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Halévy La reine de Chypre

Started by Alan Howe, Tuesday 27 March 2018, 17:21

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Alan Howe


Mark Thomas

Hooray! Any Ediciones Singulares release is a must-buy for me, they're always high quality productions, often of fascinating music well worth preservation.

BerlinExpat

The appearance of Cyrill Dubois is interesting as I understand he took ill and was replaced by Sébastien Droy in at least one of the Paris performances.

Alan Howe


BerlinExpat

Thanks for that link, Alan. Good to know and I can now order without any reservations.

Ebubu

I was present at that concert, and it was not obvious to me that this was the "long lost masterpiece" that everyone was waiting for.... But as the review points out, it was not the best conditions to discover the piece, with a quasi-absent tenor....  A second hearing on a good CD might change my feelings about it. We'll see...

Alan Howe

We'll see. A must-buy for me whatever its status, I think.

Mark Thomas

Not only are this release's performances, recording and booklet fully up to the very highest of Palazzetto Bru Zane's standards, but Halévy's opera itself is absolutely first rate. It's five act French grand opera at it's Meyerbeerian best. I've always been slightly underwhelmed by Halévy's "masterpiece" La Juive , but La Reine de Chypre is a different matter: the action is taut and exciting, the music is wonderfully orchestrated and liberally melodic. It's a powerful and dramatic piece with no longeurs. My only (very, very slight) criticism is the omission a couple of dances, but overall I couldn't recommend this issue more strongly.

Alan Howe

It's fine stuff all right. More when I've digested more...

Alan Howe

What's interesting to me is that one can hear this leading in different directions - to early Wagner and, of course, to Verdi.