A ballad cantata
Devised and produced by Terence Tiller
The music arranged and composed by Elizabeth Poston
Elsie Suddaby (soprano)
Catherine Lawson (contralto) Alfred Deller (counter-tenor)
Eric Barnes (tenor)
Gordon Clinton (bass-baritone)
Speaker. Jill Balcon
The Garvent Singers
Welbeck String Orchestra
Conducted by Douglas Robinson
The producer and the composer believe this work, specially composed for Christmas 1950, to be the first of its kind ever attempted. Although a true cantata, it bears much the same relation to the conventional form as ballad opera does to grand opera. Its libretto is a careful mosaic derived from traditional ballads and carols and medieval lyrics, together with a few lines written in imitation of these. The score itself is based almost entirely on folk-melodies or on those of medieval carols. However, Elizabeth Poston has woven round them much original music, and has made wholly original settings-in the style of the rest-of three ' numbers.' The ideal aimed at, throughout both libretto and score, has been a simple (but not naive) beauty.