The Rival Poets

The Rival Poets, or the Love Charm is an English comic opera in two acts by Edward German to a libretto by W. H. Scott. The opera was first performed under the title The Two Poets at the Royal Academy of Music in London in July 1886. The opera, Edward German's first, was written while he was trying out various forms of composition during his continued studies of composition at the Royal Academy while a sub-professor. German called it an "opera de salon". It was written for just six soloists and two-piano accompaniment, over a three-year period, most of the writing taking place during holiday times. The opera is set in "an imaginary Anglo-Swiss republic," and the plot has been described as being similar to Gilbert and Sullivan's...