3-082-937 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Cowen's new opera, "Harold": the discovery of Harold's body on the battlefield of Hastings, 1895. London stage production. 'The production [and premiere] of "Harold" at Covent Garden on Saturday, June 5, was naturally an occasion of considerable interest to an English public. Mr. Cowen stands among the few acknowledged representatives of that mysterious entity known by the title of "English music"; and Sir Edward Malet's position alone sufficed to attract the interest, at least, of those whose fashionable patronage helps to make the Italian opera at Covent Garden just the thing it is. Of Sir Edward Malet's part in the collaboration it may at once be said that he has produced a book which, at all events, contains a simple, coherent, and intelligible plot...The music of "Harold" is all austerity; its composer runs away from the slightest obviousness of melody as though it were sinful to look upon its charms...he indulges in a passionate delight for bewildering his hearers...The mounting of the opera was superb...Madame Albani was at her best; Mr. David Bispham was a vigorous Duke William; and Mr. Richard Green and Miss Meisslinger were adequate'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.