Paul Corfield Godfrey, Musical Chapters from The Lord of The Rings after the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien (15-CD set 2025) [Prima Facie Records]

One might have thought that after shepherding the largest Tolkien-inspired musical work in history – the operatic pentad, Epic Scenes from The Silmarillion – Paul Corfield Godfrey would have been content to hang his harp and rest on his well-deserved laurels. Instead, a mere two years after the release of The War of Wrath, the final installment of Epic Scenes, he and his collaborators at Volante Opera Productions have assembled an even more ambitious companion opera based on The Lord of the Rings. Clocking in at over 17 hours (18 if one includes the appendices), it surpasses all its predecessors combined. Together these works offer the first complete musical interpretation of Tolkien’s mythology.

The celerity of their creation is only apparent. Although the compositional process was accelerated by downtime afforded by the global pandemic and persistent encouragement from Volante’s Simon Crosby Buttle, Godfrey has been developing elements of this opus since the 1960s. Originally a menu of discrete works, the recording of the Silmarillion cycle raised the possibility of an integration – much as Tolkien himself envisioned upon completing The Lord of the Rings. Tragically, Tolkien did not live long enough to bring the matter of the Elder Days into full alignment with the published version of the latter. Half a century later, Godfrey and Volante have now given that unrealized vision a musical afterlife.

Despite both works being selective excerpts rather than exhaustive facsimiles, Epic Scenes and Musical Chapters are very different entities. This reflects the divergent nature of their source material. In all its incarnations, Tolkien narrated the matter of the Elder Days in an elevated (or at least highly stylized) linguistic register. By contrast, while The Lord of the Rings includes multiple moments of “epic” diction, it is predominantly quotidian in its dialogue, expressing a “Hobbitocentric” perspective. The abruptness of this transition is tangible as one moves from The War of Wrath’s epilogue (an ethereal lament of the Elven ring-bearers) to Gaffer Gamgee’s parochial banter at the Green Dragon in Musical Chapters’ opening scene.

The librettos diverge in volume as well as register. Whereas The Silmarillion is generally sparse on direct discourse, The Lord of the Rings involves – as Bilbo observed during the Council of Elrond – “a good deal of talk.” Epic Scenes and Musical Chapters address this asymmetry in different ways. In the former, a chorus regularly fills the narrative gulfs between its islands of dialogue; in the latter, the dialogue itself is usually sufficiently expository to thread the scenes into a connected whole (which an audience would likely be familiar with anyway). Nevertheless, since The Lord of the Rings contains instances of “group” singing, the Volante Chorus’ talents are not neglected. These gems include the Ents’ Marching Song, the Hymn of Praise at Cormallen, and heroic lays of Rohan (Forth Rode the King, The Mounds of Mundberg) – all powerhouses that rival the Tolkien Ensemble’s justly famous renditions.

In place of third-person, descriptive narration, Musical Chapters relies on orchestral interludes. Again, assuming that an audience attending a performance of the opera would have some pre-understanding of the tale in its general outline, a judicious use of sight and sound would be adequate to the task of advancing the story. But Godfrey’s employment of this device goes well beyond the functional. In addition to applying the same care to motif-development as in Epic Scenes, Godfrey has ingeniously populated Musical Chapters with evocations (and sometimes complete restatements) of his Akallabêth rondo (Op. 42). Already seeded into his Silmarillion cycle, every reprise of this theme serves as a reminder of the interconnected nature of what Tolkien called the “Saga of the Three Jewels and the Rings of Power.” Nowhere is this tactic more impactful than in Godfrey’s adaptation of the Mirror of Galadriel, where Frodo’s vision of the “great history in which he had become involved” is recalled not only by the rondo but by Angharad Morgan’s framing of the interlude as Galadriel (whom she also voiced in Epic Scenes). Like John Williams’ Star Wars theme, it has become the musical signature for an entire universe.

Transforming the spoken word into operatic libretto carries with it inevitable side-effects. For one thing, the songs that punctuate Tolkien’s original narrative become somewhat less distinct (since everything is now sung). On the other hand, some dialogue in The Lord of the Rings (such as that of Bombadil and Goldberry) is so uniquely lyrical to begin with that it can only be enhanced by actual musicality. In these moments, we share Sam’s experience of being “inside a song.” Another way in which the operatic medium illuminates the substance of dialogue rather than detracting from it is the altered register of Frodo’s speech when he succumbs to the Ring’s malign influence. Tolkien’s text can describe this second-hand, but Simon Buttle’s skill at turning on a dime from mild to wild (previewed in his explosive portrayal of Fëanor in Epic Scenes), backed by Godfrey’s orchestral score, delivers it with a visceral force that puts previous dramatizations of Frodo to shame.

While the sheer scale of Musical Chapters makes it a daunting artifact to review, that same scale is what provides it with the time and space necessary to explore parts of The Lord of the Rings that generally get neglected or cut out entirely from more condensed adaptations. In addition to preserving Tom Bombadil in his entirety (yay!), other notable lacunae that receive unabridged treatment include Éowyn and Faramir in the Houses of Healing and “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” from the Appendices of The Return of the King. In fact, as already noted, Musical Chapters includes its own “Appendices” CD containing songs which, for reasons of pacing, could not be included in the body of the opera.

Consistent with his adaptation of The Silmarillion, Godfrey maintains a high standard of fidelity to both the spirit and letter of Tolkien. Godfrey’s arrangement of “Namárië,” for instance, follows Tolkien’s own recorded vocalization of it for The Road Goes Ever On. When additional poetic material was needed for the Grey Havens chapter, Godfrey made use of Tolkien’s own poems, “The Sea Bell” and “The Last Ship” (from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil). Where dialogue adjustments had to be made for coherence, they are conservative to a fault. My personal favorite is Aragorn’s expression of gratitude to Celeborn for the gift of boats for the Fellowship. Where the text reports that he “thanked Celeborn many times,” the libretto reads, “I thank you many times.” Despite the grammatical awkwardness of the change, it epitomizes the love and reverence Godfrey and the whole Volante Opera Company have shown a great work of art. In doing so, they have themselves produced a great work of art. For this, I too thank you many times!

REVIEWER: Chris Seeman (www.tolkien-music.com)
COMPOSER’S WEBSITE: https://www.paulcorfieldgodfrey.co.uk/
VOLANTE OPERA PRODUCTIONS: https://www.volanteopera.wales/
PRIMA FACIE RECORDS: https://ascrecords.com/primafacie/