autumn.
German called it an "opera de salon". It was written for six soloists and two-piano accompaniment, over a three-year period, most of the writing taking place during holiday times. The opera is set in "an imaginary Anglo-Swiss republic," and the plot has been described as being similar to Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. Later, the opera was renamed The Rival Poets, and revived at St. George's in 1901. The song, "Happy Day", was a popular love duet for soprano and tenor voice.
Recordings of the opera
There is no commercially available recording of the opera at the time of writing this (March 2009). The only one I know of is BBC's 1928 concert performance, which was exclusively for their programming. For this version, German also wrote the narration for the announcer. This broadcast has not been preserved, as facilities for recording transmissions did not exist until 1932. See details of this lone broadcast here.
It would also seem that the overture is the only part of the opera to be currently available from music publishers.
