Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Boughton's The Queen of Cornwall is based on Thomas Hardy 's play of the same name. The play is a version of the Tristram legend, and Hardy and Boughton have been more faithful to tradition than Wagner was. The overture is a prelude rather than an epitome of the action and music of the drama which follows, although the first subject is the theme of one of Tristram's love songs: ' When I set out for Lyonesse' The second subject is taken from the music associated in the opera with the Queen, and among the other motives is one taken from King Mark's drinking song.