John Frederick Lampe: The Dragon of Wantley (2 CDs)

£16.99
Total playing time [100:56]


Mary Bevan (soprano)
Catherine Carby (mezzo-soprano)
Mark Wilde (tenor)
John Savournin (bass-baritone)
The Brook Street Band
John Andrews (conductor)

A rapacious dragon has been terrorising a Yorkshire village. Gubbins and his daughter Margery, together with Mauxalinda, decide to seek the help of Moore of Moore Hall. Moore needs persuading away from his beer but succumbs to Margery’s pleading, and her promises of love. Unfortunately, he had already promised to marry Mauxalinda, and so the love triangle has to be resolved in dramatic fashion before Moore heads out and defeats the dragon, restoring harmony and prosperity to the village.

Following the BBC Music Magazine Opera Award for his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, conductor John Andrews returns with the world premiere professional recording of John Frederick Lampe’s operatic comedy The Dragon of Wantley. With librettist Henry Carey, Lampe combines a first-rate score with a quintessentially English plot, told in a tone of earthy satire, pastiching opera’s conventions with skill and affection, but also a razor wit.

Album Booklet (PDF)

“

A 'top quartet of soloists' it 'fills a gap for students of the 18th-century English stage, but the commitment of these performers creates its own, wider pleasure.'

- The Observer

A 'top quartet of soloists' it 'fills a gap for students of the 18th-century English stage, but the commitment of these performers creates its own, wider pleasure.'
The Observer

'...beautifully accompanied... Mary Bevan and Catherine Carby are absolutely ideal. The orchestration is splendid... and the whole thing is exhilaratingly conducted by John Andrews.'
Gramophone - Editor's Choice

'In this premiere recording, conductor John Andrews shrewdly reserves buffoonery for Carey and Lampe’s antic scenes, heightening the galant elements of duets and ensembles, and giving performers space for arresting explorations of Lampe’s lyricism. In the showpiece ‘Gentle Knight’, soprano Mary Bevan gently wraps stunning ascending embellishments around the oboe’s melody. In the big lament aria, cellist Tatty Theo enriches the subtle articulation and rich timbres of mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby with her own. By contrast, tenor Mark Wilde as the knight and bass-baritone John Savournin as a squire and the dragon have great fun with the work’s excesses, Wilde prefacing his runs with vulgar gulps and Savournin growling absurdly.'
BBC Music Magazine - Five Stars

'The Dragon of Wantley was a hit in 1737, and should be again in 2022.'
The Arts Desk

Credits
© 2022 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2022 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10304
Producer, engineer & editor: Adam Binks
EAN: 5060262793350
Cover image: Dragon’s Eye formation in Upper Antelope Canyon by Natarajan Ganesan
Release date: 4 July 2022