Apolloni L'ebreo

[Alan Howe]

Has anyone come across this opera from a younger contemporary of Verdi, Giuseppe Apolloni (1822-1889), now reissued?>>
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07J3GTYK4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1_1_3?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

[Mark Thomas]

I've had the original issue of this recording in my collection for years. From memory the work sounds as you'd expect it to: early Verdi.

[Alan Howe]

That's what it sounds like to me (from the excerpts on YouTube). Is it any good overall, though - or is it just a crude knock-off?

[Mark Thomas]

I'd have to listen again to it to give you a worthwhile opinion...

[Alan Howe]

Listening to it, one thing's certain: it's very well sung for a 'provincial' Italian performance. There are some meaty and - mercifully - steady voices among the cast among whom I don't recognise a single name. The only relative drawback is the underpowered string section of the orchestra, but one soon forgets that in the heat - and I mean heat! - of the performance. A definite hit for fans of early Verdi-inspired opera.

[adriano]

Alas, the usual (eternal) drawback of those Bongiovanni recordings - except, of course, those recordings which were licensed from the radio

[Alan Howe]

It's much better sung than many of those recordings, though.

[Alan Howe]

This is a pretty unsubtle work - but, in its way, an absolute knockout. It is obviously indebted to early/middle period Verdi, having been premiered at the La Fenice in Venice in January 1855, which means that it post-dates the premieres of La Traviata and Il Trovatore by about two years.

Thanks to Mark for introducing me to this minor masterpiece of the genre. Oh, and as I said before, the singing is extremely good - not a wobbler within earshot - even if one might have wished for slightly less Italianate volume on occasions.

[Mark Thomas]

Spurred on by Alan's enthusiasm, I revisited L'Ebreo yesterday, and agree with his positive assessment, although maybe a better comparison stylistically is with Ponchielli's operas (although it's not up to the standard of La Gioconda, of course).

[Alan Howe]

Listened to this properly this afternoon too. The operas that might have influenced Apolloni which came to mind were Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, but Mark makes an interesting additional comparison with Ponchielli.

[pcc]

This was always regarded as an unsubtle work - one early 1900s opera guide calls it "a crude but effective melodrama" - but it is pretty fierce in this performance. Apolloni's main problem is his orchestration, which is a little rudimentary and the out-of-tune Italian winds in this orchestra unfortunately highlight that. (He does take advantage of the use of valve trombones in 19th-century Italian orchestras, though, and there are a couple of pretty wild passages in the recording by the modern slide trombone players trying to cope with the parts.) Nonetheless, this performance shows why it was so popular in its day, as it has a lot of guts and sheer zest, and Apolloni's melodic sense is very assured. I'm very fond of it.