Hawthorne's novel of adultery and its consequences among the Puritans of Massachussetts might seem to provide ideal material for opera, and it has been used before now, as by Walter Damrosch in 1896 and Vittorio Giannini (brother of Dusolina, who sang the role of Hester Prynne) in 1938. The chapters themselves suggest a series of operatic duets while the 'Revelation' chapter provides a grand finale with full company. The principal roles almost cast themselves, and there is a choice for composer/librettist as to whether the story should be distanced, as in Britten's Turn of the Screw and Billy Budd, with prologue and epilogue set in a later age. In other ways it may prove less tractable, for the novelist's point of view is not entirely what modern sympathies might prefer it to be, and the character of the child, Pearl, is more credible as symbol than as a reality presentable on stage. Still, an intrepid spirit might well overcome difficulties of that sort.
Whether Joseph James has been successful, the 27-minute selection heard here does not allow us to tell. It provides a taste of the orchestral score and, for one crucial scene, a sample of the opera itself. This—the climactic meeting of Hester and Dimmesdale in the forest—is sufficiently well-paced and emotionally vibrant to whet the appetite. The other excerpts are intriguing too, but it is not easy to relate them to the novel, and the booklet does precious little to help. Well over half of the 12 pages are given to photographs of the orchestra, whereas crying out for explanation is the relevance of ''The Interview'' and ''The Governor's Hall'' (for example) to the drama. The complexity of the composer's means are the subject of statement rather than explanation and comment, almost as though complexity were something admirable in itself. The singing of the two principals is competent, and yet the characters hardly come to life. This strange little record ('little', at least, in length of playing-time) does arouse interest in the work, yet it is also a curiously mismanaged endeavour: for instance, one almost has to listen with stopwatch in hand to know when one excerpt has ended and another begun.'