Poisoned Kiss Hybrid

The CD arrived last week and I can't get it out of my head! There are many passages of such surpassing beauty, such as the duet between Amaryllus and Tormantilla (track 12 on the the first CD), Amaryllus's serenade "A road all paved with stars" (track 4 on the 2nd CD), and the truly passionate duet (track 6 on the 2nd CD) which literally reduced me to tears. On the strength of such isolated passages, The Poisoned Kiss is more than worth repeated listening.But sadly, the thing just doesn't hold together as a whole, and thus no 5 stars. What we have here are moments (many of them) of lyrical wonder, enjoyable in isolation. But The Poisoned Kiss is not Great Opera.But don't let that stop you! Those "moments" are more than worth the time spent to listen to the whole thing.

This premiere recording makes some very beautiful music available for the first time. The opera was first performed in 1936, and Vaughan Williams continued to make revisions into the mid 1950s. The music is representative of the composer's mature style. In the opera's later version given here, Evelyn Sharp's original book was revised by Ursula Vaughan Williams.The Poisoned Kiss is a romantic comedy, a fairy tale about the triumph of true love over revenge. The opera is not through-sung; rather, the dramatic action is carried forward by dialogue in a manner reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan or the West End. At times, the witty, good-naturedly sarcastic text and playful rhyme schemes are reminiscent of Noel Coward.The musicians are just about ideal. Hickox leads a luscious performance, capturing by turn the music's pastoral beauty and (not very threatening) irony. The singers are of uniformly high quality, with the characterization and fresh voices of James Gilchrist and Janice Watson as the young lovers deserving special mention. Anne Collins's fruity, wide-vibratoed contralto at times seems to be a musical caricature, but it works nicely in the role.The production has two major flaws. First, the sound image is placed rather distant from the listener. I felt as if I were sitting towards the back of the auditorium and wanted to move up closer to the stage. The SACD's surround mode did add compensatory perspective and body to the sound, as well as a little extra punch to the thunder, cat shrieks, and other fairy-tale sound effects. The two-channel version sounded significantly flatter and more distant. Second, almost all of the dialogue has been omitted. It would have been enjoyable to hear the music in its dramatic context. Indeed, the abrupt juxtaposition of musical numbers that in performance would be separated by dialogue and a shift of dramatic tone is sometimes jarring. With less than an hour on each disc (and with singers who display such fine diction and acting skills), this is a major missed opportunity. Fortunately, the dialogue is printed in the libretto.Despite these quibbles, this set is still urgently recommended!