A 20th Century Opera Collection

domingo, 30 de mayo de 2010

Goldschmidt - Beatrice Cenci - Lothar Zagrosek

Beatrice Cenci, Opera in 3 Acts

Count Francesco Cenci: Simon Estes
Lucrezia: Della Jones
Beatrice: Roberta Alexander
Bernardo: Fiona Kimm
Orsino: Endrik Wottrich

Rundfunkchor Berlin
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Lothar Zagrosek

Amazon review:

This is the world-premiere recording of a 1951 opera by German composer Goldschmidt. Based on a play by Percy Bysshe Shelley, it centers around a late- Renaissance brute who is liked by the papacy (he's a major patron). When his first wife dies, he remarries and is then killed, in turn, by his beautiful daughter from his first marriage. Full of passion and intrigue, Beatrice Cenci is in some ways a throwback to Italian operas of the early 19th century, but it also has strong Mahlerian and Brucknerian flourishes. This is an excellent performance of a topnotch work. --Paul Cook

Tracklist:

Disc: 1

1. Intro
2. Act One: Scene 1: 'My Gentle Beatrice'
3. Act One: Scene 1: 'What Has Your Father Done' - 'Ours Is An Evil Lot'
4. Act One: Scene 1: 'His Holiness The Pope'
5. Act One: Scene 1: 'Orsino, Two Long Years'
6. Act One: Scene 1: 'Farewell'
7. Act One: Scene 2: 'Princes And Cardinals'
8. Act One: Scene 2: Entrance of the Dancers - The Singer's Arietta
9. Act One: Scene 2: 'A Charming Song'
10. Act One: Scene 2: 'Oh, You Bright Wine'
11. Intro
12. Act Two: 'The Beautiful Blue Heaven'
13. Act Two: 'What Ails You, My Poor Child?'
14. Act Two: 'Orsino!'
15. Act Two: 'Beatrice'
16. Act Two: 'He Is Asleep'
17. Act Two: 'The Come Not Yet?'
18. Act Two: 'Who Knocks At This Late Hour'

Disc: 2

1. Act Three: Scene 1: 'Oh Mother'
2. Act Three: Scene 1: 'Lucrezia Cenci'
3. Act Three: Scene 1: 'How Very Friendless'
4. Act Three: Scene 1: Nocturne
5. Act Three: Scene 1: 'The Pope Is Stern'
6. Act Three: Scene 1: 'False Friend'
7. Act Three: Scene 1: Interlude
8. Act Three: Scene 2: 'Look, How The Sun'
9. Act Three: Scene 2: 'Farewell, My Tender Brother'
10. Act Three: Scene 2: 'They Have Fulfilled Their Fate'
11. Four Songs: Clouds
12. Four Songs: A Sprig Of Roses
13. Four Songs: Fogweaving
14. Four Songs: Time

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Prokofiev - War and Peace - Rostropovich

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Vojna i Mir (War and Peace) - Mstislav Rostropovich - ON de France

Vojna i Mir (War and Peace), Opera in 13 Scenes after Tolstoi

Galina Vishnevskaia (Natasha Rostova)
Mariana Paunova (Maria Dmitrievna Akhrossimova)
Stefania Toczyska (Helene)
Nicolai Gedda (Anatole Kouraguine)
Wieslaw Ochman (Pierre Bezoukhov)
Lajos Miller (Prince André Bolkonski)
Dimiter Petkov (Count Rostov)...

Orchestre National de France
Mstislav Rostropovich

Amazon review:

Rostropovitch promised Prokofiev to keep this work alive and champion performing it complete. This concert version from 1986 is, I believe, note complete. It's a magnificent recording achievment with a strong cast and clearly the first choice as a recording. Rostropovitch's tempi always tend to be slow but that brings out the rich and complicated orchestration better and his wife, legendary Russian soprano Galina Vischneskaya is past her prime but she still sings beautifully in one of her most famous roles. The rest of the cast is first rate and robust sounding. The choral work is thrilling.

Of the three available recordings, and I'm familiar with the other two, this is clearly the recording to have. There's an historical connection here that's not to be ignored. And I really believe, the score is complete. Thre's certainly extended choral work that I've never heard before.
Marc Musnick

Tracklist:

CD1

1 Ouvertüre (5:08)
2 Ciel clair et printannier (1. Szene) (3:42)
3 Je ne veux pas dormir, je ne peux pas dormir (5:41)
4 Peu leur importe que j'existe (2:48)
5 Un bal chez un vieux gentilhomme. (2. Szene) (3:48)
6 Scène et arrivée de l'empereur (2:56)
7 Que les astres poursuivent leur ronde (6:29)
8 Par uns soir de printemps (7:32)
9 Un salon (3. Szene) (:59)
10 Le Comte Rostov, Natacha, la Princesse Marie (4:18)
11 Ah, Mademoiselle la Comtesse (2:57)
12 De quel droit me refusent-ils? (3:35)

CD2

1 Enfine vous etes venue chez moi (4. Szene) (3:15)
2 Comme elle est belle (3:19)
3 Mon sort est entre vos mains (4:00)
4 Je la retrouverai (5. Szene) (4:09)
5 Entrée du cocher Balaga (2:59)
6 Joseph, de loutre! (3:20)
7 Un salon (6. Szene) (2:39)
8 C'est du propre! (5:23)
9 Bezoukhov... fais entrer (4:48)
10 J'ai une conciance aveugle en vous (7:15)
11 Le cabinet de Pierre Bezoukhov (7. Szene) (2:49)
12 J'ai à vous parler (7:28)

CD3

1 Epigraph (5:39)
2 Borodino avant la bataille (8. Szene) (1:41)
3 Allons y les enfants (1:04)
4 Vous etes le Prince Bolkonski (1:31)
5 Un groupe de paysans. (2:45)
6 Moscou! (3:00)
7 Denissiv, son premier fiancé (3:43)
8 Apparition de Pierre (2:40)
9 Dans l'espace (3:50)
10 Choeur des soldats, choeur des partisants (1:10)
11 Travailler sans relache (2:05)
12 Peuple incomparable, peuple merveilleux (4:18)
13 Des grenadiers défilent aus loin. (1:29)
14 Passage au loin du régiment des cosaques (2:43)
15 Dommage, mais tu n'as pas tort - Pauvre vieux - Tout notre peuple s'est levé (3:18)
16 Le vin est tiré (9. Szene) (9:55)
17 Frères, courons au combat (1:13)
18 Conseil de guerre dans une isba à Fili. (10. Szene) (1:44)
19 L'antique et sainte capitale (3:09)
20 Si vous dé cidez de vou battre (2:30)
21 L'ennemi nous apporte la mort (1:29)
22 Comment est arrivée cette chose terrible? (9:28)
23 Des soldats passent sur la route (1:12)

CD4

1 Une rue de Moscou (11. Szene) (1:49)
2 La fillette chante (1:04)
3 Viens donc, viens ma belle amie (:44)
4 Un groupe de moscovites (2:00)
5 Passage des soldats maraudeurs (1:22)
6 Foule de moscovites (2:09)
7 C'est l'heure de mourir ou de triompher (4:05)
8 Vous en avez des tetes (:59)
9 Les Francais sortent. (1:18)
10 Entrée du Maréchal Davoust. (8:06)
11 Voyez, voyez ces flammes! (1:52)
12 Trois fois ils m'ont tue (1:01)
13 Arrivée des Comédiens et Comédiennes (:25)
14 Entouré de sa suite, Napoléon parcourt les rues de Moscou en flammes: Quel affreux spectacle (3:05)
15 Par une sombre nuit sans lune (2:03)
16 Une isba. (12. Szene) (1:10)
17 Tout s'allonge, s'étire (4:12)
18 Qu'est-ce là? (2:14)
19 Pourquoi trop (6:48)
20 Une route de Smolensk (13. Szened) (5:12)
21 Les prisonniers. (3:19)
22 Frères, vous nous avez sauvés (1:00)
23 Denissov, Pierre (4:21)
24 Un jour notre Fedor voulut faire prisonnier un francais tout vif (3:45)
25 Le sérénissime (3:11)
26 Notre Russie est sauvée (5:45)

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sábado, 1 de mayo de 2010

Max von Schillings: Mona Lisa-Klauspeter Seibel - Kiel Opera

Max von Schillings (1868-1933): Mona Lisa - Klauspeter Seibel - Kiel Opera
Opera | Early 20th Century | 2CD | EACRip | APE+LOG+CUE | Covers | RS.com | 592MB
Label:CPO | Year of release: 1995 | DDD

Messer Francesco del Giocondo: Klaus Wallprecht
Messer Giovanni de Salviati: Albert Bonnema
Mona Fiordalisa: Beate Bilandzija
Mona Ginevra ad Alta Rocca: Eva-Christine Reimer

Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra
Klauspeter Seibel

Rec.1994

Amazon.com Review:

According to the notes, Schillings was part of Richard Strauss's circle, and produced a trio of very Wagnerian operas earlier in his career. "Mona Lisa" was his final and most popular effort. But stylistically it breaks away from a strictly Wagnerian mode, and dabbles in the language of Italian verismo. The story, too, fits the veristic model in it's direct, realistic, and slightly shocking handling of a love triangle ending in murder. It's given added interest by taking it's inspiration from Leonardo DaVinci's famous painting.

Schilling's opera was one of four works that appeared in a very short time with very similar subjects--Zemlinsky's "Eine Florentinische Tragodie", Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten", and Korngold's "Violanta" to which it's similarity is striking. It's true that Schillings' harmonic and orchestral sophistication isn't quite up to the level of the other three, yet he still fashions a dynamic and effective drama that charms with it's beauty and chills with it's dramatic twists and turns.

Eric D. Anderson

Tracklist:

CD1
1 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Vorspiel: Orchestervorspiel - Orchestral Prelude
2 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Vorspiel: 'Erbaut ward der Palast'
3 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Carneval, Carneval'
4 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Ah...! Misericordia!'
5 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Ritornelle weiss ich eine Masse'
6 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Arrigo brachte Mona Gina her...'
7 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Was ist's mein Freund?'
8 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Ah, Messer Giovanni!'
9 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Nun wappnet Eure Augen'
10 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Seht hier des Meeres wunderbarsten Schatz'

CD2

1 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Fiordalisa'
2 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Sprach hier jemand?'
3 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Warum so schreckhaft?'
4 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Was - was ich will? Vielleicht ist's sonderbar'
5 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act I: 'Jugend ist so hold und suss'
6 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'nichts Regt Sich Im Zimmer Mona Lisas'
7 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'gruner, Gruner, Blaubluhender Rosmarin'
8 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'was Ist...ach So...zur Mette Lauten Sie'
9 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'es Wird Schon Spat'
10 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'sie Ist Nicht Hier?'
11 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'so! So! Hab Ich Dich!'
12 Mona Lisa Op. 31: Act Ii: 'das War Des Dramas Ende'

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Dmitri Shostakovich - The Gamblers - The Nose - Rozhdestvensky

The Gamblers, Opera (Scenes after N.Gogol), Op.63

Alexei - Vladimir Rybasenko
Ikharyov - Vladimir Tarkhov
Gavryushka - Valery Belykh

Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

The Nose, Opera in 3 Acts after N.Gogol, Op.15

Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov - Eduard Akimov
Ivan Yakovlevich - Valery Belykh
Praskovya Osipovna - Nina Sasulova

Orchestra of the Moscow Musical Chamber Theatre
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

Rec. 1975 - 78

Classical.net review:

The Gamblers (written 1943, performed 1976), adapted from the 1850 story by Nicolai Gogol, is a comedy about rogues, more precisely about an enterprising man with a deck of marked cards. Thinking that he is playing against yokels in a provincial town, he hooks up with two other scoundrels. The opera abounds with clever musical devices: the scene in which the card sharks cheat each other is brilliantly timed and orchestrated – it is a parody of Handel's oratorios and Italian Baroque operas. Shostakovich presents the praise of food segment in the style of a Bach cantata. Instruments personify characters, such as the stumbling tuba that accompanies the simple servant Gavryushka and an ill-timed bass for the cheat Shvokhnev. What a pity the opera has no women characters! What a greater pity Shostakovich never finished it!

The Nose (written 1928, performed 1978), another comedy based on a Gogol story, could be the silliest satire I have ever heard. The Soviet ministers of culture need not have raved so much about Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; this inspired piece of nonsense is subversive enough. It is a perfect example of the avant-garde Russian art that flourished in the ten years following the Russian Revolution. From its opening scene, when the barber discovers that he has mistakenly cut the nose off of a customer and his magpie-like wife chides him, the opera never releases its daffy vice grip. In Act II, the police, told to prevent the nose from leaving the city, sing a ten-part chorale led by the inspector, an extended Russian folk song that will make you giggle like a child again. Even the instrumental interludes are pure cockamamie. A polka and waltz are allied to a bizarre fugue, which not only unravels but literally winds down, complete with cranking sounds. Shrill piccolos interrupt cantabile melodies, wild declarations occur next to arioso laments, and atonal episodes clash with neoclassical figures. Despite the humor in this work, Shostakovich was characteristically disingenuous about it: "Regardless of all the comical scenes, the music itself is not funny. I am aiming at true tone." Poor man. He was always looking over his shoulder.

Conductor Rozhdestvensky deftly navigates through all this wackiness. Hats off to baritone Eduard Akimov, who plays assessor Platon Kovalyov. He even blubbers rhythmically. Too bad these operas have no librettos; instead, there are barely adequate scene summaries. Play this one for your friends next time you hear them complain that Shostakovich is "too nineteeth century," "traditional," "unadventurous," or other such nonsense. You'll never see an opinion change so quickly.

Peter Bates

Tracklist:

Disc: 1
1. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Introduction
2. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Do come in, do come in...
3. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): I'm listening friend, go on...
4. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): What a sight...
5. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Have you come far?...
6. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Where is your master from?...
7. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Wily fellows, these...
8. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Perhaps Kazan is better...
9. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Listen, did they give you much?...
10. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): I'm sorry, the room's not nice...
11. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): But, gentlemen, come come, don't let's argue...
12. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Well well, this sturgeon is good...
13. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Jack of clubs, diamonds...
14. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): And so we shake on the deal...
15. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Do tell us...
16. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Do you remember, Shvokhnev...
17. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): In a town...
18. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): We have our methods...
19. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): There was another one which went quite well...
20. The Gamblers, opera, for 6 male voices & orchestra (unfinished): Wily fellows, these...
21. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Introduction
22. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Scene 1. Today, Praskovya Osipovna, I will not take coffee...
23. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Scene 2. Pick that up. You've lost something...
24. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Interlude
25. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Scene 3. Brr... brr... I've had a spot on my nose since yesterday...
26. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Scene 3. Gallop
27. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 1. Scene 3. Ah... how on earth shall I address him...
Disc: 2
1. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Introduction. Is the Police Inspector at home?...
2. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Scene 5. You can take my word for it...
3. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Scene 5. Largo. I have no idea how this misfortune occured...
4. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Scene 5. No, I can't place such an ad in the newspaper...
5. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Interlude
6. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Scene 6. I am indissolubly linked to my love...
7. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 2. Scene 6. God, good God! Why this calamity?...
8. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 7. With the authority vested in me I order...
9. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 8. Is this where College Assessor Kovalyov lives?...
10. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 8. It's really my nose! There's the spot...
11. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 8. Hey, Ivan! Ivan!...
12. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 8. Hey, what a face...
13. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Scene 8. Ah? Write to her / I'm writing...
14. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Act 3. Intermezzo. There goes Major Kovalyov's Nose for a walk...
15. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Epilogue. Scene 9. That's it! That's it!...
16. The Nose, opera, Op. 15: Epilogue. Scene 10. Good day Platon Kuzmich...

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Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle - Bernard Haitink

Béla Bartók (1881-1945): Bluebeard's Castle - Bernard Haitink - Berliner Philharmoniker
Opera | Early 20th Century | 1CD | EACRip | APE+LOG+CUE | Covers | RS.com | 243MB
Label:EMI | Year of release: 1996 | DDD

Judith: Anne Sofie von Otter
Duke Bluebeard: John Tomlinson

Berliner Philharmoniker
Bernard Haitink

Amazon REVIEW:
Full disclosure: this is one of my favorite operas. My first exposure was the early recording with Boulez and Troyanos (still available), and I've heard a number of others, but this one must now take first place. One strength is that the spoken prologue is included by Sandor Eles, speaking in the original Hungarian. As he reaches the end of his introduction, delivered in delicately creepy Boris Karloff style, the opening music quietly begins, setting an ominous tone for everything that is to follow.
Anne Sofie von Otter is magnificent as Judith. (Some may find her voice too light for the part, although I didn't.) The combination of innocence and increasing desperation is pretty terrifying, thanks to her vocal and dramatic skills. John Tomlinson makes a marvelous Bluebeard, singing to Judith with an almost reassuring warmth. Some may prefer a "rougher" Bluebeard, but I enjoyed the effect of his voice masking his real intentions -- until the shocking conclusion.

Haitink's characteristic understatement works extremely well here, as he encourages the Berlin Philharmonic to ever more sinister heights. This is very much an opera that requires a brilliant orchestra in addition to its two stars, and here the Berlin ensemble just sounds terrific. One of the work's highlights is especially well done, when Judith opens the fifth door that reveals "all of Bluebeard's kingdom." The blaze of orchestral playing here is just spine-tingling.

The sound quality is excellent -- recorded live -- and fittingly caps a project that does a grand job communicating Bartok's dark intentions.

Bruce Hodges

TRACK 01 Prologue & Opening
TRACK 02 Door 1
TRACK 03 Door 2
TRACK 04 Door 3
TRACK 05 Door 4
TRACK 06 Door 5
TRACK 07 Door 6
TRACK 08 Door 7

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sábado, 24 de abril de 2010

Zimmermann - Die Soldaten - Kontarsky

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970): Die Soldaten - Bernhard Kontarsky - Orchester des Staatstheater Stuttgart

Die Soldaten, Opera in four Acts
Libretto: after Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

Wesener: Mark Munkittrick
Marie: Nancy Shade
Charlotte: Milagro Vargas
Stolzius: Michael Ebbecke
Desportes: William Cochran
Haudy: Klaus Hirte

Chor und Orchester des Staatstheaters Stuttgart
Bernhard Kontarsky

Musicweb review:

The sad state of Die Soldaten as an opera more known of than known may largely be due to its composer’s ultimate refusal to face life as it is depicted in this, his magnum opus. His suicide in 1970 denied us at least a second opera, Medea, which he had gone some way to sketching. Had he determined to live he would have certainly been able, somewhat like Wagner (a comparison he would have loathed), to drive through his dreams to create ‘total theatre’.

Multimedia wasn’t even a gleam in a PR director’s eye when Zimmermann started to sketch the opera in 1957 after Lenz’s anti-capitalist play from almost two centuries earlier (1775). His aim: ‘To concentrate… all theatrical media for the purpose of communication in a place created specially for this purpose.’ The commissionees at Cologne Opera House, Oscar Schuh and Wolfgang Sawallisch, were having none of it. Having simplified its music and dramaturgy in a revision, Michael Gielen took on the premiere in Cologne in 1965. In London, ENO was the first to stage it only five years ago or so (small wonder, considering a run in Munich in 1969 required 33 orchestral rehearsals and 377 for the soloists, according to Grove) and even then they shirked many of the demands made by the score. The orchestra, including piano, harpsichord and organ, spilled into two subsidiary rooms and was broadcast from there. Director David Freeman could pay little more than lip service to the demands for split-level staging and incorporation of film and cinematic techniques on the operatic stage.

Fortunately the money was evidently around in Stuttgart in 1989, for Harry Kupfer appears to have realised at least some of Zimmermann’s theatrical fantasies with startling success. I say ‘appears’, for the stage is often so underlit that it is nigh-impossible to work out more than the movement of bodies, never mind which ones or where they are. It is offset by the brilliant clarity of sound, noticeable from the very start in the five-minute orchestral pile-up that summarises and seems to reject all the music written before it. Voices project clearly over the top of a texture almost permanently dense. The flip side of such stridency is that hardly anyone ever sings quietly; but with the complexity of what they must sing, it is a miracle that they all project both text and music with such confidence. A small example, from the first appearance of the Countess de la Roche, in Scene 4 of Act 3; with a lyrical, albeit unpredictable melody she sings of her sadness at her son’s unwillingness to trust her any more. This gives way to spoken reflection and anger in sprechstimme before returning to the lyrical vein – and all in the space of 30 seconds or so.

The work is often spoken of as an anti-war tract, which it is – if that’s all you want it to be. The central character is Marie, a nice girl who wants to better herself and, in an effort to please her father and marry above her class, accepts the sinister advances of Desportes, the first of several officer-soldiers who will toy with her and ultimately reject her. In the meanwhile she must break off her engagement to the innocent Stolzius. As Marie is reduced to a sexually complaisant plaything for Desportes, Stolzius gets his revenge by becoming the manservant of Desportes’ friend Major de Mary and poisoning his soup before committing suicide. Her own father does not recognise Marie as she begs in the street; her identity becomes lost in the work’s extraordinary close, a cinematic and sonic collage depicting military brutality.

It may come as little surprise to those who know Wozzeck that Georg Buchner admired and was influenced by Lenz. Zimmermann too took his cue from Berg by building the opera in formally archaic blocks, of Chaconnes, Ricercars, Toccatas and Nocturnes. In both music and dramaturgy, Die Soldaten winds itself around Wozzeck and Lulu like a wary serpent, entirely its own creature. Its musical eclecticism and complexity come to a head at the end of Act 2. Marie and Desportes couple in orgiastic oohs and aahs as Stolzius’s mother tells the young soldier in 12-tone leaps of disapproval that he is being played for a fool. To stage left, Marie’s grandmother sings a folk song with the prophetic line, ‘Some day your cross will come to you’; and over it all a chorale from the St Matthew Passion combines with the harmonies below in unpredictable and genuinely beautiful interaction. One of the great moments in opera of the last century.

Taking the voices one by one rather misses the point of the unorthodox demands made upon them; they make nice sounds when they are able to, but best of all, they are entirely committed to the piece and fluent in its language. Stockhausen disciple Bernhard Kontarsky somehow binds the whole together with nonchalant authority.

Peter Quantrill

Tracklist:

CD1

01 "Die Soldaten: Preludio"
02 "Die Soldaten, I Akt: Introduzione"
03 "Die Soldaten, I Akt 1. Szene"
04 "Die Soldaten, I Akt 2. Szene"
05 "Die Soldaten, I Akt Tratto I"
06 "Die Soldaten, I Akt 3. Szene"
07 "Die Soldaten, I Akt 4. Szene"
08 "Die Soldaten, I Akt 5. Szene"
09 "Die Soldaten, II Akt: Introduzione"
10 "Die Soldaten, II Akt 1. Szene"
11 "Die Soldaten, II Akt Intermezzo"
12 "Die Soldaten, II Akt 2. Szene"

CD2

01 "Die Soldaten, III Akt: Preludio"
02 "Die Soldaten, III Akt 1. Szene"
03 "Die Soldaten, III Akt 2. Szene"
04 "Die Soldaten, III Akt 3. Szene"
05 "Die Soldaten, III Akt Romanza"
06 "Die Soldaten, III Akt 4. Szene"
07 "Die Soldaten, III Akt 5. Szene"
08 "Die Soldaten, IV Akt: Preludio"
09 "Die Soldaten, IV Akt 1. Szene"
10 "Die Soldaten, IV Akt Tratto II"
11 "Die Soldaten, IV Akt 2. Szene"
12 "Die Soldaten, IV Akt 3. Szene"

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Martinu - Ariane - Neumann

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959): Ariane - Václav Neumann - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Ariane, Opera in one Act
Libretto: Martinu after the play 'Le voyage de Thésée' by Georges Neveux

Ariane: Celina Lindsay
Theseus: Norman Philips
The Minotaur: Richard Novák

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Václav Neumann

Amaon Review:

Martinu composed Ariane as a side-project while working on The Greek Passion, and never saw the premiere (1961), and it is a relatively light, modest work (at least if compared to the Greek Passion). The libretto, by the French Surrealist Georges Neveux is an absorbing one, a retelling of the old Greek myth in a very French surrealist vein, where the sequences of actions are dreamlike in their ambiguity between the comprehensible and the absurd in manner that keeps at least this listener attentive and moved.

Martinu's music for the whole thing is strong but often sounding like a deliberate parody of his own style (as well as of Baroque opera). It all passes by in quick successions of short, austere, precise and almost short-breathed sinfonias and recitatives but always in Martinu's very personal and easily recognizable manner, littered with small surprises and twists and culminating in the exquisitely touching Ariane's lament.

And the performances? One might bicker at the French pronunciation of some of the characters - at least some reviewers do - although my French isn't quite good enough to make me notice too much. Celina Lindsley has a sweet-sounding soprano and tackles most passages admirably but lacking that last ounce of weight that would make the performance wholly convincing. Theseus is strong and muscular and generally very commendable. The other roles are relatively small, but rendered with color, skill and panache.

Orchestral playing under Vaclav Neumann is impeccable; colorful and with sweep and a strong rhythmic profile. To sum up, this is hardly Martinu's strongest work in the opera genre, but no fan of the composer would want to miss it; all the touches are here and the level of invention high; everything is given a good recording and even though the playing time is short, this release remains eminently recommendable.

G.D.

Tracklist.

1. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Orchestra - Prologue - Orchestra
2. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Scene 1.: Théseus, Ariadna, Orchestra
3. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Orchestra
4. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Scene 2.: Théseus, Minotaur, Orchestra
5. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Orchestra
6. Ariane, opera, H. 370: Ariadne, Orchestra

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domingo, 30 de mayo de 2010

Goldschmidt - Beatrice Cenci - Lothar Zagrosek

Prokofiev - War and Peace - Rostropovich

sábado, 1 de mayo de 2010

Max von Schillings: Mona Lisa-Klauspeter Seibel - Kiel Opera

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Gamblers - The Nose - Rozhdestvensky

Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle - Bernard Haitink

sábado, 24 de abril de 2010

Zimmermann - Die Soldaten - Kontarsky

Martinu - Ariane - Neumann

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domingo, 30 de mayo de 2010

Goldschmidt - Beatrice Cenci - Lothar Zagrosek

Prokofiev - War and Peace - Rostropovich

sábado, 1 de mayo de 2010

Max von Schillings: Mona Lisa-Klauspeter Seibel - Kiel Opera

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Gamblers - The Nose - Rozhdestvensky

Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle - Bernard Haitink

sábado, 24 de abril de 2010

Zimmermann - Die Soldaten - Kontarsky

Martinu - Ariane - Neumann

1,068 Libros de Musica Clasica para descarga gratuita. 260 Books on Classical Music free download.

Blog de Audiolibros: 83.5 Charing Cross Road

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