Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in quattro atti
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), composer. Luigi Illica and Domenico Oliva, librettists.
First performance: 1 February 1893 at Teatro Regio, Turin.
Opera lovers discovering Vivaldi’s vigor
His many restless scores have burst onto the scene.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/12782744.htm
Unchained Melody
The Met pulls out all the star power it can for the season debutówith (mostly) spectacular results.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/music/classical/reviews/14616/index.html
Oppenheimer as a myth for our time
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/68c55360-3472-11da-adae-00000e2511c8.html
RAVEL: ShÈhÈrezade
DUPARC: MÈlodies
Konrad Jarnot is a young baritone who brings a wonderful vitality to the music he has recorded. He also has another Oehms release, a selection of Lieder by Gustav Mahler, which is engaging for the strong sense of line he brings to that repertoire, which is precisely what he brings to this collection of French vocal music.
PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet
RESPHIGHI: Pini di Roma
The biographies of the two composers whose works are represented on this disc, Sergei Prokofiev and Ottorino Respighi, share many common threads. In addition to moving in similar circles early in their lives (for example, both studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and both were later connected with Diaghilev), they similarly composed in totalitarian regimes at the end of their careers.
CONRADI: Die schˆne und getreue Ariadne
Since its inception in 1980, the biennial Boston Early Music Festival has grown to international stature of the first rank, and while its programming is diverse in scale and repertory, its focus in recent years has been on full-scale productions of baroque opera, including Monteverdiís LíOrfeo, Rossiís Orfeo, Cavalliís Ercole Amante, Lullyís ThÈsÈe, and this past summer, Matthesonís Boris Goudenouw.
AbbÈ PrÈvost’s Manon Lescaut
The Story of the Chevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by AbbÈ PrÈvost stands as one of the great works of French literature. It first appeared in 1731 as an appendix to the series, Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality. It was later revised in 1753 for independent publication under the title Les Aventures du chevalier Des Grieux et Manon Lescaut with illustrations by Pasquier and Gravelot.