The Immortal Hour The Immortal Hour The Immortal Hour is an opera by English composer Rutland Boughton. Boughton adapted his own libretto from the play of the same name by Fiona MacLeod, a pseudonym of writer William Sharp. "The Immortal Hour" is a fairy tale or fairy opera, with a mood and theme similar to Dvořák's "Rusalka" and Mozart's "The Magic Flute". Magic and nature spirits play important roles in the storyline. The fairy people are not mischievous, childlike sprites, but are proud and powerful: immortal demigods who are feared by mortals and who can (and do) interfere with the lives of men
British National Opera Company free of charge, to support the company. She did not, however, feel equal to relearning her old roles in English translation, and she sang in Italian while the rest of the company sang in the vernacular. The British National Opera Company was a pioneer of broadcast opera, with excerpts from "The Magic Flute" broadcast live from the Royal Opera House by the British Broadcasting Company in January 1923, less than a year after the foundation of both the BBC and the opera company. The company's first artistic director was Percy Pitt, who had been music director with the Grand Opera