background notes by David Sander
1948, he found a refuge in Minnesota – his friend Dmitri Mitropoulis was the music director of the Minneapolis Symphony, and his soon-to-be second wife, Lucy Anderson, was living nearby. Herrmann cloistered himself deep within the former wcco studios, where he could compose uninterrupted. After another visit to the English moors in 1949 for his second honeymoon (with Lucy), the opera was completed in 1951, at 3:54 p.m., as Herrmann would ernard Herrmann – you may not engagement with the Halle Orchestra meticulously notate on the score. In many recognize the name but you’ve of Manchester. Herrmann asked the respects, the music belongs to his lush probably heard his music if you orchestra’s manager to show them the neo-Romantic scores of the 40s, which are a vintage film fan or have caught Yorkshire moors and the farmhouse produced such evocative films as The the newest Dodge suv commercials. “Top Withens” that inspired the novel. With over 50 motion pictures scores, Already an accomplished dramatist (her Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Hangover Square, some to legendary Alfred Hitchcock fame rests on the radio play Sorry, Wrong Jane Eyre, The Magnificent Ambersons and Citizen Kane. Herrmann was films, his musical footprint is deep Number), Fletcher drafted a libretto not a melodist – most of his signature and his legacy is still esteemed to this based on the first part of Wuthering moments are composed of a repeated day. The composer’s lifelong obsession, Heights up to the death of Catherine however, was to produce his only opera, Earnshaw Linton. In 1947, Herrmann 3–5 note motive inverted, reharmonized or reversed, over a rhythmic ostinato. The Wuthering Heights. began to compose, and as he would The composer may have conceived state, “It was my intention to emphasize voices sing in a declamatory “parlando” style, while the orchestra truly tells the the idea as early as 1943, while working the fact that this opera places utmost story, precipitating the ever-changing on the Orson Welles film, Jane Eyre, importance upon the expressiveness of atmosphere of the Heights. after the novel by Charlotte Brontë. the vocal roles. The orchestra may be The length of the opera – about Having read most of the staples of said to be descriptive of the landscape three-and-a-half hours – presented a 19th-century literature in his youth (he and weather of each act inasmuch as daunting task, and the characteristically would also set Melville’s Moby Dick the novel itself depends greatly upon as a dramatic cantata), Herrmann the oneness of the characters with their irascible composer refused to allow any cuts. He believed it to be a natural fit was certainly familiar with her sister environment and also the mood and for his English connection, the Halle Emily’s classic tale, also set in northern color of the day.” England. In 1946, he and his first Given the constraints of the film Orchestra, but the director Sir John wife, Lucille Fletcher, traveled to the industry, Herrmann was accustomed Barbirolli claimed they did not have the resources to stage the piece. Most United Kingdom for a conducting to working under a tight schedule. Wuthering Heights became somewhat of opera companies agreed. San Francisco Opera considered a mounting with a challenge with no enforced deadline. Consequently, the composer had some Leopold Stokowski (a friend of the difficulty finding time to complete composer) as conductor, but the project it and had to retreat from New was dropped due to illness – at least York and Hollywood to that may have been the polite reason. Herrmann’s aggravation over casting work in earnest. Curiously, in had become the real issue. New York City Opera and Heidelberg Opera were other possibilities that never made it to fruition. In truth, Herrmann’s aggressive personality got in the way of any further prospects, and out of frustration, he underwrote the expense of producing a recording on his own. The opera remained unproduced at the time of his
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