Composed as a sequel to Christopher Columbus, available on Naxos 8.660237-38, Leonardo Balada' the Death of Columbus has been critically acclaimed as 'uncommonly impressive and winning'. from it's spectacular opening scene depicting the triumphant ret.

Setting a charming text by Colette, Ravel' richly-scored opera L'Enfant et les sortileges is a lyric fantasy whose cast includes fairy tale characters, crockery, plants and little animals which come to life to chastise the child.

From one of the world' great opera houses, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, comes Leonardo Balada' richly melodic opera about one of the world' great explorers, Christopher Columbus, commissioned by the Spanish government for the 5th Centennial.

María del Carmen was Enrique Granados' first great operatic success and the stage work he held in highest regard. It was received with great acclaim at its premiere in 1898, admired for its refined and brilliant orchestral writing and for its prfound lyricism. Using the folklore, language and sounds of Murcia in south-eastern Spain alongside the influence of Wagnerian thematic techniques, the opera is set in a rural village where a water shortage and a love triangle inflame the mutual hatred between the peasant farmer Pencho and his wealthy rival Javier.

Based, like Beethoven' opera Fidelio, on the original French libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, Mayr' opera L'amor coniugale won considerable success at it's first performance in Padua in 1805.

This excellent performance fills a significant gap. At bargain price no enthusiast should hesitate.

It is something of a double that Maometto II should receive its belated British premiere at Garsington as this, the first sensible recording of Rossini’s Paris revision of the work hits the shelves. This performance derives from the Bad Wildbad Festival; one that has become known as the Pesaro of the North. It not only makes a speciality of Rossini’s works but also presents those of often long forgotten Italian operas by German composers of similar vintage. Naxos has issued several commendable recordings from this source that allow appreciation of Rossini’s emerging genius to be heard at modest expense. This issue precedes by one month a performance of Semiramide from Bad Wildbad and recorded at the XXIV Festival (to be reviewed). Le Siège de Corinthe was the first opera composed by Rossini for the Paris Opera after his appointment as director of the Théâtre Italien in Paris in 1823. Semiramide, was the last opera he composed for an Italian theatre.
 
The genesis of Le Siège is complicated, however a little context is necessary for an understanding of the music. Rossini’s original version - Maometto II - was premiered at the San Carlo in Naples on 3 December 1820. It was his thirty-first opera and the eighth, and the most radical, of the reform operas that he had written for performance there. At Naples Rossini had the benefit of a full-time orchestra and chorus. It also boasted an unequalled roster of star singers engaged by Barbaja, the formidable impresario of the Royal Theatres, who had brought Rossini to Naples as Musical Director. This enabled Rossini to distance himself from the populist clamour of Rome and Venice for crescendos and simplistic orchestral forms, static arias, stage scenes and comic operas. The outcomes were highly dramatic bel canto opera seria with flights of coloratura and vocal decorations paralleled by greater orchestral complexity. This Italian format was not appropriate for Paris and Rossini needed to grapple with the prosody of the French language and re-align his own compositional style towards that of his new hosts. However, before tackling that problem Rossini had the unavoidable duty of writing an opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X in Rheims Cathedral in June 1825. Called Il viaggio a Reims and composed to an Italian libretto, it was presented at the Théâtre Italien on 19 June 1825.
 
The “Coronation Opera” over, the works in French were a little slow in coming. However, when they did, first in the form of Le Siège de Corinthe, premiered on 9 October 1826, they were received with acclaim. Le Siège was a spectacular success in both musical and visual presentation and can be seen as the progenitor of the Grande Opera style. It arrived complete with de rigueur ballet that was to dominate at the Paris Opéra (Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique) for half a century.
 
The plot is basically the same as for Maometto II but with the sacking of Corinthe rather than Venice the scene of the action. This shift had the advantage of topicality with the Greek struggle for liberty from the Turks commanding sympathy among Parisians in the 1820s. Pamyra, daughter of Cléomène, Governor of Corinthe, has fallen in love with Mahomet using a false name. Her father wishes her to marry Néocles, a young and heroic Greek officer. When she learns the truth about Mahomet’s identity she stabs herself rather than be the wife of the man who has conquered her country. With en travestie roles being unacceptable in Paris the role of Néocles is given to a tenor.
 
The musical adaptation involved Rossini in a considerable toning down of the Italian bel canto display arias, the rewriting of recitatives and the more extensive use of chorus. Display arias do not wholly disappear and certainly that for the tenor hero, Néocles in act two (CD2 Tr.6), and the contribution of Pamyra in the finale (CD2 Tr.9) are up there with the vocal demands in Maometto II. With that in mind Bad Wildbad fields two suitable voices, one relatively new, the other a well known participant in bel canto recordings from Opera Rara. The tenor is the American, Michael Spyres. In the UK in May 2013 Spyres made a big impression stepping in at the premiere of the new Covent Garden production of Rossini’s La donna del Lago, the composer’s immediate predecessor to Maometto II at Naples, when the scheduled tenor Colin Lee was forced to withdraw due to indisposition. Both Spyres and Lee, when the latter had recovered, featured in the live cinema transmission and matched Juan Diego Florez note for note in their respective roles. Spyres is up to the demands of the role in this performance too, singing with vocal flexibility and appealing tone. I note from the artist biographies - very welcome, thank you Naxos - that he has appeared at major houses in bel canto and lyric roles. I look forward to hearing more from him, not least in this repertoire.
 
In the second tenor role of Pamyra’s father, Cléomène, Bad Wildbad has another high-flying tenor able to handle the demanding tessitura in its cast. He steps forward in the person of Spaniard Marc Salsa; new to me. There are times, as in the act two trio of the two men and Pamyra (CD2 Tr.7), when distinguishing between the two tenors is not easy. It is preferable, however, to having a more distinct but less flexible voice in the role. It bodes well as interest in these operas increases in the present day in even the major operatic centres after nearly a century of neglect.
 
As Pamyra, the daughter who unknowingly falls in love with the enemy, Majella Cullagh has form in bel canto roles, singing in many recordings from Opera Rara including Rossini’s Elisabetta and Bianca e Falliero. Her strong characterisation allied to vocal flexibility is well in evidence in this performance. Her voice has slightly more edge than in some of her earlier recordings, of Donizetti as well as Rossini, but remains a formidable instrument. She handles the demanding coloratura with aplomb (CD1.Tr.7).
 
Lorenzo Regazzo as Mahomet II impressed me less than the other principals. He has sonority but also some unsteadiness. Otherwise his characterisation and diction are more than adequate. The chorus are well up to Rossini’s extended demands whilst on the rostrum, Jean-Luc Tingaud is fully at home in the idiom.
 
This recording presents a new edition for Rossini in Wildbad by Florian Bauer. It is based on a revision, by Jean-Luc Tingaud, of the original edition and on the parts for the first performance on 9 October 1826.  

Le Siège de Corinthe has not fared well in the recording studio. A 1969 recording of a later Italian translation featuring Beverly Sills and Shirley Verrett (EMI CMS 64335-2) hardly flatters the work. A film of a stage production, particularly if it included a spectacular visual finale as brought the house down in Paris in 1826 and as well sung as this recording, would be very welcome. In the meantime this audio recording does at least do Rossini’s creation full justice. It also allows enthusiasts to appreciate his first venture into the French style of composition which was to last all too briefly. A mere four operas followed before he laid down his pen in terms of operatic composition with Guillaume Tell in 1829, at the young age of thirty-nine; this despite living nearly as long afterwards.
 
--Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

Stefano Pavesi's work was swept away by the Rossini operatic avalanche and he is now almost forgotten, but while his vibrantly entertaining (though not without a touch of melancholy) melodrama giocoso Ser Marcantonio has many Rossini an features the young Gioachino's operatic career was yet to begin when it was first staged. The libretto sets up a typical late eighteenth-century opera buff a plot full of intrigue, buffoonery, disguises and cases of mistaken identity, which may be summarized as "about preventing an old fool from making an ill-advised marriage and stopping his heir from gaining his rightful inheritance".

FALL The Rose of Stambul • John Frantzen, cond; Kimberly McCord ( Kondja Gül ); Alison Kelly ( Midili Hanum ); Erich Buchholz ( Fridolin Müller ); Gerald Frantzen ( Achmed Bey ); Robert Morrissey ( Mr. Müller Sr. ); Chicago Folks Operetta • NAXOS 8.660326/27 (2 CDs: 120:20) Live: Chicago 8/8/2011


In 1916, Leo Fall’s latest operetta Die Rose von Stambul enjoyed a remarkable run of 422 performances at the Theater an der Wien, as the war brought rationing to Vienna, and as the cultures the story celebrated spiraled to their destruction. Though it eventually did come to the United States in 1922, the operetta was never performed here in anything like its original form. That occurred for the first time in the summer of 2011 when it was mounted by the Chicago Folks Operetta. This small but enterprising company—the brainchild and continuing passion of husband and wife team Gerald Frantzen and Alison Kelly—is dedicated to reviving neglected operettas from the early part of the 20th century. Die Rose von Stambul certainly qualifies. Fall never achieved the lasting success that rival composers Emmerich Kálmán (his daughter Yvonne is a CFO sponsor) and Franz Lehár did. And timing was simply against this creation. But there are lilting Viennese waltzes, charming if dated comedy centering on lovely women having their way with their foolish, chauvinistic, and/or love-sotted men, and exotic locales and musical flavoring befitting the ever popular setting of the Turkish seraglio. Only the most confirmed curmudgeon could resist the fun. Bravo CFO for bringing it back.


Unlike its earlier American production, where much of the score was replaced, we are assured, in translator Hersh Glagov’s informative essay, that Chicago Folks Operetta “has not changed a note of Fall’s marvelous music.” Though this is likely the 1917 Berlin revision, fair enough. Still, it would be nicer if those involved could have produced those notes with a bit more flair. Conductor John Frantzen, brother of artistic director Gerald, provides a reasonable impression of Viennese style, but his thin, often scrappy 19-piece orchestra works against the beauty of the music. The women’s chorus, harem sisters à la the Grisettes of The Merry Widow , is exuberant but also a bit rough. The waltzes need more schwung , the dances more refinement to go with the general vivacity, and some of the dialog needs more, well, acting.


The two sopranos are both strong vocalists. Kimberly McCord—who sings what I believe is the expanded version of the role created for Fritzi Massary in 1917—has nice control, range, and style, an appealingly warm tone, and some sparkle on top. Alison Kelly is an accomplished soubrette with excellent comic timing. Comic tenor Erich Buchholz has a strong lyric voice and a good feel for the idiom. In a part that is more spoken than sung, baritone Robert Morrissey sounds like he comes from Pittsburgh rather than Hamburg—he impersonates Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride rather well—but he sings the short part of Müller agreeably. The players in the small spoken roles are community-theater league, but let that pass. It is, I’m sorry to say, tenor Gerald Frantzen who disappoints. He is stiff, can’t hold an extended note steadily little less swell it, and produces strangled sounds at the top of his range where Fall makes the greatest demands. The basic tone of the voice is decent enough in the middle reaches, and has some heft, but is not well equalized and shows clear signs of wear. (Perhaps recording live after the run was not a good idea.) He is shown at a particular disadvantage in his duets with McCord, who clearly has the voice and temperament to give the waltzes their due. Perhaps all would have been better if he and Buchholz had swapped parts, as the comic tenor here has the goods to sing the big numbers and has the looks, as well. If I seem harsh, simply listen to Frantzen and then to Fritz Wunderlich singing any of these arias. Or if that comparison seems unreasonably prejudicial, how about mere mortal Rudolf Schock, or almost any tenor currently recording operettas for Naxos or CPO?


But enough… Die Rose von Stambul is a major work by a neglected master of a musical genre that has too much fallen out of favor. Yes, the plot is silly. This one depends on an easily resolved love triangle with an “invisible rival” of the hero’s own devising, so perhaps it is sillier than most. And the early 20th-century attitudes toward women and Eastern culture can be cringe-inducing. However, the music is delightful, and the burlesque is generally not overdone. The English libretto is available as a download from the Naxos site. The dialog occasionally turns topical—the gay references and the bellhop speaking in rhymed couplet like Fezzik are contemporary—and a war-time reference like Fridolin’s offer to Midili of “two kilos of flour” is changed into “a hundred pairs of shoes.” Still, it seems fairly true to what I know of the original and is reasonably singable. The audio production, identified as a single live recording, is good, though my ears tell me that the dialog was recorded separately. The rather unsubtle sound effects—foot steps, doors opening, ice cubes clinking in glasses, etc.—support that impression. One last niggle: the production poster by Rose Frantzen—another family member, assumedly—reproduced on the cover of the CD, seems wildly out of keeping with the story and the times, eye-catching as it may be.


All reservations aside—and I’ve spent a lot of space enumerating them—this is something most Viennese operetta fanciers will want to hear. Recommended with the caveats cited.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

Le Roi et le fermier made Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny famous in France and beyond. Set in an evocative and at times stormy Sherwood Forest it tells of a King's encounter with a humble farmer, blending comedy with serious issues. It's numerous innovations foreshadow Romanticism, making it a milestone in operatic history, with librettist Michel-Jean Sedaine admiring Monsigny's daring in taking "the risk of setting a new genre to music". "This production should be noted and remembered in the annals of Versailles, for the intelligence of it's staging, the beauty of it's sets, and it's high musical quality."

Maritana was one of the most popular of mid-nineteenth-century British operas. It's 1848 premiere was a triumph and was soon followed by performances in opera houses from Vienna to Philadelphia.

The notable musicologist Alfred Einstein commented that Idomeneo is 'one of those works that even a genius of highest rank, like Mozart, could write only once in his life'. Every page of the score deserves appreciation. Of the many exceptional arias and ensembles, especially notable is the third act quartet 'Andro Ramingo e solo', one of the most moving concerted numbers in any Mozart opera. This recording is based on the original 1781 Munich version, without the extended ballet but including some music cut by Mozart before the premiere.

First performed at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Lauro Rossi' penultimate opera Cleopatra caught the public' attention in the wake of Verdi' Ai.

PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 3 and 4

SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2 / 'The Tempest', Suite No. 1

Grainger: Power of Love (The)