3-082-938 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Cowen's new opera, "Harold": Harold swearing on the bones of a saint to support William of Normandy's claim to the crown of England, 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... The mounting of the opera was superb. An absurd outcry has been made because the reliquary containing a saint's body, in the second act, was illuminated hv electric light; and critics have been gravely informing Sir Augustus Harris that electric light was not discovered in the year 1066. The thing is a stage illusion, of course. The light is supposed to be miraculous, and must be produced in the most interesting and convenient manner...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.