Waiting for Miss Julie

On Thursday 3rd October, William Alwyn's opera Miss Julie, is to get its London concert premiere at the Barbican. It was one of Alwyn's favourite works, but has had a long and difficult history.

August Strindberg.
Portrait by Richard Bergh, 1905.

As early as the 1930s, Alwyn had become interested in Strindberg's play, and thought about turning it into an opera. At the time, he had recently finished his first opera, a very different work, an Irish confection, The Fairy Fiddler, which had rather more in common with Brigadoon, than the red-blooded Miss Julie. Alwyn's career as a film composer was just taking off, he had a young family, and a steady and busy job at the Royal Academy of Music. So perhaps it's not surprising that early thoughts of adapting Miss Julie were put to one side.

In 1954, the idea surfaced again, and Alwyn contacted Christopher Hassall, well known as a lyricist, who had worked closely with Ivor Novello. Hassall had recently moved into the world of opera, translating The Merry Widow for a television adaptation, and working with William Walton on the libretto for Troilus and Cressida. Although reviews of Troilus were mixed, the libretto was generally praised. Alwyn may also have heard on the composers' grape-vine that Walton had remained firmly in command of the project, amending and even editing out sections of Hassall's libretto, as he deemed appropriate. For a composer who had a very definite vision of his work, this must have been appealing.

However William Alwyn was not William Walton. Hassall was enthusiastic about the idea of bringing Miss Julie to the stage as an opera, but his own views on the subject were as firm as Alwyn's. Although keen to make substantial amendments to the English translation, he was determined to stay as faithful to the original intentions of the playwright as possible, while Alwyn was more concerned to "dispense with all inessential detail, symbolism, and moralizing, and retain only the dramatic Strindbergian substance of the play." It was never going to work, and the two soon parted company.

Cover of the programme for the Ballerup World premiere
of Alwyn's Miss Julie

It would be nearly another 20 years before Alwyn produced his first draft of the libretto. Along with Miss Julie, her lover Jean, and Kristin, Jean's fiancee, Alwyn created a new character, Ulrik the gamekeeper, mentioned but never seen in Strindberg's original. Ulrik also substitutes as the mocking villagers in the original play, so providing a neat chamber opera, with no need for a chorus. Alwyn hoped that this would make the opera more attractive to producers, as a relatively cheap option to stage.

Two years later, in August 1973, Alwyn wrote to composer and friend, Elisabeth Lutyens, to say that the work was progressing well, and that the first scene was nearly finished. This mention of the first scene makes it clear that Alwyn has moved away from Strindberg's intention to make the play flow in one act; instead Alwyn splits the action in two, ending the first act with the consummation of Miss Julie and Jean's relationship, and revealing the tragic consequences that spring from that act at the end of the opera. It makes operatic sense, even if it is against the spirit of Strindberg's original intentions.

By the following March, the second act was complete, though Alwyn was still musing over whether to include a third act. One must be grateful that he didn't, as that would probably have been a stretch too far away from Strindberg. Throughout the construction of the work in the 1970s, Mary Alwyn (aka Doreen Carwithen - she disliked the name Doreen) was enormously influential in the progress of the work, typing the libretto, choosing opera works to inspire Alwyn's creativity, and suggesting amendments both to the music, and to the emotional heart of the work. The creation of Miss Julie, in many ways, revolved around Mary.

"I arrange my music and decide where to start...I sing it through once or twice then write it on manuscript paper in pencil...I decide to play it to Mary tonight after tea. She is my severest critic."

The passion that Alwyn poured into Miss Julie was also apparent in another area of his life, as he and Mary were finally married, after years of waiting. While William hastened to finish the work, Mary was busy getting it prepared, and writing hundreds of letters (many of which, including multiple photocopies, now sit in the William Alwyn Archive at Cambridge University Library) to opera companies, singers, and broadcasters, throughout the UK and Ireland.

On 17th February 1977, the BBC recorded Miss Julie at Brent Town Hall. Jill Gomez took the lead role, with Benjamin Luxon as Jean, Della Jones as Kristin, and Anthony Rolfe Johnson as Ulrik.

The recording was initially played "to a very special invited audience of people connected with opera." It met with a mixed response. William was disappointed by some of the reactions to the libretto, however the BBC were sufficiently interested and happy with the recording to promise a broadcast in July.

Reviews of the broadcast were mixed, and certainly unusual in the influences that they believed played an important part in the work - Paul Griffiths noted "Miss Julie's bizarre identification with Salome", while Desmond Shawe-Taylor believed that "the ghost of Ivor Novello seems to hover just around the corner". Alwyn was relieved that the work had finally been performed to a wider public, and hit a patch of composer's block, following the premiere of Miss Julie. This was perhaps not surprising after the long gestation of the opera.

William and Mary were also thrilled that the broadcast led to a further recording with Lyrita records. Recorded in January 1979, the cast had to fight their way through a veritable Scandinavian blizzard, as the replacement Ulrik, John Mitchinson, fought his way with the aid of a snow-plough from Gloucestershire to London, to make the recording. The recording was favourably received with some critics reminded of Puccini or Janacek (William must have been thrilled, as they were two of his favourite composers), but still a theatrical premiere remained a distant dream. For William, it was to remain a dream, as he died in 1985 never having seen his opera staged.

Following William's death, Mary threw herself into enhancing his legacy. Top of her list was a theatrical premiere of his neglected opera. Finally, in 1992, an opportunity arose. Una Stewart, an American living in Copenhagen, with a background in opera production, had become interested in the work, and it was finally agreed that Alwyn's Miss Julie would receive its theatrical premiere in Ballerup, Denmark, by some of the singers of Opera-Fabrikken. The singers were all young, eager, amateurs on the brink of a professional career (indeed at least one of them would become a professional singer, while others entered other fields of music, or the visual arts). 

Costume problems - designs and fabric swatches for Opera Fabrikken's production

Events leading up to the premiere were difficult - some of the back-stage crew went on strike, while one of the singers had costume problems. Although the premiere did not entirely fulfil Mary's hopes, it did reinvigorate her desire for the work to receive a theatrical premiere in the country of William's birth. A London premiere was as far away as ever, but she was approached in 1996, about the possibility of staging the work at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, the following year.

William and Mary had lived in Suffolk for 20 years, it had become their haven, and it seemed curiously fitting that William's opera should finally get its UK staging just an easy drive away from their home. It even got a mention in the New York Times - Mary must have been thrilled. It was staged on October 15th, 1997, at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, with Judith Howarth in the leading role. Benjamin Luxon, beloved by both William and Mary for his portrayal of Jean in the original BBC radio production produced the opera. It was successful, and received good reviews; but despite its success, the story might have ended there.

More recently, however, there has been new interest in Miss Julie, Philip Lane, previously mentioned on here, arranged an orchestral suite from some of the music, which was recorded by Naxos, and Kate Royal's sumptuous recording of the aria, Midsummer Night, was well received. This week, Miss Julie finally gets its London premiere, admittedly it is a concert performance, rather than staged, but for an opera that is set in one place, among claustrophobic surroundings, this seems not inappropriate. Alwyn's Miss Julie has had a troubled life, and never quite received the adulation that its composer felt it deserved. Perhaps with this week's concert it will.

Miss Julie is being staged at the Barbican on Thursday 3rd October, 19:30. For more details, and a 20% discount, when you quote 171619, go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e49hj5.

MAJ