Leoncavallo La Nuit de Mai

[Alan Howe]

For those of you with a sweet tooth, DG have just issued a lovely symphonic poem for tenor and orchestra by Leoncavallo called La Nuit de Mai - with Placido Domingo singing the vocal part. It's 40 minutes long and mainly orchestral, but it's very much proto-verismo in style and Domingo is in wonderful voice for a man in his late 60s (at the time of the recording). Not an undiscovered masterpiece, but gorgeous, nevertheless...