Bru Zane
Much praised by Berlioz and others, this Italian opera (composed for the great mezzo María Malibran) brings a notable female composer out of the shadows.
By Ralph P. Locke An 8-CD set of diverse and enjoyable works, brought back from obscurity by Aude Extrémo, Roberto Prosseda, and other major performers. Compositrices: New Light on French Romantic Women Composers Cyrille Dubois and Yann Beuron (t), Aude Extrémo (mz), Claire Le Boulanger (fl), Roberto Prosseda, Alessandra Ammara, and Nathalia Milstein (p), and…
With Egyptian-born Amina Edris in the title role, Massenet’s opera engages the musical and theatrical imagination with its rich characterizations of Greek mythic adventures.
Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, under conductor Christophe Rousset, shows why Berlioz and others loved “La Vestale”.
Spiffy discs of French music featuring the Orchestre National de Lyon led by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles.
Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable paved the way for major works by Meyerbeer himself, Halévy, Verdi, Wagner (in German), Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and others — and this splendid performance shows why.
A one-hour opera that the world forgot — a world-premiere recording of Saint-Saëns’s Phryné.
A major contribution to the recorded repertory, making clear just how effective Saint-Saëns’s The Yellow Princess could be on stage, its nowadays objectionable title repudiated by its varied and nuanced approach to the evocation of the exotic.
Attention is being paid today to talented composers who have been sidelined or disdained because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Reynaldo Hahn qualifies on several counts.
The world-premiere recording of a first rate production of a brilliant, fantastical opera, unstaged and unheard since 1914.
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