Another Raff opera to be recorded

[Justin]

Excerpt from the overture from this recording:

https://soundcloud.com/naxosmusicgroup/866061920-cd1-track01-excerpt

[eschiss1]

I remember when none of Raff's operas were recorded and many were unpublished except in (un-messy) manuscripts. Feels like this is most of them now, and I feel like applauding...

[Mark Thomas]

Audio excerpts from each track here.

[Mark Thomas]

The promo video:

[Gareth Vaughan]

How wonderful. Utterly delightful.

[John Boyer]

I finally released my copy from the shrink-wrapped prison that it's been languishing in since its arrival and treated myself to an operatic matinee, libretto in hand (or, more accurately, on screen).  This is a wonderful release, with excellent performances all around captured in full-bodied but transparent sound.  The orchestral details are clear and the voices are pleasantly integrated into the sound picture without being unnaturally prominent.

Reading the notes I was struck by Raff's awareness of the cost of an operatic production, producing a budget-pleasing work that requires only a minimal cast and recyclable scenery.  The only caveat?  The weak libretto, which, if not much worse than the typical opera buffa, feels as recycled as the scenery Raff conceived.  It's utterly generic, with only the character names changed and new music provided.  I once joked that it would be funny if writers used generic titles in the same way as composers of absolute music (Horror Novel #9, by Stephen King; Naturalist Drama #3, by Henrik Ibsen); here we have what could have been called Raff's Comic Opera #1.

The weak libretto, however, is something shared by many an opera, so it's the sort of defect we almost take for granted.  Raff, to his credit, has clothed it with delightful music and Naxos has given it to us in excellent performances with great sound.  It's a winner.