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BelAir Classics has just released the world premiere video recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden featuring an all Russian cast with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris National Opera, Music Director Philippe Jordan and conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov. It is a magnificent and very emotional production which brought tears to my eyes during the opera's 4th act finale when the Snow Maiden melts away. And what a performance by the very pretty Soprano, Aida Garifullina in the title role. I had never heard of her before this recording. Does any UC member know about her?

The opera is in a Prologue and 4 Acts and is about 3 hours and 15 minutes long. It is available in 2 versions, BAC 186 (2 DVD Set) and BAC 486 (1 Blu-ray disc).

The only negative thing about the performance was the omission of the famous "Dance of the Tumblers" from Act 3 which would have added about 10 more minutes to the recording. Why was it cut? If anyone out there knows, please post it.

Correction: The ballet music is in Act 4

The 2018 performance by the Odyssey Opera Orchestra and Chorus of Gounod's La Reine de Saba will be released as a 3 CD Set in June 2021. It is uncut and includes the extensive Act 3 ballet. It can be preordered now at the following website: <odysseyopera.org/recordings>.

As one of the founding members of the Massenet Society American branch back in 1977, I would like to inform our readers that some of the works featured on the subject Naxos release (8.574179) were not complete.

In particular "Phedre" was written by Massenet as "Musique pour le drame de Jean Racine" and in addition to the overture it is actually incidental music containing 5 additional sections titled Sacrifice, Offrande, Marche des Athéniens, Hippolyte et Aricie and Imploration à Neptune. These 21 minutes of selections along with the Symphonic Poem "Visions" were recorded on a 12" LP Cybelia disk (CY 677) back in 1985 by l'Orchestre Philharmonique de l'Etat de Rhénanie-Palatinat conducted by Pierre Stoll which I have in my collection, but they were never released on CD.

Since I am more of a CD collector (I have around 75,000 CDs) than most classical music lovers, I was able to contact a professional LP to CD conversion company to create a cloned CD duplicate with all program notes, front and rear covers and spine edges. The result was a professional looking CD as it would have been created by the manufacturer.

In addition to the missing sections of Phedre there are only 4 selections from the Espada Ballet given which last for about 10 minutes. The original complete ballet contains 10 sections lasting for about 40 minutes. Why Naxos omitted the other 6 sections when they could have issued the complete ballet on a 2 CD set is a mystery. Instead they called it a ballet suite where they should have said a suite from the complete ballet. For those interested, this information was obtained from the Espada Piano-Vocal Score a copy of which is in the Library of the Massenet Society.

Finally and sadly, the live performance and future recording of Massenet's "Bacchus", from the 2020 Massenet Festival, was cancelled according from the information I read on the Internet. No reason was given but it was probably due to the Covid 19 virus. If anybody has any further info about this cancellation, please post it.

I took your advice and checked the various Amazon websites and guess what, the only one that had the CD version of the 3 Breton Symphonies for sale was Amazon.au. However my hopes were shattered when they told me that they do not ship internationally but only to addresses in Australia. My hope is that we have a UC member in Australia who could order the CD and ship it to me by either FedEx or UPS. If that is possible I would be willing to reimburse that person in advance. The price including shipping this 2 CD set from Amazon.au to someone with an Australian address is $55.63 which is acceptable to me. I would also add to this amount the shipping costs from Australia to the USA where I live.

I'm a serious collector of romantic classical music by 19au century composers and hope that there is an Australian UC member who can help me. If there is, please Email me at mlpe@snet.net.

Thank you,

Marty Lippman

Does anyone know where I can purchase the 2 CD set on the Verso label (VRS 2117) of the 3 symphonies of Tomás Bretón? Presto has a "MP3 version only" listed on their website. Several other dealer websites say that the CD version has been discontinued and is no longer available. I checked with EBay and they say the same thing. The CD was released in December 2012. Any help I can get would be sincerely appreciated.

No sooner than mentioning a couple of days ago that the Bard College Video of Dvorak's "Dimitrij" would soon be available online, here it is now, just posted today for all to watch, listen and enjoy at <https://americansymphony.org/online/>. I just watched it earlier and enjoyed it immensely It's just a few minutes longer than the 3 CD Supraphon set (SU 3793-2) which
incidentally contains a complete multi-lingual libretto and is something that rarely exists on today's CD 0pera releases.

The only other Bard Festival Opera I can think of that met our UC requirements was Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots" in 2009. I don't know, however, if was videotaped back then. Does anyone know?

Thank you Mark for your much appreciated conversion of the two previous Bard Festival Operas ("Le Roi Malgré Lui" and "The Wreckers") from online to download and thank you in advance for hopefully doing the same for "Dimitrij".

Sorry about that. I apologize in the way I said it. I should have said "Finally, as was previously done with "Demon" and "Oresteia", can someone please post  download versions of the Chabrier and Smyth operas here. Thank you in advance."

Videos of Chabrier's "Le Roi Malgré Lui" and Smyth's "The Wreckers" are two recent online operas available from the ASO archives at former Bard Music Festivals. They both can be viewed at https://americansymphony.org/online/ by just scrolling down for each one. Also the one that I've been waiting for, the uncut Dvořák's "Dimitrij" from the 2017 Bard Festival, will soon be available according to the ASO publicity staff. I'll post it here when that happens.

Finally, as was previously done with "Demon" and "Oresteia", we need downloaded versions of the Chabrier and Smyth operas to be posted here.

Following the video of Rubinstein's Demon from the 2018 Bard Music Festival, now comes the video of Taneyev's Oresteia from the 2013 Bard Music Festival. Go to<https://americansymphony.org/concerts/online/taneyev>. Also there is an audio of Taneyev's Symphony No. 4. Scroll down after arriving at the above website for the links to each of these performances.

The version of Oresteia conducted by Botstein is uncut and lasts a little over 3 hours. The previous Melodiya CD was slightly abridged and only lasted 2¾ hours. I hope some UC member can download it to our website like was previously done with Rubinstein's Demon.

Here is an update on the world premiere recording by Naxos of Massenet's Don Cesar de Bazan. It will be a 2 CD set, Catalog No. 8.660464-65, of the 1888 version and will be released on June 12, 2020. As a mail order dealer/distributor, DBA Collectors Records, this information was just sent to me by Naxos of America along with the following description:

Don César de Bazan is an opéra-comique with a narrative of dashing Spanish chivalry and romance. Its plot revolves around deception and comedies of reversed identity, with a struggle between true nobility and wicked selfishness maintaining an animated momentum throughout. This was the young Jules Massenet's first full-length opera and yet it is filled with the composer's mature symphonic style, his gift for melody, feeling for the picturesque, and vivacity of rhythm. These distinctive qualities reveal an operatic feast whose time has at last arrived. Conductor Mathieu Romano works within all genres from the Baroque to the contemporary, both on the concert stage and in opera. Romano has worked with ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor and the Latvian Radio Choir, and on operatic productions with Les Frivolités Parisiennes and contemporary projects with Ensemble Itinéraire. He also works with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, the Normandy Regional Orchestra, Les Siècles and Sinfonia Varsovia. He regularly appears with Ensemble Aedes, of which he is the founder and artistic director. His discography includes a number of acclaimed releases devoted to choral repertoire.

Thank you Mark for such a fantastic download result. I couldn't find any differences between the original ASO video and yours. And what about those unbelievable dancers from Russian Georgia. We now have in our Unsung Composers database the only uncut recording of Demon that's ever been made and a video version no less. I'm curious about comments from other members.   

Demon was not on the ASO list of downloads before the corona virus pandemic hit nor will it be after the crisis is over. The only reason it is available from the ASO online website now is because of the corona virus. As I previously said, it will be removed when the crisis is over and everything is back to normal. So we need some member with the technical ability to download videos from the Internet and post them on our website. Is there any member out there that can do this? Please respond!

From what I understand, the ASO online link mentioned by Mark Thomas will only play the live video performance of the opera, not download it into your computer. What happens after the corona virus pandemic is over?  Will the live performance still be available on the Internet? What we need is a smart member to record it and have it available to view at any time period like most audio only broadcasts. Can a live video performance be recorded the same way?

I have just been informed by the ASO (American Symphony Orchestra) that their July 2018 BARD Summerscape performance of Anton Rubinsteins opera 'Demon' conducted by Leon Botstein will be available to view from the ASO online website this coming Wednesday, April 15, 2020. In a way this could be considered as being a world premiere performance since the opera was given uncut with the complete ballet and extended final scene from Act 2 included. This indeed is a rarity since, to the best of my knowledge, one or the other of these two sections are always omitted in all available audio or video recordings ever released.

I hope one of our members could download this performance so it could be viewed by all members.