne;

The lady loved the master well,

The maid she loved the man.

Song sung by Maid Marian

Love flew in at the window,

As Wealth walk'd in at the door.

'You have come for you saw Wealth coming,' said I.

But he flutter'd his wings with a sweet little cry,

'I'll cleave to you rich or poor.'

Chorus

Long live Richard,

Robin and Richard!

Long live Richard!

Down with John!

Drink to the Lion-heart

Every-one!

Chorus [originally a solo for Robin Hood]

To sleep! to sleep! The long bright day is done,

And darkness rises from the fallen sun.

To sleep! to sleep!

Act II (‘The Flight of Marian’)

Song sung by Will Scarlet [originally a chorus]

There is no land like England,

Where'er the light of day be;

There are no hearts like English hearts,

Such hearts of oak as they be.

Scene for Titania and fairies

Evil Fairy! do you hear?

So he said who lieth here.

We be fairies of the wood.

We be neither bad nor good.

Back and side and hip and rib,

Nip, nip him for his fib.

Act III (‘The Crowning of Marian’)

Song sung by Will Scarlet

By all the deer that spring

Thro' wood and lawn and ling,

When all the leaves are green;

By arrow and gray goosewing

Act IV (‘The Conclusion’)

Song sung by Maid Marian

The bee buzz'd up in the heat:

'I am faint for your honey, my sweet.'

The flower said, 'Take, it my dear,

For now is the spring of the year.

So come, come!'

'Hum!'

And the bee buzz'd down from the heat.

Chorus and dance

Now the King is home again, and nevermore to roam again.

Now the King is home again, the King will have his own again,

Home again, home again, and each will have his own again,

All the birds in merry Sherwood sing and sing him home again.

[edit] Recording

A recording was made of the music in 2004 by the New London Orchestra, the London Chorus and soloists conducted by Ronald Corp. It is published on the Hyperion label.^[4]

[edit] Notes

^ See Introduction at the G&S Archive
^ Note that Hughes, op. cit., incorrectly states that the play was not given in London
^ See thisdiscussion at the G&S discography
^ See the discussion at the G&S discography

[edit] References

Eden, David and Parry, William: Notes to 2004 Hyperion recording mentioned above.
Hughes, Gervase: The Music of Arthur Sullivan, Macmillan, London 1960
Jacobs, Arthur: Arthur Sullivan, OUP, Oxford, 1986 ISBN 0-19-282033-8
Young, Percy M: Sir Arthur Sullivan, J M Dent & Sons, London 1971 ISBN 0-460-03932-2
Website: The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochesterconsulted 17 December 2006