Steve Schwartz writes:

>Holst wrote seven operas.  Of these, four are published: Savitri
>(1908), The Perfect Fool (1918-22), At the Boar's Head (1924), and The
>WanderingScholar (1930). None have held the stage ... Nevertheless, the
>ballet music from The Perfect Fool has become a Holst "hit," and it makes
>me want to hear the entire opera.

Steve is right to be curious about "The Perfect Fool", which is a neglected
masterpiece of a curious kind.

The music is all - all - at the level of the well-known elemental Ballet
which opens the action, but the piece has not been professionally staged in
England (or I presume anywhere else) since the apparently poorly prepared
Covent Garden premiere.

The libretto is not bad at all - though it is extremely disturbing,
very much in the manner of "Le Coq D'Or" or "Love of Three Oranges".
Like Rimsky and Prokofiev, Holst wrote a fairy-tale vehicle for serious
socio-politico-musical satire.  Amongst the musical targets are Wagner and
Verdi, and the Holstian burlesque of Wotan the Wanderer in particular hits
the target spot on, sweepingly impressive yet desperately powerless.

What it does need is absolutely top flight singers and players, otherwise
it would fall down completely.  It's a serious, swift, sharp piece, much
more substantial than its hour-long length would lead us to think; and
the end is very nasty indeed, if you're a believer in the accepted social
order.  For my money, "The Perfect Fool" is a much finer work than any of
his other operas - except possibly for the early "Savitri", which is in a
special class.

There was a very good BBC broadcast of the piece some years back conducted
(of course) by Vernon Handley, with Rosa Mannion outstanding in the role
of the Princess - who gets a whole aria based on the limpid, sensual water
music heard in the ballet.  Somebody should at least reissue that on CD
whilst we're waiting for a decent studio version.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"