I saw a film clip of operatic bass-baritone George London singing "Lord Randal" recently. He gave it the full operatic treatment, and you'd think he was doing the final act of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," (The Death of Boris). Now, George London is one of the world's great operatic bass-baritones, but his rendition of Lord Randal was more that just a bit "over the top."

But "Lord Randal" is still a traditional (folk) ballad.

But had he done "The Death of Boris" like I feel "Lord Randal" should be done, that wouldn't have worked either.

Don Firth