Robin Hood

For the comic opera by Reginald De Koven, see Robin Hood (comic opera). Robin Hood is a ballad opera by Michael Tippett based on the legend of Robin Hood. Composed in 1934, the score remains unpublished. However, Tippett later used an expanded version of the overture as the finale to his 1948 Suite in D major (For the Birthday of Prince Charles). During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Tippett was hired to organize the musical life of a number ... more

For the comic opera by Reginald De Koven, see Robin Hood (comic opera). Robin Hood is a ballad opera by Michael Tippett based on the legend of Robin Hood. Composed in 1934, the score remains unpublished. However, Tippett later used an expanded version of the overture as the finale to his 1948 Suite in D major (For the Birthday of Prince Charles). During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Tippett was hired to organize the musical life of a number of work camps for unemployed miners in North Yorkshire. As part of his work there, he revised and abridged John Gay's The Beggar's Opera for performances in the church hall next to the Miners' Institute in Boosbeck. Encouraged by its success, he composed a ballad opera of his own, Robin Hood, with a subtext that reflected the difficulties faced by the unemployed miners. It was first performed in 1934 by the local villagers, miners, and students at the work camps. Although a success both with the participants and the audience, the work bears... less