cilgwyn
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Playing here,now! Arrived today. On now! The sumptuous 1971 'complete' emi electrola recording of Emmerich Kálmán's (equally sumptuous) 1924 'Hungarian' operetta,Countess Mariza. A delightful children's chorus was cut,but it's still a wonderful recording that has never been bettered,imho! Love those fiery czardas! I prefer Kálmán to Franz Lehár (1870-1948) and think he was just as great,at his best,and less cloyingly (glutinously) sentimental. He also adhered more closely to the true spirit of operetta,which is supposed to be one of gaiety and escapism not gloom! (Interesting how,Lehár wanted to compose an opera and Puccini wanted to compose an operetta,and did!) Electrola,who also recorded Die Csárdásfürstin,really should have gone on to record Kálmán's lovely 1921 operetta,Die Bajadere;but fortunately an excellent studio recording,conducted by,Richard Bonynge,was recently released by Cpo. More on that in another post,perhaps?!
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