Victorian Opera Northwest & Bonynge

[EarlyRomantic]

I'd like to reveal this internet site and recording company to those of us who will be very excited to know it, if you don't already. It is intimately associated with Mr. Bonynge who has to be one of the , if not the,most passionate adherents of the music so many of us love and long to have more of.If mathematically he isn't our most prolific champion, surely he is personally, as the   span of his life has resuscitated neglected Romanticism, right up to this moment. A  compilation of Opera overtures has been promised all year.This disc includes overtures by John Barnett, Balfe, Edward Loder,W. V. Wallace, Macfarren, and Goring Thomas. I'd also like you to know  that  at 1900 GMT tomorrow, September 16, a concert at St. Muredach's, Ballina,  will be broadcast  which will feature excerpts from Wallaces  Matilda of Hungary. A link to the broadcast site is given on Victorian Opera Northwests site. Will anyone possibly be able to record this for us? To remember Wallaces anniversary even further,  a concert will be given in Dublin, on October 15. The 2012 Wexford Festival will offer 2 concerts of his songs, on October 25th and November 2nd. On November 28th, Wallace and Bonynge will be honored at an event at Australia House, Strand, London.I wanted to share this information so that those of you who live near enough to any of these locales may not miss these events, if attending is possible for you. All of this information is contained on the news page at Victorian Opera Northwests site, in  greater detail. I knew it would have wide appeal for many members, and that many of you live close enough that attending is a viable possibility.Those happy enough to go can learn and share with the rest of us later! The overture release is supposed to occur in 2012. I hope tomorrows broadcast can be captured by  someone!

[mikehopf]

Many thanks for the advance notification of the Wallace broadcast.... I'll be getting up at 4.30 a.m. ready to record it!

I went on the NW Victorian Opera site as you suggested and  - lo and behold - there is a special Wallace Bi-centennial Concert in Melbourne this afternoon which I will certainly attend.

This concert was not announced through the normal channels so my debt to you is doubled. Thank you again!

Mike ( from Melbourne)

[EarlyRomantic]

Mike, I'm so glad this enabled you to attend the concert! Of course, that is what the message was mostly for. Since you otherwise wouldn't have known, then I'M doubly happy!  By not mentioning the Melbourne concert in my post, I underestimated the global reach of "Unsung Composers". Please let me apologize. I'm eager to hear a report from you after the concert! Thank you for getting up early to record the broadcast.That's generous of you. I'd love to know your thoughts of "Matilda of Hungary", or the chance to actually hear it. I enjoy "visiting" Melbourne each January-July for you!- to watch the Australian Open. As the ad slogan used to say, "Melbourne- a city surrounded by Nature". I hope you enjoy the concert very much!

[mbhaub]

I didn't even know Bonynge was still alive and conducting. I've never enjoyed the bel canto operas that he and his wife made, but his remarkable recordings of the Tchaikovky ballets are still the ones to beat. His Gliere Concerto for Coloratura Soprano is tops. Wish I could hear the broadcast!

[dances43]

His Gliere Concerto for Coloratura Soprano is tops

Up to a point, except that Sutherland, recording this rather late in her career, is too heavy for the piece and drops down an octave for the final high note. If you can find it, the Miroshnichenko recording is a revelation.

[Jimfin]

Oh, he's still going and is scheduled to record Sullivan's "On Shore and Sea" next year.

[mikehopf]

Both Wallace concerts were very similar in format and indeed in performance: enthusiastic amateurs who did justice to some of the less demanding ballads but were not really up to the operatic excerpts. Perhaps I've been spoilt by the commercial recordings on Naxos & Melba which I could not wait to replay... after all, Wallace did write some very good tunes.

Wallace was described as "  the greatest Irish composer of the 19th Century" ... an assessment with which I heartily disagree: Sullivan & Balfe were so much better!

There was only one aria from Matilda of Hungary which apparently " was still-born, owing mainly to Bunn's libretto which R.H. Legge called " one of the worst... in existence" ( Groves). I will upload it later today.

When you come to Melbourne, EarlyRomantic, do call on me (  03 9817 5632) so I can give you copies of the complete Wallace broadcast albeit in somewhat echoey sound.

[Jimfin]

Thank you so much, Mike, great to hear something from that opera.

[edurban]

More from Victorian Opera Northwest re: On Sea and Shore:

"..Arthur Sullivan's forgotten cantata, On Shore & Sea (1871) has been recorded for the first time by Victorian Opera Northwest in November. The cantata was composed specially for the opening of the International Exhibition at South Kensington and was one of the works performed when the Royal Albert Hall was opened. The work will be coupled with Sullivan's masque Kenilworth (1864). Soloists Sally Silver, Nico Darmanin, Donald Maxwell and Louise Winter were under the baton of the eminent Richard Bonynge..."

I'm happy about the Kenilworth Masque as a previous recording was not really satisfactory (I gave my copy away)...

David