Michael Tippett - The Midsummer Marriage
Synopsis
Act I
It is Midsummer's Day. Young people assemble before dawn for the marriage of a run-away couple, Mark and Jenifer. But they are frightened by the strange inhabitants of a mysterious Temple (known as Ancients) comeout at sunrise and dance. Mark arrives and requests a new dance for his wedding-day, which is refused. They go off and he sings of his love for Jenifer, identifying it with the ardent song of the lark at dawn. Jenifer arrives, in no way attired for a wedding. She has little time for Mark's ardour and ascends some steps, disappearing from view. Mark, warned of the approach of Jenifer's irate father, King Fisher, leaves in the opposite direction below ground.
King Fisher, tries to trace his absconding daughter - attempting to bribe the young people there he knows to be her friends. He enlists first, his secretary Bella, and her boyfriend, Jack, a mechanic, in trying to open the gates of the temple so that he can locate her. King They are warned off drastic invasive action by the mysterious off-stage voice, that of Sosostris the soothsayer. They continue and at the climax of their efforts, Jenifer and Mark reappear, strangely transformed in character, as if at the mercy of inner forces. Their disagreement is now dramatised as a singing-contest, at the climax of which they go off anew, in directions opposite to those of their original disappearance. King Fisher is more determined than ever to get to the bottom of the situation: but the young people remain radiant and carefree.
Act II
Strephon, the young Temple dancer, is waiting to begin the Midsummer rituals, but is interrupted by the chorus of young people, singing as they go by. Bella arrives with Jack and tries to get him to propose to her. They sing tenderly of their prospects for marriage and settling down. As they go into the shadow of the wood to make love, the dancersre-emerge and the ritual dances begin - dancesin which female predators attack males: The Earth in Autumn (the Hound chases the Hare); The Waters in Winter (the Otter chases the Fish); The Air in Spring (the Hawk chases the Bird). In each of the first two dances, the Hare and Fish, respectively, escape; but the violent sacrificial end of the third is only averted when Bella interrupts it, as if waking from a nightmare. The young couple resume their courtship.
Act III
The young people in the wood are singing and dancing after a meal. King Fisher sends them off to fetch Sosostris. While they are gone, he issues a challenge to the inhabitants of the temple, demanding the discovery of his daughter Jenifer. The chorus of young people return with Jack disguised as Sosostris.
But then the real Sosostris appears. King Fisher consults her and she reluctantly undertakes the burden of her clairvoyance. Eventually, she describes from the pictures in her bowl the ancient ritual of the 'Divine Marriage.' King Fisher loses patience and commands Jack to unveil her. But by now Jack prefers to choose his own destiny. He and Bella leave together. King Fisher himself unveils Sosostris, but the vision he sees brings about his death.
From the death of King Fisher springs the fourth of the Ritual Dances: Fire in Summer (the voluntary human sacrifice). At its climax, Mark and Jenifer reappear in an oriental pose of perpetual copulation.
Dawn breaks on another Midsummer Day. Mark and Jenifer, their quarrel over and forgotten, meet at last for their Midsummer wedding.
Michael Tippett
(revised Meirion Bowen,1998)
