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Emily Butter

An occasion recalled

Dates | Cast | Text | Audio | References and Parodies | Review

First broadcast

BBC Third Programme on 14th November 1954, 8.30 - 9.55 p.m.

Repeat

17th November 1954, 9.10 - 10.25 p.m.

Entered for the Prix Italia in 1955 with a French translation by Laure-Anne Brunius; here is the Foreword by Reed:

Emily Butter: on Occasion Recalled is the third programme in which Henry Reed has recorded the tribulations of a young scholar and biographer, Herbert Reeve. In the first programme, A Very Great Man Indeed, Herbert Reeve recalled his embarrassments and difficulties in collecting material for a biography of his favourite English novelist, Richard Shewin, among whose former acquaintances he encountered a forceful composeress of twelve-tone music, Hilda Tablet. The second programme, The Private Life of Hilda Tablet, revealed how Herbert Reeve, cowed by her overwhelming personality, was compelled to abandon his work on Richard Shewin in order to undertake the biography of the composeress herself, in twelve volumes ("twelve volumes were enough for Proust, my dear Bertie; let them be enough for you."). Hilda Tablet was then engaged in the composition of her opera, Emily Butter, in ten acts, for an exclusively female cast.

The occasion that Herbert Reeve now recalls is the first performance of Emily Butter at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. As he has only lately recovered from the nervous prostration that followed his continued association with Hilda Tablet, listeners will, we hope, forgive the occasional mental lapses in his narrative - his impefect recollection, for example, of the quotation from the poet Keats -

"The felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swim into his ken..."

The programme will afford listeners some insight, however, into the problems of operative production in London - problems which are no doubt paralleld in other European capitals.

New production

recorded on 21st February 1958 and first broadcast on 25th February 1958, 9.00 - 10.20 p.m. (the 1958 cast was virtually identical - differences from the 1954 are shown with an asterisk below).

Repeats

BBC Third Programme, 15th November 1960, 8.55 - 10.20 p.m.

28th May 1969

BBC Radio 3 in memory of Douglas Cleverdon on 12th June 1987, 7.30 - 9.00 p.m.

Cast

Hilda Tablet, a composeress	Mary O'Farrell
Herbert Reeve, scholar	Hugh Burden
Harold Reith, a librettist	Frank Duncan
Elsa Strauss, a singer	Marjorie Westbury
Gabriel Hall-Pollock, a critic	Deryck Guyler
Male commentator	Leonard Sachs Michael Flanders*
Female commentator	Betty Hardy
The narrator [not in 1958 cast]	Michael Flanders
Duke of Mulset	Frank Duncan
Duchess of Mulset	Cécile Chevreau
An official of the Opera House	Rolf Lefebvre Leonard Sachs*
Poets and composers	David March, Hugh Manning, Harold Reese, Jeffrey Segal
Assumptions in the opera:
Emily Butter	Marjorie Westbury
Clara Taggart	Anna Pollak
Helen Sparge	Marion Studholme
Elizabeth Thwaite	Rose Hill
Catherine Slot	Scott Joynt
Mrs Wetherall	Lily Kettlewell Sylvia Beamish*
Marilyn	Diana Maddox Ann Dowdall*
Dorothy	Glenice Halliday
Music composed by Donald Swann Orchestrated by Max Saunders
BBC Women's Chorus*
A section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, leader Thomas Matthews / The Sinfonia of London*, conducted by Patrick Savill
The production suddenly realised by Douglas Cleverdon

A couple of favourite lines:

"Owing to sudden indisposition, Miss Gwyneth Morgan Davies will not be able to sing the part of Helen Sparge this evening. (Disappointed groan from audience). However, at literally a few hours' notice, Signora Luciana degli Scogli has flown from Milan to take over the part. (Applause). Signora degli Scogli will sing in Italian. Thank you."
"Here in the beloved old opera house we had heard, exquisitely blent, a cast which included such incomparable names as Miss Dilys Morgan Watkins, Miss Gwellian Morgan Thomas, Miss Gwladys Morgan Hughes, Miss Gwladys Morgan Rhys, Miss Gwladys Rhys Morgan, and Mrs Olwen Morgan ap Rhys. A cast of which English opera might well be proud indeed. It is true that Miss Gwyneth Morgan Davies was not with us but we shall not soon forget the compliments which Signora Luciana degli Scogli, her deputy, fresh from the Home of Song, fair Italy, showered - sincerely, as we believe - upon her English colleagues that night."

References and Parodies

So what is Reed parodying in Emily Butter? I've not spotted them all, I'm sure, but here are a few:

Emily Butter	This undoubtedly refers to Britten's Billy Budd. Humphrey Carpenter has suggested that an early working title for Emily Butter was Milly Budd. Milly is halfway between Billy and (E)mily. And Butter is Budd(er).
All-male cast	This undoubtedly refers to Britten's Billy Budd which has an all-male cast.
John Piper backcloth	John Egerton Christmas Piper was a founding member of Britten's English Opera Group and designed the sset for most of his operas until 1973. You can see one of his backcloths (including what may be a sunset) here.
Reeve "compelled to to abandon his work on Richard Shewin"	In his radio programme commemorating Mary O'Farrell, Reed explained that, although a minor character in the first play, Hilda's personality was so strong that he found himself writing small scenes for his own amusement.
Silent film	Alban Berg's opera Lulu uses silent film
Harpsichord	This could be a general reference to the increasing use of the harpsichord in eighteenth century opera during the 1950s. It could also be a reference to Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress where the orchestra includes one

Read the review of the first broadcast from The Times.

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