(From Birmingham)
Edwin J. Godbold (Organist)
Cecilia Brassington (Mezzo-Soprano)
The author Scribe and Auber the composer formed a pair working in double harness as nearly like our Gilbert and Sullivan as anything the rest of Europe has ever known. Isolated numbers of many of the delightful Comic Operas they produced are well known wherever merry music is played and sung. And this Overture is not the least popular of those of Auber's which survive. It is in quite serious vein, and the story deals with a revolt, in Naples, in 1647. MasanieHo is the leader of the revolution, and his hatred of the oppressors is fanned by the wrongs of his sister Fenella at the handa of the Spanish Viceroy. The opera ends in tragedy for the chief characters. Masaniello goes out of his mind and is killed, and Fenella throws herself into the sea. An eruption of Vesuvius is a striking feature of the plot. Fenella, the heroine, is dumb, and the part was usually played by the chief dancer in the opera ballet, with gestures only. The opera is usually known abroad as The Dumb Girl of Portici.
The Overture, according to tradition, is made up of tunes from the opera itself.