Episode 424. The Happy Prince
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A holiday gift for my beloved listeners. In the past year I have done Countermelody episodes featuring both soprano April Cantelo and mezzo-soprano Maureen Lehane. Cantelo in particular sang roles in numerous operas by the Australian composer Malcolm Williamson, On a sojourn to New York in 2024, I was lucky to pick up a rare copy of Williamson’s 1965 children’s opera The Happy Prince, based on the Oscar Wilde fairy tale, a recording which features both Cantelo and Lehane. As I am not normally enamored of children’s operas of any kind, I did not have high hopes for this short opera, so imagine my surprise and delight when I encountered a work of real vision, poignancy, and humor. It’s my delight to present the recording to you, prefaced by the classic 1959 recording of Basil Rathbone reading the Wilde original and by Williamson’s Robert Louis Stevenson song cycle From a Child’s Garden, as sung by Cantelo.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Malcolm Williamson, Robert Louis Stevenson: From a Child’s Garden. April Cantelo, Malcolm Williamson [1972]
- I. Time to rise
- II. Marching Song
- III. Where go the boats?
- IV. Looking Forward
- V. Whole Duty of Children
- VI. The Flowers
- VII. Rain
- VIII. My bed is a boat
- IX. From a Railway Carriage
- X. The Lamplighter
- XI. A Good Boy
- XII. Happy Thoughts
Robert Louis Stevenson
Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince. Basil Rathbone [1959]
Malcolm Williamson [after Oscar Wilde]: The Happy Prince [1965]
Pauline Stevens, the Happy Prince; April Cantelo, the Swallow; Maureen Lehane, the Author; Iris Kells, the Matchgirl; Sheila Rex, the Mayor; Jean Allister, the Seamstress; Margaret Humphrey-Clark, her Son; Doreen Price, a Rich Girl
Malcolm Williamson, Richard Rodney Bennett, pianos; Neville Marriner, Anthony Howard, Stephen Shingles, Joy Hall, John Gray, strings; James Holland, Tristan Fry, percussion
The Guildhall Chamber Choir, John Alldis, chorus master; Marcus Dods, conductor