The Starlight Express


The Starlight Express is a children's play by Violet Pearn, based on the imaginative novel A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood, with songs and incidental music written by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar in 1915.

Production

On 9 November 1915, Sir Edward Elgar was invited by Robin Legge, music critic of The Daily Telegraph, to write the music for a children's fantasy play to be produced at the Kingsway Theatre that Christmas. The play was The Starlight Express, an adaptation of a novel by Algernon Blackwood called A Prisoner in Fairyland, by Blackwood and Violet Pearn. The baritone and composer Clive Carey had already started his own setting, but abandoned it when Elgar was commissioned.
The producer was to be Basil Dean: but since he had been called up for army service in France, he was replaced by the actress Lena Ashwell. Elgar was soon shown the script by Ashwell and had successful meetings with her and with Blackwood. The story appealed to Elgar because of its similarities to the private fantasy world of his own childhood which he had depicted in the music he wrote for "The Wand of Youth"; his first thought was to re-use that music, and he wove many reminiscences of it into the score. He worked on it enthusiastically, and in just over a month had produced over 300 pages of score – songs and incidental music – in time for the rehearsals. On 6 December the two chosen singers, the Australian-born soprano Clytie Hine and baritone Charles Mott, rehearsed with Elgar.
The Starlight Express was produced by Lena Ashwell at the Kingsway Theatre in London, as one of her high-quality wartime entertainments. The production was announced in The Times, mentioning that the small orchestra pit of the theatre would be enlarged to accommodate a full orchestra. It opened on 29 December 1915. The premiere was to have been the conducted by the composer, but because Lady Elgar had suffered concussion a few days before as the result of a traffic accident, he stayed at home with her, and the conductor was the young Julius Harrison. It ran for only one month, closing on 29 January 1916.
The reasons for the failure were inappropriate design of the characters and scenery by Henry Wilson, and the difficulty Pearn had in making something theatrical with her adaptation of the book. Both Blackwood and Elgar had expressed misgivings about the design, and Blackwood had considered using his right to object and get a new artist. Blackwood objected to "this murder of my simple little Play... Arts & Crafts pretentious rubbish stitched onto your music by a silly crank who has never read the play". Elgar agreed. This would have meant postponement of the opening. The critics who reported their view of the opening night, while praising the music and particular performers, remarked on the lack of substance to the story. The music did not deserve to be forgotten. Elgar negotiated with The Gramophone Company, and on 18 February 1916, the music was recorded on eight sides, with the songs performed by Agnes Nicholls and Charles Mott. Later that year the three Organ Grinder's Songs were published by Elkin, with a piano accompaniment arranged by Julius Harrison.

Plot

A simplistic version of Blackwood's novel. According to the elgar.org website, "A family of children, trapped in the oppressive world of adults, forms a secret society whose members collect stardust and live in star caves. They seek to rescue their parents from an earthly existence and eventually succeed, taking them also to a star cave."

Cast of characters

Cast list:
  • Daddy
  • Mother
  • Jane Anne
  • Monkey
  • Jimbo
  • Grannie
  • Cousin Henry
  • Madame Jequier
  • Organ-Grinder
  • Children who accompany the Organ-Grinder before the curtain
  • Miss Waghorn and three other retired Governesses
  • The Pleiades
  • Sprites: Tramp, Lamplighter, Gardener, Dustman, Sweep, Woman-of-the-Haystack, Little Winds and Laugher

    Songs

;Act I
1. Organ Grinder : "To the Children" – "O children, open your arms to me,"
;Act II
2. Organ Grinder: "The Blue-Eyes Fairy" – "There's a fairy that hides"
;Act II Scene 1
3. Organ Grinder: "Curfew Song" – "The sun has gone"
4. Laugher : "The Laugher's Song" – "I'm ev'rywhere"
5. Organ Grinder: "Come Little Winds" – "Wake up you little night winds"
;Act II Scene 3
6. Laugher: "Tears and Laughter" – "Oh! stars shine brightly!"
7. Jane Anne : "Sunrise Song" – "We shall meet the morning spiders"
;Act III
8. Organ Grinder: "My Old Tunes" – "My old tunes are rather broken"
;Act III Scene 1
9. Jane Anne: – "Dandelions, daffodils"
;Act III Scene 2
10. Laugher: – "Laugh a little ev'ry day"
11. Organ Grinder: "The Dawn" – "They're all soft-shiny now"
12. Jane Anne: – "Oh, think Beauty"
;Act III Finale
13. Jane Anne & Cousin Henry, duet: "Hearts must be soft-shiny dressed" – ''"Dustman, Laugher, Tramp and busy Sweep"''

Musical quotations

From Elgar's The Wand of Youth Suites
  • The Little Bells – in all Acts
  • Fairy Pipers – in all Acts
  • Sun Dance – interlude at the end of Act II
  • Moths and Butterflies – introduction to Act II Scene 3
  • March – in Act III
From Elgar's The Music Makers
  • a sequence in Jane Anne's song at the end of Act II Scene 2
From the Christmas Carol The First Nowell
  • at the end of Act III

    Publications

  • Piano Suite, arranged by Albert Ketèlbey, pub. Elkin & Co. Ltd. London & New York, 1916
  • *To the Children
  • *Dance of the Pleiades
  • *Sunrise Song
  • *In the Forest
  • *"The Blue-Eyes Fairy"
  • *Finale
  • Organ Grinder's Songs, piano accompaniment arranged by Julius Harrison, pub. Elkin & Co. Ltd. London & New York, 1916
  • *1. "To the Children"
  • *2. "The Blue-Eyes Fairy"
  • *3. "My Old Tunes"

    Synopsis

Act I

After a short musical overture, the Organ grinder appears in front of the curtain and sings "To the Children". The Song includes self-quotations of "The Little Bells" music from "The Wand of Youth".
;Song
1. The Organ Grinder: "To the Children"
The music continues through the curtain rise on the first scene.

Scene 1

The curtain rises on a family living in a pension in the mountains of Switzerland, showing grown-ups with problems which are first expressed unaccompanied by music: there is Daddy, Mother, the pension manager Widow Jequier with residents that do not pay, old Miss Waghorn always searching for her long-lost brother, and Cousin Henry. The children identify with star constellations: Jane Anne the Pleiades, Jimbo the Pole Star, and Monkey with the Great and Little Bear. Cousin Henry is Orion. The children are concerned that the adults who have become 'wumbled' need 'sympathy' in the form of star-dust.
There is incidental music but there are no songs in this act, which has only one scene.

Act II

Before the curtain opens, there is a short musical prelude, and the Organ Grinder sings the waltz-song "The Blue-Eyes Fairy".
;Song
2. The Organ Grinder: "The Blue-Eyes Fairy"

There's a fairy that hides in the beautiful eyes
Of the children who treat her well;
In the little round hole where the eyeball lies
She weaves her magical Spell.
She is awfully tiny and shy to the sight,
But her magic's past believing,
For she fills you with light and with laughter,
It's the spell of her own sweet weaving.
But! the eyes must be blue,
And the heart must be true,
And the child must be better than gold!
And then if you'll let her,
The quicker the better
She'll make you forget that you're old.
So, if such a child you should chance to see,
Or with such a child to play,
No matter how tired or dull you be,
Nor how many tons you weigh
You will suddenly find that you're young again,
And your movements light and airy
And you'll try to be solemn and stiff in vain-
It's the spell of the Blue-Eyes Fairy.

The scene is concluded by an Entr’acte "In the Forest".

Scene 1

;Scene 1 – Part 1
The curtain rises during the Entr’acte music.
Cousin Henry, Monkey and Jimbo are outside the Star-Cave at the edge of a pine-forest. The cave is too narrow for them to enter. They fall asleep. The Sprites appear and Night falls. The Organ-Grinder sings the Curfew Song. The Sprites hide.
;Song
3. The Organ Grinder: "The Curfew Song"

The sun has gone;
The tide of stars is setting all our way,
The Pleiades call softly to Orion,
As nightly they have called these million years;
The children lie asleep; now let them out,
And, over-hearing,
We waft the fairy call into your dreams,
That you may swim upon that tide of gold
And list'ning in your hearts,
Just over-hear
That deep tremendous thunder
Signalling reply:
All's well!
Orion answering the Pleiades!

There is the Dance of the Pleiades as the curtain falls.
;Scene 1 – Part 2
The curtain rises. It is now night-time and the children are awake. The introduction includes a violin and harp duet, and the "Little Bells" music from "The Wand of Youth".
The Sprites descend from the Starlight Express: they are the Organ Grinder, the Sweep who sweeps worries away, the Dustman with the stardust of sympathy, the Lamplighter who lights up hope, the Head Gardener who makes things grow, the Tramp with instinctive simplicity, and the 'Laugher' who sings troubles into joy. The Woman-of-the-Haystack is the mother of them all, borne on the winds.
;Song
4. The Laugher: "I'm everywhere"

'
I'm everywhere,
The universal solvent of despair,
'
Ah! that sings away the half
Of ev'ry care because I laugh!
I laugh

;Song
5. The Organ Grinder: "Come Little Winds"

Wake up, you little Night Winds :
Blow your best !
We want you all -
Ha-ha! that's East and West,
The North Wind too,
She always blows the strongest:
You all must draw your deepest breath and longest,
With open mouth!
Now go and blow the Haystack out of bed!
Whistle her dreams of straw across the sky
And whirl her canvas skirts about her head -
You can but try!
Go, sweep her to'ards the Cave, and break her trance:
Thick Mother of the Sprites -
She must get in:
Even a Haystack's elephantine dance
Is somewhere thin!
Is somewhere thin!

;Interlude
The "Sun Dance" and "Moths and Butterflies" music from the "Wand of Youth"