ROSSINI La Cenerentola WAGNER Tristan und Isolde
Operatic extremes from Jurowski live in Glyndebourne’s own sound
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Gioachino Rossini
Label: Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Magazine Review Date: 10/2013
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 153
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: GFOCD018-07
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(La) Cenerentola, or La bontà in trionfo, 'Cinderella' |
Gioachino Rossini, Composer
Alessandro Corbelli, Don Magnifico, Baritone Gioachino Rossini, Composer Glyndebourne Chorus Lucia Cirillo, Tisbe, Mezzo soprano Maxim Mironov, Don Ramiro, Tenor Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Pietro Spagnoli, Dandini, Baritone Raquela Sheeran, Clorinda, Soprano Ruxandra Donose, Angelina, Mezzo soprano Umberto Chiummo, Alidoro, Bass-baritone Wladimir Jurowski, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Richard Wagner
Label: Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Magazine Review Date: 10/2013
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 227
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: GFOCD019-09
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Tristan und Isolde |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Andrew Kennedy, Shepherd, Tenor Andrezej Dobber, Kurwenal, Baritone Anja Kampe, Isolde, Soprano George Zeppenfeld, King Marke, Bass Glyndebourne Chorus London Philharmonic Orchestra Peter Gijsbertsen, Sailor, Tenor Richard Mosley-Evans, Steersman, Baritone Richard Wagner, Composer Sarah Connolly, Brangäne, Mezzo soprano Torsten Kerl, Tristan, Tenor Trevor Scheunemann, Melot, Baritone Wladimir Jurowski, Conductor |
Author: Mike Ashman
Jurowski’s takeover of Tristan (after Ji∑í B∆lohlávek had debuted the work at the Festival with Romantic lushness) and his ‘translation’ of La Cenerentola from the LPO to the original-instrument world of the OAE are testimonies to the range of a conductor who can appear in the styles of such contrasting repertoire. The pacing, the dynamics, the explosions of (deliberately) anarchic sound – in fact the whole humour and italianità – of this Cenerentola match the ambivalent moods of Peter Hall’s stage production. As Rodney Milnes explains in a perceptive booklet-note marred by appalling proofreading, this is sometimes a very serious and dark opera indeed. This later casting retains the leads of Donose’s Angelina (quite a dark voice, most fluent in coloratura), Mironov’s Ramiro (agile casting of this ferociously difficult role) and the sisters, while introducing more experience with Chiummo’s Alidoro and Corbelli’s Magnifico. But it is the instruments of the orchestra, especially the winds, and the resulting pit/stage balance as realised by Jurowski, who are the real stars of the show. An essential purchase, whatever other canaries (Bartoli?) you must have on your Rossinian desert isle.
For their music director’s Tristan revival – great credit to the casting department – Glyndebourne secured a wholly different yet equally effective distribution of roles from their premiere. Jurowski’s approach, seemingly influenced by original-instrument balances, might be crudely summarised as summum contra Karajan. Unlike the latter’s (in)famous EMI recording, you could reconstruct every line of the score from this performance because Jurowski, his orchestra and his engineers do not sacrifice everything for power and brilliance. Jurowski also has an artful (I would add ‘contemporary’) way of just holding back on the emotional placing of the music under the voice. In the truest sense of the word, he accompanies Kampe’s Liebestod. We’re in no way cheated of the impact of that famous final resolution but nor is it the climax of a vocalise. The conductor’s work with both turn-of-the-19th/20th-century scores and more modern works also feeds into his interpretation. In a fine cast, Kampe’s Isolde (strong on text and real love) is exceptional. This release certainly joins the short shortlist of recorded Tristans alongside the Kleibers, Knappertsbusch and Furtwängler.
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