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The reviewer clearly has a high regard for the opera, but is less enthusiastic about most of the soloists in the recording. Do you agree with his assessment of them, Alan?

My post in our Downloads Board of Kaun's Piano Quintet and String Quartet No.3 recordings has indeed disappeared, but I've now reinstated it and you can find it here. The sound quality reflects the age of the original broadcasts unfortunately.

Thanks, Christopher. It's all very murky and, musically, moribund. Best avoided.

Much as I appreciate Gipps' music (and indeed recorded the broadcast a few months ago of this very BBC performance of her Symphony No.1) I do think that some of it falls outside UC focus of interest. This fine symphony, however, is more "romantic" than just borderline, and I do recommend it to our more adventurous members.

A fascinating article. Thanks, Gerd.

I think it's unique. Although music predominates, the play and musical elements are thoroughly mixed and interdependent, but it's not a traditional opera comique by any means. I'm not sure there's a standard classification which fits it.

Thanks, John, one does one's best .

The parallels with Glimmerglass are certainly there, but the operas they're featuring nowadays are rather more mainstream, whereas Wexford's raison d'être is very relevant to us here as it's dedicated to showcasing unsung operas.

Matthias, No problem. I really wouldn't bother, it's only an overlong conversation which sets up the opera which follows. It can all be seen on a video of the Wexford performance on YouTube.

Very many thanks to britishcomposer for uploading a recording of Stanford's penultimate opera The Critic to the Downloads Board, here. It's from a broadcast of a recent performance of the work at the Wexford Festival Opera and I've just returned from seeing the festival's final performance of it last weekend.

I must say that it's a very odd piece. Stanford based it on a 1779 comedy by Sheriden which lampoons contemporary theatre productions by showing rehearsals for a new, very bad, opera. There's a lot of spoken dialogue from three non-singing actors; the German broadcast (or britishcomposer!) omits the 11 minutes of their discussion with which the opera begins, but not their frequent interjections during the rest of the work. The opera which is being rehearsed celebrates Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) and its language is appropriately archaic - similar to Shakespeare's English. So The Critic has a splendid Stanfordian, lushly romantic, orchestral score as a background for the opera-within-an-opera's vaguely 18th century vocal setting of 16th century English, frequently interrupted by the actors' rather jarring comments in an 18th century idiom. There is certainly some comedy in it, but not enough to outweigh all these conflicting elements. In many ways it's a very clever and imaginative piece of work, and it's difficult to imagine a better case being made for it than the splendid Wexford performance, but everyone I spoke to there shared my "curate's egg" opinion of it, although this review has a more positive take on the work. This Stanford enthusiast, though, was slightly disappointed.

It was my first visit to Wexford and, for anyone ignorant of it, I can't recommend it highly enough. It specialises in staging infrequently performed operas; The Critic's companion pieces were Mascagni's Le Maschere and Donizetti's Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali, two more operas-within-operas, though  neither of them as rare as the Stanford work. Both were treated to imaginative and persuasive performances and Donizetti's farce was a hoot. The standard of singing (mostly from young singers at the beginning of their careers) was first rate and the stagings were modern but without a hint of Germany's awful regie-theater irrelevancies.  Apart from the three main operas on offer, during the day there are also hour-long recitals and free 15 minute pop-up performances given around the town every day by the opera soloists. I saw a terrifically intense semi-staged performance of I Pagliacci and L'elisir d'amore was also on offer. There's even a whole tranche of "fringe" events, not to mention the legendary Irish "crack" in the bars of this bustling town. It makes for a hugely enjoyable week for any opera enthusiast.

Yes, that's true, but it is such a shame that the recording isn't available domestically in the UK or US, for example. That has to impact sales.

Probably that the Swiss haven't got the worldwide distribution they really need to sell enough copies to make the project a financial success. A shame, but predictable I'm afraid.

The master tape should be with Naxos by mid December and Naxos' usual lead time, depending on what they've already in their release schedule, is 9-10 months, so my guess us around this time next year.

Yes, I was delighted with the quality of the soloists, all 30 or under. They all deserve to do well, but one to watch, I think, is Lara Rieken, only 23. There are several videos of her on YouTube and she's a singer of real presence and ability.

Here's a YouTube playlist with a collection of very rough videos of last week's recording sessions of Dame Kobold. They're of various takes from seven of the numbers. In most, probably all, cases not the take which will be used in the final recording. I hope they give an an idea of the style of the opera, the quality of Raff's writing, and also what the recording sessions were like. The sound quality of the finished recording will be very much better, of course.

The seven videos are:

The Dance Divertissement No.2
Donna Angela's waltz aria
A trio for soprano, tenor & bass
The first duet for the two sopranos
The second duet for the two sopranos
Don Miguel's Romanze
The trio for tenor, baritone and bass

It's not a problem for the recording process  of course - it's standard practice - but it makes it difficult to gain an overall impression of the artistic whole if you're hearing unconnected takes over three days.

A final report - recording finishes today. So, what about the music? As sections are recorded piecemeal, not consecutively as they occur in the opera, it's not possible to get anything more than an impression of the work's character. Although the Overture doesn't share any of the opera's material, it's a very good guide to what one can expect. The whole piece absolutely fizzes, it's fast-paced with lots of comedic drama (Offenbach come to mind), it's awash with classic Raff melodies, although there are some stretches of the parlando that one finds to a greater extent in Benedetto Marcello and even more in Die Eifersüchtigen. The orchestration is gloriously inventive and the musical atmosphere immensely varied.

Standout moments are a pair of scatty, fast duets shared by the sopranos and a gorgious Gounod-esque waltz aria for Angela (beautifully sung by 23 year old Lara Rieken), Manuel's Act I aria and Act III romance, and most of all a meltingly lyrical trio for Angela, Manuel and Rodrigo - the list could go on. All are Raff as I guarantee you've never heard him. The two roles of Rodrigo and Juan have fewer headline moments, but are very characterfully drawn - the former impressionable and superstitious, and Juan overbearing and gruff. Maestro Salvi directs the recording with real authority and an obvious understanding of what Raff wants.

Overall, my impression of Dame Kobold is that it's a really fun and gloriously lyrical piece which will show us a completely new side to Raff's musical character - the contrast with Samson couldn't be greater, but it's as impressive an achievement in it's own way. I might come to regret being so relentlessly positive, but it's difficult to think how it's recording premiere could be bettered.

When I return home I'll see if I can post some videos or sound clips from the recording.