MICHAEL HURD (1928-2006): The Aspern Papers (Owen Gilhooly [tenor], Pippa Goss [soprano], Clare McCaldin, Louise Winter [mezzos], Ulster Orchestra; George Vass), The Night of the Wedding (Nicholas Morton [baritone], Matthew Buswell [bass-baritone], Garry Humphreys [tenor], Rhian Lois [soprano], Simon Pepper [piano], Ronald Corp [conductor].

Description: Hurd is remembered mainly, if at all, as an academic, a gifted author (he wrote authoritative books on Rutland Boughton, Finzi and Ivor Gurney, which provides insight into where his æsthetic sympathies lay), and composer of a good number of slight, approachable, lightish works for young performers. But, counter-intuitively, it turns out that he was also capable of turning out this powerful, passionate, Romantic opera. Granted, it is in a very traditional, even old-fashioned idiom, but on its own terms it is a magnificent achievement. The composer adapted his libretto from Henry James' novella, and here his skills as a man of letters is apparent, as the text encapsulates and concentrates the drama while providing clear, singable dialogue. The plot is a particularly effective entry in the much-revisited 'biographer bites off more than he can chew' genre; in this case a young man, obsessively idolising the deceased poet Jeffrey Aspern, attempts to gain access to the trove of documents held by Aspern's former lover, Juliana Bordereau, now living in straitened circumstances in Venice. Paying court to Bordereau's niece and companion Miss Tina is part of his strategy, but this misfires and she ends up burning the letters after Bordereau's death. The characters treat each other badly and hide their real passions behind a mask of gentility, which provides great opportunity for tense dialogue and a pervading sense of discomfort and unease. But Venice is as much a character in James' book as the human protagonists, and this is doubly so of Hurd's superb representation of the beautiful, decaying city, with its history of corruption and cruelty, opulence and excess. The atmospheric score perfectly captures the faded grandeur of the city, omnipresent in every measure of the music. Listening to it is like immersing oneself in contemplation of one of Bernardo Bellotto's looming cityscapes which capture the character of Venice far better than his more famous uncle's. Hurd's sumptuous orchestral palette and skillful use of obsessive motifs and ominous, pulsating accompaniments lend a dark, oppressive air to the proceedings, and leaving aside the work's major virtues as a narrative drama in grand operatic terms it works on a second level, as a ninety-minute tone poem gloriously depicting the essence of Venice. A wonderful discovery, long overdue for revival. The filler is a much lighter, much slighter quarter-hour entertainment, a rather silly farce set in the 1800s which elicits from Hurd a kind of send-up of Mozartian operatic conventions. It's nicely done, but irrelevant next to The Aspern Papers. 2 CDs. Libretti included