3-082-939 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Cowen's new opera, "Harold": Duke William - Thanks for thy song, fair lady..., 1895. London stage production. '"Now, in return, we'll sing to thee A legend of our land of Normandy". 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...we wish that we could add that he tells it with any literary tact or feeling. It is unfortunate that his vocabulary is limited, and...he has practically no sense of imagery at all...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'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.