Raff - Benedetto Marcello

[adriano]

Three - in spite of the fact that I already have the previous private issue :-)

[M. Yaskovsky]

For people living in Germany without postage costs it's only €19,99 at jpc https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/benedetto-marcello/hnum/9558631

[Mark Thomas]

I've just received a preview copy. In terms of packaging, and compared to many current opera releases, Sterling has done a good job: as well as the two discs there's a full libretto (both original German and an English translation) and a separate illustrated booklet containing a synopsis and a short essay about the opera and the background to its composition, again in both languages. I haven't yet had chance to listen to the recording itself, but the sound should be an improvement on the broadcast recording which has been circulating for years.

[Alan Howe]

Excerpts here:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/benedetto-marcello/hnum/9558631

[Kevin]

104 minutes long, Raff channelling Janacek - nice!

[Mark Thomas]

I have absolutely no idea what that means, Kevin. Care to elucidate?

[Kevin]

Janaceks mature operas(his last four) are all around that time span, Janacek was a master at succinctness, my hope is the Raff work will be on the same level(I'm a glass half full kinda guy

[eschiss1]

Ah, in the sense that the expression Raff channeling Milhaud, if it were to fit, could mean a 10-minute opera but not necessarily a polytonal one. (proviso: I haven't heard Milhaud's 3 opéras-minutes from the late 1920s, and am not meaning to mock, but! (And I like Milhaud's music, so no, I don't mean to mock. So we return you to.))
And yes, looking forward to hearing B... M... ... (I don't  think I've heard this recording in its earlier incarnations, immortal or otherwise.)

[Kevin]

I would appreciate it if you did a review, Mark, on Raff.org. Always been the first stop for me in Raff reviews as far as I'm concered.(I'm getting it anyway BTW)

[Mark Thomas]

I haven't been updating raff.org as I have been focusing on another very big Raff project which will come to fruition next year. In the meantime, there's a review here of the actual concert performance, the recording of which will be issued by Sterling.

[Kevin]

Yes, I noticed the site doesn't get updated often - it's still the definitive source on Raff though.

''very big Raff project'' sounds very cool...

[Mark Thomas]

Oh yes, it's as cool as they come

[eschiss1]

Already in the Jan '20 RI catalog.

[MartinH]

And already on order! But contrary to Mark's experience there is NO libretto!!!!

From the RI website:
Kunst und Liebe [Art and Love], as this, Raff's fifth opera (1878), was initially titled, is a work on a modest scale, its drama domestic rather than epic, concerning itself with relationships, love and loss, its main characters the composers Marcello and Johann Adolf Hasse. With colorful but transparent orchestration, dynamic variety and awash with lightly-applied local color and dance rhythms, it captures a baroque sensibility without aping baroque musical styles. 2 CDs. No libretto. Detlef Roth (baritone), Johannes Kalpers (tenor), Melba Ramos (soprano), Margarete Joswig (mezzo), Men's Choir of the Amanduskirche Bad Urach, Kaiserslautern Radio Orchestra; Grzegorz Nowak.

[eschiss1]

Review here of: link doesn't work for me, does its .root need to be replaced by raff-org?