Created using MerMEId
The performance was recorded as a studio performance by the BBC and broadcast over Radio 3 on 20 November 1977.
The opera has never been staged and was not performed at all in Delius' lifetime, although it was offered to Prague and Weimar in the 1890s.
The opera is based on the story of the discovery of Florida in 1513 by Ponce de León and his search for the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. The libretto is by Delius himself, although there is evidence that a friend from his time in Florida - Mrs Jutta Bell - gave advice and made some contribution. Extant notes, now in BL MS Mus. 1745/1/39, show that the original focus of the opera was on discovery, featuring a hero called Ponce and a heroine, Nadgia (RL, 139-40). However, by the time Delius started consulting with Bell, the subject had shifted to the plight of the indigenous people, and the hero and heroine were named Solana (later Solano) and Watawa (LC I, 83-6, 88-90). Delius told Bell he envisaged the opera as the start of a trilogy corresponding broadly to the subjects of
This manuscript contains pencil notes for Act III of
This published version, made as part of the Collected Edition, is the only published version of the work aside from a facsimile of Eric Fenby's manuscript vocal score made by the Delius Trust in 1977. Norman Del Mar's editorial contribution included correcting mistakes in the manuscript and 'rebalancing of the dynamics', according to Robert Threlfall's preface to the score.
Transform from MEI 3.0.0 to 4.0.0