About the work
A Village Romeo and Juliet is an opera by Frederick Delius, premiered in 1907 in Berlin. The work is based on the eponymous novella by Gottfried Keller and transposes the Shakespearean material to a Swiss farming village.
Plot
The farmers' children Sali and Vrenchen grow up as neighbours, but a land dispute between their fathers divides the families. As young adults Sali and Vrenchen find each other again, but their impoverished and embittered fathers forbid the union. In an altercation Sali strikes down Vrenchen's father, who thereupon loses his mind. The lovers spend one last happy day together at a fair. Since society offers them no future, they let themselves drift down the river in a hay barge and drown together.
Cultural significance
The opera is Delius's most mature stage work and combines a late-Romantic tonal language with a moving pastoral atmosphere. The orchestral intermezzo "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" is among the most beautiful orchestral pieces of English music and is frequently performed as a stand-alone concert piece.