The release of “I Lituani” by Accentus Music is a revelatory achievement. Premiered in 1874, the opera presents itself as a medieval-themed “Aida,” complete with a triumphal ballet and a somewhat untempered penchant for musical hyperbole. Yet, above all, it firmly positions Amilcare Ponchielli as a transitional figure between Verdi and Puccini. This in itself is a feat, as {…}
“Simon Boccanegra” – in its standard 1881 revision – is an undisputed, though infrequently performed, masterpiece. But what of its very first iteration from 1857? Its premiere, at Venice’s La Fenice, famously turned into a fiasco. Julian Budden, for example, admitted to the hostility with which the libretto was received, while Verdi himself, in a letter to Giraldoni, wryly picked {…}
B-records’ “Le pays de nos désirs” is a somewhat uneasy listen. Its intentions are admirable, but the program of turn-of-the-century melodies and Lieder does not always come into its own. The repertory is too dense, and too diverse are its stylistic, if not technical requirements for any of the four soloists to emerge completely unscathed from some 76 minutes of {…}
“Par amour” is a revelatory publication. Novel, crafty, and utterly delightful, it puts in the spotlight Vannina Santoni, a French soprano of yet modest clout – but a formidable sensibility. Her program, on Alpha Classics, is an operatic potpourri. It transitions from your regular femme fatale to varying shades of amorous innocence: Thaïs and Manon appear alongside Juliette; Katiusha counterpoints {…}
Eighteen years is far too long to go without recording an opera like Kaija Saariaho’s “Adriana Mater.” The Finnish composer’s 2006 follow-up to “L’Amour de loin” is a work of both hypnotic allure and harrowing immediacy. While it’s good of Deutsche Grammophon to put out this digital-only release, it’s a rather half-hearted tribute to the late Saariaho. There isn’t even {…}
George Sand is like the epitome of Parisian intellectualism: a writer, feminist, socialite, and revolutionary whose ideals resonate with compassion and societal optimism that made her an aspirational figure to the progressively oriented middle-class. Her legacy is manifold, and her alliance with spearhead musicians, including Chopin and Pauline Viardot, has greatly influenced her esteem among like-minded posterity. Sonya Yoncheva, for {…}
“Il Segreto di Susanna” is an operatic gem; and, in addition, stands as the only composition by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to boast some kind of posterity, however tepid. An opera intermezzo, it takes up the legacy of Pergolesi’s comic “La Serva Padrona,” but at the same time discourses with near-contemporary one-act pieces from the Giovane Scuola. Its musical facture notably sits {…}
Unknown, perhaps, to a vast majority of concertgoers, Blagoje Bersa (1873-1934) ranks as a seminal figure in Croatian national musicography. His compositions, including orchestral music, opera, songs, exude all the frenzied sophistication of fin-de-siècle eclecticism that Marija Kuntaric, in her monograph on Bersa, derives “from the cantabile Italian melody, then the various masters of German Romanticism (Wagner, Mahler, R. Strauss) {…}
The score of Gordon Getty’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” breathes all the unpretentiously sweet melancholy of its many predecessors – from James Hilton’s 1933 novella of the same title to subsequent adaptations as, among others, radio plays and lavishly cast movie musicals. Yet it is not exactly the feel-good opera advertised in Pentatone’s press release; rather, the eponymous Mr. Chips – {…}
