Opera Rarities - Orfeo 40th Anniversary Edition

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On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That’s certainly true for a number of operas that, while popular and highly lucrative during their composers‘ lifetime, soon followed their creators into the shadowy realm of oblivion. Operas, for example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni – premiered half a year before Mozart’s masterpiece – is such an example, as is Ruggero Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and George Bizet’s Djamileh, widely considered the predecessor of Carmen. Other operas just do not stand out among other works by a composer – Jules Massenet’s operas for example are hardly a footnote of music history, his opera Therese, a thoroughly forgotten work, however, is. Two examples for works that are scarcely performed or even known outside of what is now the Czech Republic are also included in this collection of Opera Rarities on ORFEO: Antonin Dvorak’s last opera Armida and Zdenek Fibich’s Sarka.

REVIEW:

Containing radio performance recordings of six works by Dvorak, Massenet, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Gazzaniga, and Fibich mentioned often in histories of music but almost never on the bill, this is a box certainly precious for those who love opera.

– Classical Music Daily (Giuseppe Pennisi)



Product Description:


  • Release Date: February 05, 2021


  • Catalog Number: ORF-C200081


  • UPC: 4011790200811


  • Label: ORFEO


  • Number of Discs: 10


  • Composer: Antonín Dvořák, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Gazzaniga, Jules Massenet, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Zdeněk Fibich


  • Conductor: Gerd Albrecht, Heinz Wallberg, Lamberto Gardelli, Stefan Soltesz, Sylvain Cambreling


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Bavarian Radio Chorus, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Prague Chamber Chorus, Rome RAI Chorus, Rome RAI Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Concert Choir, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra


  • Performer: Adriana Hlavsová, Adriana Kohútková, Agnes Baltsa, Alan Titus, Albert Gassner, Alexander Malta, Alexandrina Milcheva, Anthony Spiri, Anton Rosner, Anton Scharinger, Bernd Weikl, Dalibor Jenis, Eftimios Michalopoulos, Eva Steinsky, Eva Urbanová, Francisco Araiza, Franco Bonisolli, Friedrich Lenz, George Fortune, Giancarlo Luccardi, Gino Sinimberghi, Günter von Kannen, Hannah Esther Minutillo, Ida Kirilova, Jacques Pineau, Jan Markvart, Janez Lotric, Jean-Luc Chaignaud, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Joanna Borowska, Joern Wilsing, John Aler, Julie Kaufmann, Klaudia Dernerová, Lucia Popp, Margit Kinzel, Marta Beňáčková, Milan Bürger, Miroslav Podskalský, Monika Brychtová, Norbert Orth, Pamela Coburn, Pavel Daniluk, Raimund Grumbach, Richard Sporka, Robert Swensen, Roman Janál, Simona Šaturová, Sofia Lis, Vladimir Kubovcik, Vladimír Nacházel, Vratislav Kříž, Wieslaw Ochman, Zdeněk Harvánek