The Midsummer Marriage

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The Midsummer Marriage is an opera in three acts by Michael Tippett, with a libretto by the composer. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, January 27, 1955, conducted by John Pritchard. The premiere performance was recorded, and is available on compact disc.

The story of The Midsummer Marriage was consciously modeled after Mozart's Zauberflöte. Both trace the path to marriage of one "royal" and one "common" couple: Jenifer and Mark correspond to Pamina and Tamino, the earthy Jack and Bella to Papageno and Papagena. King Fisher stands in for the Queen of the Night, the Ancients for Sarastro and his priests, and so on.

But the composer's first inspiration for the work was visual: Tippett recalled imagining "a wooded hill-top with a temple, where a warm and soft young man was being rebuffed by a cold and hard young woman to such a degree that the collective, magical archetypes take charge - Jung's anima and animus."

The character Sosostris is named after "Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante," in T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, and King Fisher's name is inspired by the Fisher King character mentioned in the same poem. Tippett was first given the idea of attempting a verse drama by reading Eliot's plays, and he corresponded with the poet with an eye to collaborating on the libretto for his opera, tackling the job himself when Eliot declined.

[edit] Roles

Character Mark, a young man of unknown parentage Jenifer, his betrothed King Fisher, Jenifer's father, a businessman Bella, King Fisher's secretary Jack, Bella's boyfriend, a mechanic Sosostris, a clairvoyante The She-Ancient, priestess of the temple The He-Ancient, priest of the temple Strephon, a dancer

Voice part tenor soprano baritone soprano tenor contralto mezzo-soprano bass

Original cast Richard Lewis Joan Sutherland Otokar Kraus Adele Leigh John Lanigan Monica Sinclair Edith Coates Michael Langdon