Very nice! I love the artwork! :)
And here's another sumptuous,lavishly orchestrated operatic blockbuster! A morbid plotline,though! :o I'd definitely take the late Patrick Moore's advice and observe the sun by focusing a telescope (pointed at the sun) on a piece of white card! But,hey,that's just me! ::) Fortunately,I'm not a character in an opera! At least,as far as I know?!!
Eugen d'Albert: Die Toten Augen Cpo 2 cd's
I'd love to hear more of d'Albert's music, so this may be a good place to begin!
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/dalbert-die-toten-augenHe was taught by Arthur Sullivan, arranged the piano reduction for the vocal score of Sullivan's
The Martyr of Antioch (1880) and provided the overture to
Patience (1881) under Sullivan's guidance...
:)
...oh, and he had six wives (although, as far as I know, he didn't have any of them beheaded).
:D
Yes,if you enjoy that kind of opera,you should enjoy Die Toten Augen. It's nothing like Tiefland! To my ears it's sound world is much closer to the only Schreker opera I know at all,Der Schatzgräber! Lush,sumptuous late romantic orchestration. I haven't listened it for a few months but I seem to recall there are some purely orchestral passages. A feast for the ears! The sort of music you just let wash over you! A perfunctory look at the libretto,perhaps,now & again! (An english libretto is included!) I would have preferred a happy ending myself,though! :(
Duly found a second-hand copy online and ordered it! Anything in the Strauss/ Schreker/ Zemlinsky/ Korngold vein of over-the-top scoring is just what I love to hear. With d'Albert being born in Scotland and trained in England I shall be intrigued to find links between his style and those of his Austro-German contemporaries...
:)
I don't think he goes quite as ott as Korngold or Schreker;but the orchestration is in the same kind of mould (
the good kind not the stuff on my walls!). I was impressed by his mastery of the orchestra! A feast for the old ear drums,imho! :)
Despite the Sullivan and Scottish connection I'm afraid there's no McKrankie character (from the Island of Rum) in Die Toten Augen (
or The Krankies,thank g**!)! ;D
:D :D :D
I, too, suffer from mould - not personally, as yet, but as my flat-mate recently endeavoured to make a hole in the bath rendering it unusable...
::)
...I fear that we're heading towards the "Off-topic bin" once more. I shall see you there presently no doubt.
;D
