Edward Elgar was a classic late bloomer, and the expansive Caractacus, somewhere between a cantata and an oratorio, counts as an early work even though it was premiered when the composer was 32. It has not often been recorded. Caractacus was a British chief, of the Catuvellauni tribe, who in the first century C.E. carried out guerrilla warfare against the invading Roman legions. Captured and turned over to the Romans by a nearby queen into whose realm he had fled, he was sentenced to death in Rome but persuaded the emperor ...
Read More
Edward Elgar was a classic late bloomer, and the expansive Caractacus, somewhere between a cantata and an oratorio, counts as an early work even though it was premiered when the composer was 32. It has not often been recorded. Caractacus was a British chief, of the Catuvellauni tribe, who in the first century C.E. carried out guerrilla warfare against the invading Roman legions. Captured and turned over to the Romans by a nearby queen into whose realm he had fled, he was sentenced to death in Rome but persuaded the emperor Claudius to let him live. The story has the virtues and faults you would expect, with a rather tedious libretto among the latter. The big picture is that the work, performed at the Leeds Choral Festival in 1898 and thus rendered here with a sense of familiarity by the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Orchestra of Opera North under Martyn Brabbins, appeared just before Elgar scored his breakthrough with The Enigma Variations. His youthful enthusiasm for Wagner is still there, but...
Read Less
