Balfe's Satanella recording status

[Wheesht]

Here is an interesting review:

http://operetta-research-center.org/balfes-satanella-plus-mermans-apprentice/

[Jimfin]

Well that makes me look forward to it even more than I already did, which is saying something!

[pcc]

It's a splendid performance, which I enjoyed very much and have sent copies of to two friends.  My only reservations about it is that Bonynge's "performing edition" cuts the opera severely and sometimes strangely, often distorting structures that Balfe actually took a great deal of care over (for once!).  For instance, I can't see the need for cutting 12 bars out of the already short "Preludio", especially as those bars set up a plausible harmonic "question and answer" arrangement.  Similarly, the 1st act gambling ensemble's stretta, "Of life I have no care", has a huge development section excised, which if you look at the vocal score is really quite nimble and interesting and builds up to the full choral reprise with considerable excitement.  I hope these cuts are included in the new performing materials they generated and marked as "optional".  On the very strong plus side, the singers are terrific (the soprano and tenor especially so) and Bonynge gets an astonishingly passionate performance out of the orchestra throughout.  George Bernard Shaw's typically "complimentary" criticism "Balfe, whose ballads are better than Tchaikovsky's, never as far as I know wrote a whole scene well" must have been written without hearing SATANELLA's fourth act, which is really impressive and heartfelt with a stunning "transformation scene" climax.  Balfe evidently sensed this himself, as he uses one of its melodies as the main theme of the Preludio; in fact, the entire last trio is crammed with good tunes, inventive writing, and honest drama.  I can't remember who wrote something about how adding an organ in an opera always makes things more exciting, but I find the end of the opera with the organ on full reeds and angels singing above cursing demons sincerely thrilling; actually, the whole opera, story and music, I find very appealing.  I don't know why some of the reviews harp on the libretto's supposed absurdity, except that supernatural subjects have always had a chancy existence in opera, even in their own time. (The Germans managed to get by with them more than the French and Italians in the 19th century.)  Chide my taste, but I'd travel a very long way indeed to see this staged.

[Mark Thomas]

I do agree that this turned out to be an unexpectedly entertaining and involving listen, and all credit to the whole cast, who do a magnificent job. The final act in particular is very exciting, reminding me in many ways of the final pages of Gounod's Faust, for obvious reasons. Amongst the many positive things which I hadn't anticipated was the degree to which Balfe knew his Meyerbeer: the orchestration has many piquant touches straight out of Robert Le Diable and Les Huguenots, and the masterful pacing of each act as it builds to its finale is as good as anything you'll find in them too. A really worthwhile discovery, I thought.   

[semloh]

Thanks, Mark. That's quite a recommendation. I'll have to add it to my ever-expanding list of wants.

[pcc]

Balfe learnt the French grand opera style first-hand; he spent a great deal of time in Paris throughout his life, composed for both the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra, and conducted works by Auber, Meyerbeer, and Halévy (albeit in Italian, including the premiere of the last-named's La tempesta ) when he replaced Michael Costa at Her Majesty's Theatre from 1847 to 1852.  All of his late operas written for the Pyne-Harrison Company as their "contract composer" from 1857 to 1863 have a strong Meyerbeerian influence.  His last opera, The Knight of the Leopard (after Walter Scott's The Talisman, but first performed after his death in Italian as Il talismano), which has a pretty strong libretto by Arthur Matthison, might be the most interesting one to look at next when everyone's recovered from Satanella!