Here's the OTHER Tom Jones opera, following Philidor's in the eighteenth century. When Arthur Sullivan died before completing The Emerald Isle, his follow-up to The Rose of Persia, Edward German stepped in to finish it, and went on to write a handful of other operas in a similar vein, until--I gather--that operatic style fell out of fashion. His last work was called The Fallen Fairies, which was set to WS Gilbert's final libretto. Kind of an interesting legacy, to be involved in the final works of both G and S. You might think that Fielding's novel is an odd choice for this milieu--it lacks the kind of zany frivolity you generally expect--but it works well enough.
When I saw a recording on OperaonVideo, I had to check it out, if only because of my weird fetish for seeing multiple operas by the same title. I suppose you expect me to compare it to the Philidor version? Well, the plots start off very similarly, with Sophie's father wanting her to marry the loathsome Blifil, Tom not being considered appropriate because of the "foundling" thing. So he runs off, and we see him at an inn where various stuff happens, including Sophie showing up (I noticed that here, when she's referred to as Sophia, everyone pronounces it "So-FIE-uh." That sounds hella weird to me. Can it really be authentic?). There are more minor characters from the novel here, but that's basically what it is. It does diverge significantly in the latter half, as Tom's lover Lady Bellaston shows up, and this causes tension before Sophie gets back with him. Tom's extra-Sophie dalliance are more clearly acknowledged here, which may be unintuitive.
But again: WHICH IS BETTER?!? Well, really, do you prefer classical music or G&S-style light opera? There are some nice tunes here, including some that REALLY make me think of folk songs I've heard performed by the likes of Martin Carthy. In that sense, it's worth watching.
The sense in which it's NOT worth watching is the sense in which you'd be watching this version: the recording is utterly atrocious and I can't say much for the performance itself. The year and venue are unknown, but it seems to be some sort of university production, in which case I suppose I should cut it some slack, but man, the set, such as it is, is extremely rinky-dink, and it cavalierly cuts out a handful of musical numbers for no apparent reason--like Philidor, this is probably already talkier than it needs to be, and you're just making it worse by cutting out the good parts (I know that these cuts were made because, significantly more so than that recording of The Rose of Persia that I saw, you will get absolutely nowhere with this without the libretto at hand). Also, while the sound is almost adequate, the picture quality is bad. I get the impression that it was filmed via camcorder by the parent of one of the singers, which is sort of charming, but come on. At one extremely inopportune moment--the climax of the second act--their battery dies, and the recording picks up in the middle of the first musical number in the third. YEESH.
So...yeah. I might recommend the piece itself to you, if such things are to your taste, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to any but the most obsessive until and unless a higher-quality recording of a better performance surfaces.
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