THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO AUGMENTED ORCHESTRA
(Leader, FRANK CANTELL) Conducted by Joseph Lewis
THE little two-act comic opera, The Wtdding of Camacho, based on an episode taken from 'Don Quixote ,' is an even more youthful work of Mendelssohn's than the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. He was only sixteen when ho composed it.
The story goes that he submitted it to Spontini, who was at that time largely responsible for the music of Berlin, one with whom the Mendelssohns had very little in common. Oddly enough, Spontini was at the time living in a house which had once been the Mendelseohns', and we are told that when Felix was visiting him there, about the possibility of producing Camacho, Spontini led the boy to the window and pointed to the great dome of a Roman Catholic church across the street, telling him, 'My friend, you must have ideas as great as that cupola.' The little opera was. however, produced in Berlin two years later, in 1827, and met with a very warm reception, although, through various accidents, it was never again performed there.