The Midsummer Marriage

The Midsummer Marriage is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, on 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard. The reception of the opera was controversial, over confusion as to the libretto and Tippett's use of symbols and psychological references. The opera has received at least 10 more productions, in England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, Sweden and the United States, including two more at the Royal Opera House.

The premiere performance was recorded, and has been issued on compact disc. Covent Garden revived the work in 1968, conducted by Colin Davis, with the Ritual Dances choreographed by Gillian Lynne and in 1970, when the production formed the basis of the first commercial recording. Tippett extracted the Four Ritual Dances from the opera as a separate concert work.

The story of The Midsummer Marriage was consciously modeled after Mozart's The Magic Flute. Both trace the path to marriage of one "royal" and one "common" couple: Jenifer and Mark correspond to Pamina and Tamino, the earthy Jack and Bella to Papageno and Papagena. King Fisher stands in for the Queen of the Night, the Ancients for Sarastro and his priests, and so on.

But the composer's first inspiration for the work was visual: Tippett recalled imagining "a wooded hill-top with a temple, where a warm and soft young man was being rebuffed by a cold and hard young woman to such a degree that the collective, magical archetypes take charge – Jung's anima and animus."

The character Sosostris is named after "Madame Sosostris, the famous clairvoyante," in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", and King Fisher's name is inspired by the Fisher King character mentioned in the same poem. Tippett was first given the idea of attempting a verse drama by reading Eliot's plays, and he corresponded with Eliot with a view to collaboration, tackling the libretto himself when Eliot declined.

The Royal Opera House has mounted three productions of The Midsummer Marriage, in 1955, 1968 and 1996. The 1996 production was revived in 2005, to mark the centenary of Tippett's birth. Barbara Hepworth effected the costumes and stage designs for the lavish original (1955) production. Choreography was by John Cranko.

In 1976 Welsh National Opera staged a production designed by Annena Stubbs, which toured in cities including Leeds. The cast included Felicity Lott as Jenifer and Helen Watts, who had played the role in London in 1968, and recorded it in 1970, as Sosostris. David Cairns wrote that this production showed the opera "responds very readily to simple, imaginative staging, and that there were never any serious problems [with it] except in our attitude".

Other British productions have been staged by English National Opera and Opera North, both in 1985, and Scottish Opera in 1988.