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Programme Note

Libretto:
Max Berton

Synopsis:
When you have met Tony Beaver you may say, ‘The things that happen to Tony can never happen to me’ and no doubt you will be right. For in your workaday world, the melons you plant will turn out to be no more than melon-sized, while in Tony’s realm, melons may grow as big as moons. Tony has all the resources of folklore at his command, its ingenuity, its wonder and he walks hand-in-hand with fabulous kinsmen — Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Davy Crockett — inhabitants of a realm where the unbelievable is believable, where the dreams and the doings are scaled to tall measure. Tony is confronted by barriers, assailed by doubt; he is despairing, yet his quest continues, as, blundering from defeat to defeat, he is ultimately victorious.