Author: James Sohre

As the detail-filled booklet essay to this CPO set reminds its readers, Franz Leh‰r’s operettas enjoyed widespread, though rarely lasting, success, with the music theater world of the time eager for each successive work.

Good directors don’t always create good productions.

The two one-act operas – operettes? – on this disc play something like mediocre episodes of The Twilight Zone set to music, though without the quirky memorability of that show’s opening theme.

On a good night an opera performance can come across with visceral excitement without a classy production, top-name singers, or the benefit of being of one of the more familiar titles.

Those opera lovers prone to rage at the perceived dominance of the director in their beloved art form today may collapse in apoplexy at this first release from the company called SignumVision.

The word “living” would be a fitting addition to the subtitle of this collection of “Songs by American Composers.”

“An all-American Norma,” Roger Pines calls this release in his entertaining booklet essay.

For adherents of the prima voce school of opera appreciation, this Laurent Pelly production of Donizetti’s comic masterpiece may not hold that much appeal.

EMI’s publicity for this studio recording focuses on soprano Angela Gheorghiu and her portrayal of Cio-Cio-San.

Of Donizetti’s 55 operas, four to five hold on to secure places in the repertory, a much greater number are all but unknown, and in the middle come the titles that see occasional revivals, as flawed but fascinating rarities.