Hugh the Drover
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hugh the Drover, or, Love in the Stocks is an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams to an original English libretto by Harold Child. First performance: Royal College of Music, London, 1924.
The opera has set numbers with recitative. It has been described a modern example of a ballad opera. It is set in the Cotswolds in 1812.
There is a recording and it is sometimes performed.
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[edit] Roles
[edit] Principal Roles
Mary, soprano
Aunt Jane, mezzo-soprano
Hugh the Drover, tenor
John the Butcher, baritone
Sergeant, baritone
Constable, bass
[edit] Others
A Cheap-Jack, tenor
Shellfish Seller, bass
Primrose Seller, soprano
Showman, baritone
Ballad Seller, tenor
Susan, soprano
Nancy, mezzo-soprano
William, tenor
Robert, baritone
Turnkey, tenor
Fool, tenor
Innkeeper, baritone
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Overview
A retelling of the familiar plot in which a young girl, about to enter a loveless marriage, meets her true love.
A drover is someone who drives animals; Hugh makes his living by providing horses for the army.
[edit] Act I
Setting: The outskirts of the town
A fair is taking place; the people of the town have turned out; vendors hawk their wares. A showman presents an effigy of Napoleon Bonaparte and rouses the crowd to a fever-pitch of patriotic zeal.
Mary, the daughter of the local constable, appears with her aunt. Her father wants to marry her to John the butcher, a crass, overbearing man whom she does not love. When John roughly takes Mary’s arm to walk through the fairgrounds with her, she resists. He threatens her in turn, but when a troop of morris men passes through, the crowd follows along and John is pulled along with them, leaving Mary alone with her aunt.
As Mary sings of her dreams of freedom, a young man appears and tells her of his life on the open road. He is Hugh the Drover. Mary is fascinated by his words, and Hugh tells her that he was fated to love her. The two declare their love for each other and embrace.
The crowd returns and the showman organizes a prizefight, inviting all the men to challenge John the butcher. Hugh agrees to box, but only if the prize is Mary herself. He beats John in the match, only to have John spitefully accuse him of being a French spy. The crowd turns against Hugh and he is led off to the stocks.
[edit] Act II
Setting: The town square
It is early morning. A troop of soldiers has been sent for, to take Hugh into custody. Meanwhile, he remains a prisoner in the stocks.
Mary stealthily comes to rescue him, having stolen the key to the stocks from her father. She frees him, but before they can escape, they hear John and his comrades approaching. Each refuses to leave without the other, and they both get into the stocks (which are large enough to hold two), draping Hugh’s cloak over their bodies. When they are exposed, Mary’s father disowns her and John refuses to marry her.
The soldiers arrive, and their sergeant recognizes Hugh as an old friend who once saved his life. Instead of arresting him, they acclaim him as a loyal Briton – but take John the butcher for a soldier and march off with him.
Hugh and Mary reaffirm their love and bid the town farewell to begin their life together.
