Afternoon Concert

Original version

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Afternoon Concert: Stanford from the Wexford Festival

Canada 150: La Nef

Stanford from the Wexford Festival

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert, Stanford from the Wexford Festival

Charles Villiers Stanford's opera, The Veiled Prophet, from the 2019 Wexford Festival.

Opera Matinee: Stanford - The Veiled Prophet, from the 2019 Wexford Festival.

Presented by Hannah French

Mokanna, The Veiled Prophet: Simon Mechlinski
Zelika, Priestess: Sinéad Campbell-Wallace
Fatima, Chief Slave in the Harem: Mairead Buicke
Azim, a young warrior: Gavan Ring
Abdullah, Mokanna's Slave: John Molloy
The Caliph Mahadi: Thomas D Hopkinson
A Young Watchman: Dominick Felix

Orchestra of Wexford Opera
David Brophy,  conductor


Stanford wrote his romantic opera The Veiled Prophet in 1877, basing it on the 1817 poem "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan" by Thomas Moore. It was first performed in Hanover in 1881, in German. In 1893, it was given a single performance in Italian at Covent Garden, and it had to wait until 2019 to be heard in its original English version at the Wexford Festival. Reviewing the performance, The Daily Telegraph noted:  "The Veiled Prophet may be a technically clumsy and naively bombastic affair in the vein of Meyerbeer, but it has heartfelt melodies and youthful ambition that merit an airing."
The opera depicts the tyranny of Mokanna, the hideously disfigured veiled prophet, and his overthrow by the young warrior Azim. The opera ends happily with Azim and his love Zelika united.

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Stanford from the Wexford Festival

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