The Mines of Sulphur (review)

The Mines of Sulphur was Richard Rodney Bennett's first full-length opera, having been preceded by The Ledge, a one-act chamber opera (1961), and The Midnight Thief, an operetta for children (1963). On the basis of these works, Bennett was commissioned to provide a new opera for the Aldeburgh Festival. As a possible subject, director Colin Graham suggested Scarlet Ribbons, a one-act play by Beverley Cross, who soon was asked to adapt his play for Bennett's use. Fearing he would not have sufficient time to complete the work before the scheduled premiere, the composer withdrew from the commission (evidently there were no hard feelings, for the opera is dedicated to Benjamin Britten). The Mines of Sulphur had its premiere on 24 February 1965 at Sadler's Wells, conducted by Colin Davis; it was toured throughout Great Britain (in Glasgow it was seen by a seventeen-year-old Stewart Robinson), and produced in Zagreb, Paris, Milan, Toronto, and New York (by the Juilliard School). Subsequently, apart from an Opera North revival in its 1978–79 season, it seems to have gone unperformed until this production at Glimmerglass in the summer of 2004, which was given five further performances at the New York City Opera in the fall of 2005.

Bennett had initially made his mark as a composer of abstract music, including a pair of well-received string quartets written while he was still a student. He was a keen participant in the European avant-garde of the time, taking part several times in the International Summer Course for New Music at Darmstadt and studying in Paris with Pierre Boulez (1957–59). At the same time, however, he had also begun composing film scores, working with John Schlesinger and Joseph Losey and providing music for such high-profile features as Indiscreet (1958) with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. Before completing The Mines of Sulphur, he had already scored some fifteen films, surely valuable training for advancing drama by means of music.

The opera's action is fairly simple—and brutal—but there is a good deal of psychological interest, as well as a strong element of the supernatural. Rosalind, a servant, returns to the isolated manor of her master Braxton, whose attentions she had fled. As he cynically welcomes her and takes her upstairs to his bed, she is followed into the house by Boconnion, a deserter wanted for killing a man, and Tovey, a tramp. The three carry out their plan of killing Braxton and, while waiting for morning to arrive so they can escape with his wealth, dress in the finery they discover.

As Boconnion and Rosalind look forward to beginning a new life, Rosalind expresses the hope that their crime will be "wiped out" and their sin forgiven. Boconnion, however, refuses to acknowledge either crime or sin, proclaiming a credo along the lines of Iago's: "Man is alone and no God can forgive, or punish, / or deny or rescue him." He concludes with a challenge, seemingly referring to the dead Braxton: "I killed a man to prove it. / Let him show me I am wrong." Rosalind is not convinced. "Lord have mercy on us," she sings at the end of the scene.

A horn call signals the arrival of a troupe of six actors, seeking shelter for the night. They are led by Sherrin (the role is to be taken by the same singer as Braxton). Boconnion agrees to let them stay if they will entertain the robbers with a play. Despite some comic displays of ego ("I once played Romeo, in Chester"), there is something uncanny about the actors, a feeling intensified by a conversation linking them with actors who performed at the manor in earlier centuries. The play they choose to present to Boconnion and his companions is The Mines of Sulphur, in which an old antiquarian acquires a beautiful young wife who promptly betrays him with his valet. When the lovers are discovered and are about to kill the husband, the guilt-ridden audience stops the play. Jenny, the actress playing...