Much Ado About Nothing (opera)

Much Ado About Nothing is an opera in four acts by Charles Villiers Stanford (his Op. 76a), to a libretto by Julian Sturgis based on Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing. It was the composer's seventh completed opera.

Performance history

It premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 30 May 1901, conducted by Luigi Mancinelli, when it was "well, but not rapturously received by the public", and given one further performance four days later. The Manchester Guardian commented, "Not even in the Falstaff of Arrigo Boito and Giuseppe Verdi have the characteristic charm, the ripe and pungent individuality of the original comedy been more sedulously preserved."

The opera was performed in German translation in Leipzig in 1902.

It was revived at the 1964 Wexford Opera Festival in a production directed by Peter Ebert and by Opera Viva at the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, London in March 1985. In 2019 Northern Opera Group performed the opera as part of the Leeds Opera Festival, with a reduced orchestration by Chris Pelly.

A 17-minute ensemble from Act 1 (pages 38 to 63 of vocal score), recorded 'live' at a concert at St John's, Smith Square, London, on 12 February 1983 was included on a 1985 double-LP Opera Viva issue conducted by Leslie Head. A Beatrice-Benedick duet from the same section (pages 46 to 54 of vocal score) was recorded 'live' at a Europe Day Concert at St John's, Smith Square, on 9 May 2013.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 30 May 1901 (Conductor: Luigi Mancinelli)
Hero	soprano	Suzanne Adams
Beatrice	soprano	Marie Brema
Don Pedro, prince of Aragon	baritone	Ivor Foster
Don John, his bastard brother	bass
Claudio	tenor	John Coates
Benedick	baritone	David Bispham
Friar	bass	Pol Plançon
Dogberry	bass	Robert Blass
Verges	speaking role	O. B. Clarence
Leonato, governor of Messina	bass or baritone	Putnam Griswold
Borrachio	tenor	Walter Hyde
Seacole	tenor

References

Notes

Sources

• Anon (1) (1901). "Professor Stanford's 'Much Ado about Nothing'". The Musical Times. 47 (701): 472–473. JSTOR 3367678.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) (subscription required)
• Anon (2) (31 May 1901). "Dr. Stanford's New Opera" (PDF). New York Times. p. 9.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Daly, Karina (2004). Tom Walsh's Opera: A history of the Wexford Festival, 1951-2004. Dublin: Four Courts. ISBN 1-85182-878-8.
• Dibble, Jeremy (2002). Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816383-5.
• Stanford, C. V. (1901). Much Ado about Nothing. London: Boosey and Hawkes.

External links

• Much Ado About Nothing, Op.76a: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• "Stanford: Much Ado About Nothing, Duet "Tell me, who told you so?..." performed by Daire Halpin, (soprano), Wolfgang Resch (baritone)". Pedro Barilov (YouTube). 25 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.