English Eccentrics (opera)

English Eccentrics is a chamber opera in two acts by Malcolm Williamson to an English libretto by Geoffrey Dunn, based on Edith Sitwell's 1933 book, The English Eccentrics. It was commissioned by the English Opera Group. The opera requires the cast to make many quick changes of roles between scenes, and contrives the confrontation of several of the characters, who did not meet in real life.

Performance history
The work, the second opera by the composer, was first performed in the Jubilee Hall at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, England on 11 June 1964 as part of the Aldeburgh Festival in a production by William Chappell. With the principals on stage, the 'quartet' of singers were in the pit with the orchestra, seven members of the English Chamber Orchestra, and it was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme. The original festival programme called English Eccentrics simply 'an entertainment'.

The critical reception of the premiere was mixed. Opera magazine commented that "Each of the two acts ends with a 'tragic' episode – the sad affair of Sarah Whitehead convinced that the Bank of England was defrauding her and the removal of Brummell to a mental asylum. This appears an odd forcing of the essentially comic nature of the material". The two more serious scenes were composed before the rest of the piece; Peter Pears had apparently told Williamson that what was wanted was an 'anti-opera'. A later critic wrote "There is little dramatic thread to the piece, though some poignant little plots do emerge... This score shows Williamson on a form he was later to lose – witty, affectionate and generally deftly written. ...Pastiche of styles is matched by a pastiche of structure, with many of the scenes observing the 18th-century convention of one character leaving the stage as another arrives". He also noted the magical ending, reflective, mournful and valedictory.

Revivals have tended to be by conservatoire opera groups and companies for young stage professionals, rather than established opera companies.

Act 1
Prelude – Goose-weather

Scene 1: An introduction to Eccentricity – features encounters with a variety of eccentrics: Lord Petersham, Miss Tylney Long (collectors of snuff boxes and hats), the ancient Thomas Parr and Countess of Desmond, the Reverend Jones, Dr Katterfelto and Miss Beswick, Lord Rokeby and Lady Lewson with their opposing views on baths, John Ward, Mrs Dards and Major Labelliere.

Scene 2: An Amateur of Fashion – a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Scene 3: The God of this World – Young Whitehead spends all his money on his sister Sarah, resigns from the bank and turns to crime and is hanged; her inability to comprehend the situation makes her go mad.

Act 2
Scene 1: Quacks and a Beau – Drs Katterfelto, Dalmahoy and Graham offer cures for every ill; and an introduction to Brummell, arbiter of fashion, and his entourage.

Scene 2: An Ornamental Hermit – Captain Thicknesse's attempt to write his memoirs fails.

Scene 3: A Traveller – the story of the imposter Mary Baker.

Scene 4: The Beau again – the senile decline of Brummell and death in a Caen boarding-house.