The Works of Paul Corfield Godfrey and Volante Opera

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

I searched the site but didn't find any discussion relating to this yet. But I just discovered something really cool! Apparently this guy, Paul Corfield Godfrey, started working on a Silmarillion opera in 1981 and only just finished it in 2022, with full permission from the Tolkien Estate! It is a whopping 9 hours long!!!

Here is the composer's website. You can find the full libretto (lyrics of the opera) and things he wrote about his process and inspiration.

And here is one of the trailers.

Sadly, you can't listen to the full opera unless you purchase it. It's not available on Spotify or anything. But I'd really love to see somebody perform this, though I imagine it would be a monumental task given the length and number of cast members. (And I would love to be a part of it if my vocal skills ever got to that level! Sadly though, the Silm characters I love most are *cough* not sopranos.)

I haven't yet spent a ton of time reading the material on the site, but I found this one part in the libretto where Maedhros was telling everyone about Finwë's death. (Because naturally, I was on the hunt for any Maedhros and SoF related stuff first.) If I'm correct, that comes from an obscure scene in HoME.

(Also, minor nitpick about the vocal type casting for the sons. Why is Celegorm a tenor and the twins baritones? I'd reverse it. I agree with Maedhros being a baritone and Maglor being a tenor, though. I mean I'd actually say Maglor is a countertenor, but countertenor guys are rare nowadays. I will end my opera nerd digression now. But this has made me happy because I have thought about the vocal types of the Sons of Fëanor and I love it that somebody not only casted voice types for them, but actually wrote the music for it!)

Anyway, I really wish this had more momentum, because a stage play or opera is one of very few types of Silmarillion adaptations I'd be okay with. I don't want a movie or TV show, but I have really wanted to see a good stage adaptation. I think an opera makes so much sense given the way music is such an integral part of the story.

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

A few more thoughts after poking around the website more:

There aren't a lot of soprano characters!

• Varda
• Idril (high soprano)
• Lúthien
• Finduilas
• Nienor
• Galadriel

Mezzo-sopranos are scarce too.

• Aredhel
• Melian
• Elwing
• Morwen

Everything else is tenors and baritones and basses! This is obviously because there are many more male characters than female characters in the story. Still a bummer.

But an even bigger bummer is that the character of Fingon, and his rescue of Maedhros, appear to be omitted entirely from the opera! I get that some things had to be cut out and simplified, but they eliminated my favorite story! 😭 During the burning of the ships, Maedhros asks after "Finrod the Valiant." Booooo! You can't cut out my bestie like that!

I love what I'm seeing otherwise, though. The composer is very knowledgeable about Tolkien, with lots of detailed HoME knowledge, and he worked directly with Christopher Tolkien on this adaptation into opera format.

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

I’ve been listening to the samples on the website; it’s definitely an opera! I’m amazed the Tolkien Estate actually supported something like this, but I’m definitely not against it! Apparently there are also operas for The Hobbit, the Akallabêth, and LOTR.

But an even bigger bummer is that the character of Fingon, and his rescue of Maedhros, appear to be omitted entirely from the opera! I get that some things had to be cut out and simplified, but they eliminated my favorite story! 😭 During the burning of the ships, Maedhros asks after "Finrod the Valiant." Booooo! You can't cut out my bestie like that!

I was starting to notice Fingon’s absence too, as he is not listed at all in the cast of characters for any of the parts. Welp. 🥺

And, Finrod the Valiant?! What am I, chopped liver? Cousin’s trying to steal my identity. 😑 What’s wrong with keeping Fingon in the story, who was so critical to many scenes???

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

I’ve been listening to the samples on the website; it’s definitely an opera! I’m amazed the Tolkien Estate actually supported something like this, but I’m definitely not against it! Apparently there are also operas for The Hobbit, the Akallabêth, and LOTR.

Yeah! I think this composer is trying to create an entire operatic work based on all Tolkien's works, in a huge thing called The Tolkien Cycle. Which references Wagner's super long opera The Ring Cycle!

I was starting to notice Fingon’s absence too, as he is not listed at all in the cast of characters for any of the parts. Welp. 🥺

And, Finrod the Valiant?! What am I, chopped liver? Cousin’s trying to steal my identity. 😑 What’s wrong with keeping Fingon in the story, who was so critical to many scenes???

I know!! And wouldn't Fingon and Maedhros singing together be an incredible musical moment? Why would you not put that in the opera? I also wasn't seeing anything about Fingolfin vs Morgoth, or the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The opera seemed to cover in detail the events up through the burning of the ships, and then they essentially skip to the Dagor Bragollach and Beren and Luthien, if my understanding is correct. They cut out a lot of really good stuff, unfortunately.

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

Yeah! I think this composer is trying to create an entire operatic work based on all Tolkien's works, in a huge thing called The Tolkien Cycle. Which references Wagner's super long opera The Ring Cycle!

Ooh, ambitious! Certainly quite the skill and dedication, since he’s literally been composing these for several decades. I’m even more impressed since this is all professionally recorded by real opera singers with the Welsh Opera House!

I know!! And wouldn't Fingon and Maedhros singing together be an incredible musical moment? Why would you not put that in the opera? I also wasn't seeing anything about Fingolfin vs Morgoth, or the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The opera seemed to cover in detail the events up through the burning of the ships, and then they essentially skip to the Dagor Bragollach and Beren and Luthien, if my understanding is correct. They cut out a lot of really good stuff, unfortunately.

YES!! Totally a missed opportunity. I mean, you and I could do it, but having two sopranos singing for them is different than having a trained baritone and/or tenor sing for them. 😅

And yeah, a good majority of the story dealing with the Noldor themselves was cut out in favor of Fëanor and his Sons making the Oath and leaving, then boom! Suddenly we’re in Beren and Lúthien, then Children of Húrin, then Fall of Gondolin, and finally, the War of Wrath, which features the Second and maybe Third Kinslayings, Tuor pleading the Valar for help, and Maedhros and Maglor’s last stand. Poor Noldor, getting left behind like the Second Host was in Araman… 🥺

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

YES!! Totally a missed opportunity. I mean, you and I could do it, but having two sopranos singing for them is different than having a trained baritone and/or tenor sing for them. 😅

Heh, yeah, we'd have to go up an octave. The effect wouldn't be quite the same. Also, don't forget the small detail that someone would have to *cough* write the music. And the words themselves. Also, you think Fingon would be a tenor?

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

Heh, yeah, we'd have to go up an octave. The effect wouldn't be quite the same. Also, don't forget the small detail that someone would have to *cough* write the music. And the words themselves.

Eh, details. 🤣

Also, you think Fingon would be a tenor?

Perhaps, yes. He definitely wouldn’t have an overly deep voice, though I also don’t think he would have a higher, lighter tenor timbre. Maybe a baritenor? It has to be distinctive enough to ring through the hollows on Thangorodrim. 😂 I need to listen to more vocal samples for a better idea.

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

But an even bigger bummer is that the character of Fingon, and his rescue of Maedhros, appear to be omitted entirely from the opera! I get that some things had to be cut out and simplified, but they eliminated my favorite story! 😭 During the burning of the ships, Maedhros asks after "Finrod the Valiant." Booooo! You can't cut out my bestie like that!

It does say 'Epic Scenes from The Silmarillion' at the start of the trailer, implying they aren't trying to cover everything.
With such an extensive work (and a large cast of characters), you would need to choose your focus carefully. Otherwise the structure of your story will end up quite messy or way too long to be practical.

To me it looks like they went for a series of more 'self-contained' stories. The life stories of Maedhros and Fingon span almost the entire book, but they also drop out of focus often, so you only have brief glimpses of them scattered throughout the book until their deaths.

I don't think the Silmarillion can easily be adapted 'all in one'. It might work better if there were many different adaptations, each with a different focus. A stage adaptation of the history of the House of Finwë would more naturally be able to include the story of Maedhros and Fingon.

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

Perhaps, yes. He definitely wouldn’t have an overly deep voice, though I also don’t think he would have a higher, lighter tenor timbre. Maybe a baritenor? It has to be distinctive enough to ring through the hollows on Thangorodrim. 😂 I need to listen to more vocal samples for a better idea.

True. I think he should have some contrast with Maedhros to make for a better duet anyway. And if we have our headcanon that Fingon isn't exactly the tallest Elf ever, he'd likely have a smaller voice box resulting in a higher voice. So I think tenor could work, though maybe baritone-leaning. Maglor, on the other hand, is absolutely a countertenor with that ethereally high voice. So a tenor doesn't have to have a suuuuper high voice.

It does say 'Epic Scenes from The Silmarillion' at the start of the trailer, implying they aren't trying to cover everything.
With such an extensive work (and a large cast of characters), you would need to choose your focus carefully. Otherwise the structure of your story will end up quite messy or way too long to be practical.

To me it looks like they went for a series of more 'self-contained' stories. The life stories of Maedhros and Fingon span almost the entire book, but they also drop out of focus often, so you only have brief glimpses of them scattered throughout the book until their deaths.

I don't think the Silmarillion can easily be adapted 'all in one'. It might work better if there were many different adaptations, each with a different focus. A stage adaptation of the history of the House of Finwë would more naturally be able to include the story of Maedhros and Fingon.

Yeah, that's true. A series of operas would be better (though this arguably is already a series of sorts since The Silmarillion has 5 parts to it, with each part seeming to be a full opera length.) So I get that some stuff needs to be cut out, but I'm just biased towards my favorite story. And from a more objective musical standpoint, I think Fingon rescuing Maedhros would be an excellent musical moment to have, since it literally is a song in the book.

And then imagine the exact melody used in their duet is also heard when Sam rescues Frodo in RotK... 🥺

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

With such an extensive work (and a large cast of characters), you would need to choose your focus carefully. Otherwise the structure of your story will end up quite messy or way too long to be practical.

My own work-in-progress story (The Works of Curufinwë) only follows Curufin and Celebrimbor. This means the other sons of Fëanor get a fair bit of 'screen time', but Fingon is only referred to, he doesn't appear in person. Curufin wouldn't have interacted with Fingon very often, so it's just a side effect of that. If I was following Maedhros instead, obviously Fingon would become a much more prominent character.

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

Maglor, on the other hand, is absolutely a countertenor with that ethereally high voice. So a tenor doesn't have to have a suuuuper high voice.

And here's me thinking Maglor has a huge vocal range, and he sounds equally good singing with a low voice or a high one. 😆
But it's hard to find people like that in real life.

When listening to this song, sometimes I imagine it's Maglor singing:

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

And here's me thinking Maglor has a huge vocal range, and he sounds equally good singing with a low voice or a high one. 😆
But it's hard to find people like that in real life.

I mean yeah, I'm sure he would have a very wide range, but I bet his range goes up higher even than what is typical for magical immortal Elves. And even if his low range is strong, I kind of like to think he prefers his high range. In order to convey that in an opera, I think you'd need a countertenor, since they sound so unique and unlike any other voice type.

Here's Dmitry Sinkovsky, the only countertenor I actually know of. They're very rare. I imagine Maglor's voice to have this sort of quality. (Also, I don't think otherworldly and ethereal needs to mean it's a weak sound. Sinkovsky has a lot of strength to his voice.)

(Side note: I've seen Sinkovsky perform in person a couple times at local orchestra concerts in my city, and he is absolutely amazing. He's a violinist and conductor too. He's an inspiration to me as a classical violinist and singer myself!)

 

[paul corfield godfrey]

If I could pick up on a couple of the points raised here?

The cycle of five evenings is of course limited both in terms of time, scope and personnel. It is, as has been noted, called "epic scenes from The Silmarillion" and does not pretend to cover every detail of Tolkien's stories.

The choice of characters and events is very largely governed by the amount of dialogue which Tolkien provided for the characters. I agree that the story of Fingon and Maedhros would make for a dramatic section, but Tolkien has provided almost no words for either character - and indeed Fingon is remarkably short-changed throughout. Maedhros does at least get a couple of opportunities to make his mark, not only with his narrative regarding the death of Finwë but also in his dialogue with Maglor regarding the recovery of the Silmarils.

The voices assigned to the individual sons of Fëanor was governed largely by the need to provide a suitable spread of ranges for their delivery of the Oath, scored in Fëanor for eight solo voices with an accompaniment consisting solely of two sets of timpani. A counter-tenor in the midst of that clamour would have caused major problems of balance.

The balance of roles between male and female singers is of course also governed by Tolkien's narrative. Idril has of course no dialogue at all in any of Tolkien's writings later than the original Fall of Gondolin in the Book of Lost Tales, and she has had to be furnished with a number of early poems to provide most of her lines. The problems of balance in The Lord of the Rings are of course even greater, and of course having been granted the use of Tolkien's own words I most certainly did not wish to dilute the mix by adding non-Tolkien material.

The recordings of The Silmarillion were made entirely by professional singers from Welsh National Opera, and we relied on their goodwill to realise the project undertaken on a voluntary basis. Under those circumstances it would have been most unfair to make the recordings available on channels such as Spotify, which would have reduced their royalties to a pittance. The discs are available for purchase and digital download through all normal channels, and scores from the Volante Opera website.

 

[Ent]

If I could pick up on a couple of the points raised here?

Of course you can. 'Tis why we're here.
Thank you for paying us a visit and sharing your thinking. We're honored.
Hoping you find reason to share into other things here on our site as well.

Welcome aboard.

 

[Ent]

and of course having been granted the use of Tolkien's own words I most certainly did not wish to dilute the mix by adding non-Tolkien material.

The recordings of The Silmarillion were made entirely by professional singers from Welsh National Opera, and we relied on their goodwill to realise the project undertaken on a voluntary basis. Under those circumstances it would have been most unfair to make the recordings available on channels such as Spotify, which would have reduced their royalties to a pittance.

p.s. - it is always good for us to know the extents and limitations imposed on a work by contracts, guidelines, allowances, and involvements.
Brings perspective to the product..!

Thank you.

 

[simoncrosbybuttle]

Hi all, Paul said there was a lively discussion on here so I thought I’d jump in as a Tolkien fan who is the project manager/sound engineer and one of the singers involved in recording this project and The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit.

Paul Corfield Godfrey’s adaptations of The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit utilises Tolkien’s own text and situations from the novels.

Therefore if a situation or scene is not in the original then it does not exist in this adaptation. No new texts or poetry have been created. There has out of necessity been a significant amount of editing down of the original but the narrative closely follows that of the original books.

These adaptations of Tolkien are done for a specific medium (live theatre) and therefore have to fit within reasonable bounds of cost and performability. There is also a case of slightly simplifying the action for the non-Tolkien fan to follow the narrative (especially in the case of The Silmarillion). With these factors in mind sometimes characters or plot lines are lost. Huan is a prime example of this in Beren and Luthien - to set up his character would take time out of the main narrative to set him up and his motives. This would be needed to explain why an opera singer is crawling around on the stage throughout only to sing a couple of lines. Whilst other options may now be apparent they all cost to implement.

 

[simoncrosbybuttle]

As for poor Fingon etc… as he wasn’t going to appear in the following sections it makes sense to name drop the main elf from the next story - Finrod.

Things needed pairing down so that the non-imitated can follow the plots.

Similarly the majority of characters only have one name rather than the multiples in the book.

 

[simoncrosbybuttle]

Also on the release of these… as Paul stated - they were done with only a promise of a profit share to the artists once costs are covered.

Spotify does not pay for the first 1000 streams in a month and then only 0.0001p per track listen. I’m afraid we cannot release these works under these terms as we’d never have managed to get though recording the entire work.

 

[Ent]

I thought I’d jump in

We also cannot thank you enough for visiting and sharing into the situation, Simon.
Perspective, perspective, perspective.
Oh so necessary to understanding.
(Though it may not eliminate certain people's wishes and whims (a-ahem 😄), at least it gives the backdrop for consideration.)

We welcome your visit and hope you, too, might visit us and share your Tolkienian knowledge and wherewithall for our edification.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I add my thanks to Paul and Simon for coming here to give background and context about this ambitious project. I can't begin to imagine the amount of work involved.