The opera or rather the musical interlude At the Boar’s Head was written in 1924. Gustav Holst composed it at his home in Thaxted, where susceptible to illnesses since childhood he was resting after collapsing, probably due to being overladen with work. This was because, by the time his health deteriorated, the composer had taught in a number of schools and played as an orchestra trombonist, devoting all his free time to composing. Imogen, Gustav’s daughter, mentioned the beginning of work on the opera: ‘He spoke of it as an opera that wrote itself’. The content consists of loosely connected episodes from the tavern from whose name the title comes. In the At the Boar’s Head Tavern, Bardolph and company drink and sing, enter Falstaff, and from the doorway, he calls for a glass of sherry... Gustav Holst designed a thoroughly English piece, at the level of both the text and the music. At the Boar’s Head combines the typical British sense of humour sometimes displaying borderline good taste, if not downright vulgar, with music that simply cannot be mistaken.

In Synge’s drama Riders to the Sea, the composer did not change a word, making only slight cuts. Nor did he have to make major reductions in the text of what after all is a very short, one-act drama. The composer rejected most of the elements that could have allowed the precise location of Maurya’s house to be identified (all that is left is a reference to the distant Connemara), and some prosaic conversations concerning the household. In this way he universalised the subject, removing fragments of life to leave only the naked drama of the loss.

Casts:

Riders to the Sea
- Bartley: Gary Griffiths (baritone)
- Cathleen: Nicole Percifield (soprano)
- Maurya: Kathleen Reveille (mezzo-soprano)
- Nora: Evanna Chiew (mezzo-soprano)
- The Woman: Anna Fijałkowska (mezzo-soprano)

At the Boar’s Head
- Falstaff: Jonathan Lemalu (bass-baritone)
- Prince Hal: Eric Barry (tenor)
- Poins: Paweł Kołodziej (bass)
- Bardolph: Krzysztof Szumański (baritone)
- Doll Tearsheet: Kathleen Reveille (mezzo-soprano)
- Peto: Adam Zdunikowski (tenor)
- Pistol: Gary Griffiths (baritone)
- Hostess: Nicole Percifield (soprano)
- Gadshill: Mateusz Stachura (baritone)