Perhaps some Opera Today readers may wonder why a book on Sir Edward Elgar merits reviewing on this particular site. The composer never came near to completing an opera. In…
Month: August 2005
Vivaldi and the chorus of unwanted children
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7b2889a6-1829-11da-a14b-00000e2511c8.html
Edinburgh reports: slow burn gives sumptuous results
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/08/29/bmbrewer29.xml
AUDRAN: La Mascotte
Chances are the world of opera bouffe is somewhat foreign to most listeners. Many may know one or two operettas by Offenbach – La Perichole, perhaps, or La belle Helene…
RABAUD: Marouf, Savetier du Caire
Like many of the nearly forgotten composers of his era, Henri Rabaud (1873-1949) had his day in the sun. A pupil of Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, and later its…
ALALEONA: Mirra
I had never heard of the Italian composer Domenico Alaleona (1891-1928) when a recording of his opera Mirra arrived in the mail. Baker’s gives him a respectable 22 lines, but…
MESSIAEN: Orchestral Works
As part of their “Gemini–the EMI Treasures” series, EMI has re-released recordings of some of Olivier Messiaen’s greatest hits: the Turangalila-Symphonie (1946 – 48), Quatour pour la fin du temp…
Marco Polo Film Classics, Part I
Between the 1930s and the 1950s, Hollywood composers pumped out tens of thousands of scores for what we now call “classical Hollywood films.” These films often contained an hour or…