The Broken Ring

The Broken Ring

The Broken Ring. Folk opera in one act by Trevor Morgan Jones with a libretto by Donald Wetmore. The Saladin Mutiny (1844, off the coast of Nova Scotia) provides the background for a story of lovers reunited by means of a ring they had halved on parting. The opera is based on six ballads chosen from the collection of Helen Creighton and harmonized by Jones. It was premiered in Halifax, on 15 Aug 1953 by the Nova Scotia Opera Association, with Ray Simpson as narrator, Keith Barrie, tenor, and Gladys Dickson, soprano; Trevor Jones conducted. Revised in 1954, it was telecast 29 Feb 1956 by the CBC with Karen Mills and Bernard Johnson in the leading roles and Thomas Mayer as conductor. A third production was staged at the Banff SFA in August 1958, and a fourth, mounted by Dartmouth (NS) High School, was seen at Expo 67. Jones arranged the overture for symphonic band and this has been performed by the Cobequid Educational Centre band conducted by Ronald McKay.

Jones, b Springhill, NS, 1899, was a vaudeville and dance band pianist whose compositions, listed in the Catalogue of Canadian Composers, included a Symphony to Halifax for choir and orchestra, celebrating that city's bicentennial in 1949.