ABSTRACT

The world premiere performances of Robert Saxton's first opera took place as planned at Wakefield Opera House during the 1991 Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music. The composer has implied as much in his remarks about concert-performances of opera and the possibility that The Wandering Jew might be performed live. The very favourable reception of Caritas since its first performances and recordings seems to more than justify a revival of the opera – whether in the theatre or concert-hall, or on radio or television. Arnold Wesker's stage play, Caritas, is a play with music; Saxton's Caritas is an opera – and not just because it says so on the title page and in the programme. With the benefit of hindsight – and especially in the light of his recently completed second opera – Caritas can indeed be identified as a landmark in Saxton's output and one of the most significant musical scores of the second half of the twentieth-century.