Bernard Herrmann - Opera "Wuthering Heights" (1) Prologue (1943-53)

Bernard Herrmann (born Max Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer known for his work in composing for motion pictures. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. Please support my channel: https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans Opera "Wuthering Heights" (1943-51, premiere 1966, stage premiere 1982) Libretto adapted by Lucille Fletcher from the novel (1847) and poetry of Emily Brontë. Place: The wild moorlands of Northern England Time: 1840 1. Prologue: A small upper bedroom at Wuthering Heights. November; Late at Night; a snowstorm is raging (0:00) 2. Nelly enters, carrying a candle, followed by Lockwood (3:12) 3. Lockwood peers out of the window, surveys the room, picks up a book (5:35) 3. Snowstorm. Lockwood lies down upon the bed and falls asleep. He dreams (9:03) 4. Lockwood awakens, rushes to the window. The door burst open and Heathcliff walks in (10:38) Laura Aikin – Catherine Earnshaw Boaz Daniel – Heathcliff Vincent Le Texier – Hindley Earnshaw Hanna Schaer – Nelly Dean Yves Saelens – Edgar Linton Marianne Crebassa – Isabella Linton Jerome Vannier – Joseph Nicolas Cavallier – Mr. Lockwood Gaspard Ferret – Hareton Earnshaw Live Concert version Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon & Groupe vocal Opera Junior conducted by Alain Altinoglu, July 14, 2010, at the Radio France and Montpellier Languedoc-Rousillon Festival. Wuthering Heights is the sole opera written by Bernard Herrmann. He worked on it from 1943 to 1951. It is cast in a prologue, 4 acts, and an epilogue that repeats the music of the prologue. The libretto was by Herrmann's first wife, Lucille Fletcher, based on the first part of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. Fletcher also interpolated some text from the second part of the novel, and from some unrelated poems by Emily Brontë (such as "I have been wandering through the Green Woods"). By the time the work was finished, Fletcher and Herrmann had divorced, and he had married her cousin Lucy. Although the work is largely unknown, Lucille Fletcher said it was "perhaps the closest to his talent and heart". Herrmann started work on the opera in April 1943, while composing the film score for Jane Eyre (an adaptation of Jane Eyre by Emily Brontë's sister Charlotte Brontë). It received a boost in 1946, when Herrmann and Fletcher made a visit to the moor country near Manchester, while he was fulfilling conducting engagements with the Hallé Orchestra. There, they visited the Brontë home at Haworth. He completed the composition in Minneapolis. On the score, Herrmann wrote that he finished the work at 3:45 pm on 30 June 1951. Wuthering Heights quotes various themes from Herrmann's earlier film scores: Citizen Kane (1941) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942; the "Second Nocturne", which was cut from the film, was re-used in the opera) Jane Eyre (1944; the melody representing the Jane-Rochester relationship recurs as Cathy's act 3 aria "I am Burning") The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) (music from the beginning of the film was used in act 1; the sea music recurs in act 2; and the Andante Cantabile appears in act 3) Some themes from the opera foreshadow Herrmann's later scores: Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) Vertigo (1958) Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) North by Northwest (1959) Marnie (1964). This live performance by the Orchestre National de Montpellier under Alain Altinoglu, with Boaz Daniel and Laura Aikin (Festival de Radio-France-Monpellier, July 2010) was released in October 2011 by the French label Accord/Universal. The 3-CD set received the Diapason d'Or-Découverte and the Diamand award from French magazines Diapason and Opéra. In April 2011, to mark the centenary of Bernard Herrmann's birth, Wuthering Heights was finally presented in full for the first time, by Minnesota Opera under Michael Christie. The production was filmed in HD and was available for streaming by the Minnesota Opera from October 10 to October 24, 2020.