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Title: Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833) Post by: cilgwyn on July 03, 2022, 01:47:13 pm Ferdinand Hérold: Le pré aux clercs: opera comique in 3 acts (1832) (various soloist's) Benedetti Rec:1959 & Le Muletier: opera comique in 1 act (1823) various soloist's Jean-Pierre Marty Rec:1968 Musidisc 'Gaiete Lyrique' 2 cd's
A winner & a genuine find! :) :) :) :) :) (https://i.imgur.com/XwX3qRK.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/UcEoCgU.jpg) I've had this for about a year or so,now! I played it once when I received it! So much to listen & it got put in a box with a load of other opera set's. I put it on yesterday and oh,what a delight! :) What a wonderful,tuneful score. Just chock full of invention. Not a dull moment! This really IS a find! It's hard to understand why such a talented composer has been ignored for so long. Yet,he was very successful in his day! Unforunately,he died at the age of forty two! Not long after composing Le pré aux clercs. His overture Zampa has been recorded many times and seems to have been his only representation on Lp or cd,except for some ballet music. Namely,La Fille mal gardée,the complexity of performing version's,frankly makes my head spin like the girl in the film & La sonnambula.Yet,to this day,there is still no commercially available recording of Zampa! After hearing this delight (and it really is a winner!) I would certainly like to hear that score! There is a more recent complete recording of Le pré aux clercs,that is more complete and includes the dialogue! The reviews I have read are very enthusiastic,but,as per most of the other releases in the series,unless I win some dosh on the lottery (which I don't do,by the way! ;D) I won't be buying it any time soon!! :( The good news is that the 1959 recording is,to my ears,magnificently performed with the kind of elegant,stylish,French singing you get from that period which is champagne to my ears. Also,apparently,some of the dialogue on the new set runs for five minutes and in one instance eight! And yes you can skip dialogue;but it's a bit of a fag when you just want to enjoy a cd! Le Muletier is very well performed too,I might add! These operas are a real find as far as I'm concerned & the music and singing is so great,who cares about the (usually) silly plot?! Come on Cpo let's have Zampa,please!! Title: Re: Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833) Post by: Albion on July 03, 2022, 02:08:52 pm Ferdinand Hérold: Le pré aux clercs: opera comique in 3 acts (1832) (various soloist's) Benedetti Rec:1959 & Le Muletier: opera comique in 1 act (1823) various soloist's Jean-Pierre Marty Rec:1968 Musidisc 'Gaiete Lyrique' 2 cd's I've had this for about a year or so,now! I played it once when I received it! So much to listen & it got put in a box with a load of other opera set's. I put it on yesterday and oh,what a delight! :) What a wonderful,tuneful score. Just chock full of invention. Not a dull moment! This really IS a find! It's hard to understand why such a talented composer has been ignored for so long. Yet,he was very successful in his day! Unforunately,he died at the age of forty two! Not long after composing Le pré aux clercs. His overture Zampa has been recorded many times and seems to have been his only representation on Lp or cd,except for some ballet music. Namely,La Fille mal gardée,the complexity of performing version's,frankly makes my head spin like the girl in the film & La sonnambula.Yet,to this day,there is still no commercially available recording of Zampa! After hearing this delight (and it really is a winner!) I would certainly like to hear that score! There is a more recent complete recording of Le pré aux clercs,that is more complete and includes the dialogue! The reviews I have read are very enthusiastic,but,as per most of the other releases in the series,unless I win some dosh on the lottery (which I don't do,by the way! ;D) I won't be buying it any time soon!! :( The good news is that the 1959 recording is,to my ears,magnificently performed with the kind of elegant,stylish,French singing you get from that period which is champagne to my ears. Also,apparently,some of the dialogue on the new set runs for five minutes and in one instance eight! And yes you can skip dialogue;but it's a bit of a fag when you just want to enjoy a cd! Le Muletier is very well performed too,I might add! These operas are a real find as far as I'm concerned & the music and singing is so great,who cares about the (usually) silly plot?! Come on Cpo let's have Zampa,please!! As always, you're the go-to man for musical theatre! The only music by Herold that I know is the Zampa overture which is quite brilliant, so thanks for this recommendation. I'll rummage online and see what I can find... ;) So many wonderful French composers writing for the stage - Auber, Herve, Offenbach, Lecocq, Planquette, Audran, Varney, etc. Richard Traubner's Operetta: A Theatrical History (OUP 1983) is a great survey of the genre covering Paris, Vienna, London and Broadway. I dip into it occasionally and wonder what a lot of these now-forgotten works are like as there are so many gaps in my knowledge! ::) |