Franz von Suppé's lost opera Il Ritorno del Marinaio

[BerlinExpat]

Franz von Suppé's lost opera Il Ritorno del Marinaio - in a forthcoming recording from CPO:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/franz-von-suppe-il-ritorno-del-marinaio/hnum/6100122

Details of its resurrection can be gleaned here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Matrosen_Heimkehr

[Mark Thomas]

Interesting. Suppé's lost Symphony, which I was assured a few years ago had been found and would be committed to disc once the conductor who had the score was offered enough money, seems to have disappeared again. At any rate, I have heard nothing about it for several years now.

[Alan Howe]

The excerpts are certainly mouthwatering. A must-buy for me.

[Mark Thomas]

Oh yes, an absolute must buy. Excerpts can be so misleading, but to my ear Meyerbeer sounds to be a much stronger influence than Donizetti, despite the latter being a relation of Suppé's.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, this is an absolute joy. The orchestra and choir of Rijeka Opera (in Croatia's third-largest city) are absolutely superb - so much better than the often provincial forces used in recordings of this sort of repertoire. Further comments to follow...

Incidentally, this is the information supplied in the Wikipedia article linked above:

Des Matrosen Heimkehr or Il Ritorno del Marinaio is a romantic opera in two acts by Dalmatian composer Franz von Suppé to a libretto by the late Anton Langer (died 1879).[1] It was premiered at the Stadttheater, Hamburg, on 4 May 1885.[2] The opera was a success but quickly forgotten in Germany, and then the original score of the opera was lost in bombing in 1943. Croatian conductor Adriano Martinolli d'Arcy managed to retrieve a copy in an American archive in 2007, and the opera was revived in an Italian translation by the Croatian National Theatre in Split in 2013, and recorded by the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka in 2016.

[Alan Howe]

The music isn't consistently inspired, but it certainly has some inspired sections. A most worthwhile resurrection, with some excellent singing too. The idiom? Vaguely middle-period Verdi in the vocal writing, but with an increasingly Viennese accent as the music progresses. Yummo!

[Mark Thomas]

I'm really looking forward to this one, but I'll wait until the download is available...