If anyone had played the soundtrack of those first numbers of the 1955 telecast, I would have looked up in surprise at first and would have wondered if an electronic wizard had cleaned up the acoustic recordings of that giant of French singing: Jean-Emile Vanni-Marcoux.
Category: Reviews
DONIZETTI: Il Diluvio Universale
Originally issued in LP by Voce (100), this unfairly neglected work by Gaetano Donizetti is now available on the Bongiovanni (GB2386/87-2) label.
LEH¡R: Das Land des L‰chelns
This version of Leh·rís second most popular operetta is not one for purists. By the mid-seventies, it was already clear that one of the biggest tragedies of Western classical music was taking place ó the disappearance of operetta with its tons of wonderful music.
A Time of Tristans
We live in a time of Tristan & Isolde ó recordings of the great Wagner opera, that is.
ROSSINI: Moise et Pharaon
Rossini’s original Italian opera, Mose In Egitto, was re-adapted as Moise et Pharaon for Paris. A new libretto, the renaming of certain characters, some new music, a ballet and reordering of the original music make up the newer version.
Billy Budd at ENO ó Two Reviews
ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA: ëUnder no circumstances to be missedí (The Guardian), Neil Armfieldís illuminating reading of Billy Budd receives its long-awaited London premiere. In the season in which Benjamin Britten becomes ENOís House Composer, this engrossing WNO/Opera Australia production is the perfect salute to a great British masterpiece.
An American Tragedy ó Three Reviews
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: The American author Theodore Dreiser published An American Tragedy in 1925 and it quickly became a classic. Based on a true story of a man who was found guilty of murdering the woman who was carrying his baby, while he was simultaneously pursuing another woman of a higher social class, Dreiserís novel tells the story of a mid-western preacherís son who tasted a little sophistication on his way to death in the electric chair.
DONIZETTI: Lucia di Lammermoor
A superstar in Europe, Edita Gruberova can rest assured that future generations have the opportunity to appreciate her artistry: the record label Nightingale Classics exists primarily, it seems, to record her in her greatest roles.
FAUR…: The Complete Songs, Vol. 2
As the second of four of the thematically organized recording of the Complete Songs of Gabriel FaurÈ (1845-1924), Un paysage choisi is an excellent offering of chansons that concern selected natural places, that is to say, the ìchosen landscapeî indicated in the title of this volume.
PROKOFIEV: Ivan the Terrible
Sergei Prokofievís Ivan the Terrible? Which one? Prokofiev composed music for Sergei Eisensteinís film (part 1, 1942-44; part 2, 1945) about the sixteenth-century ruler, and the score is catalogued as op. 116. After the composerís death, music for the film was arranged first into an oratorio (with speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra) by Alexander Stasevich (1961) and later into a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1990).