Messages

Thanks so much to Ebubu for the "Massenet" downloads.

I am wondering if anyone was able to record the Ariane broadcast on BR Klassik on Sunday January 29 ?

Regarding the Bru Zane project of a concert and recording of Ariane by Massenet, the concert is due to take place this coming Sunday, January 29 at 19.00H from the Prinzregententheater, Munich. It is being broadcast live on BR Klassik. A future cd release is projected. I do hope someone may be able to record the broadcast for listening prior to the eventual cd release.

Looks like 2020 will be a great year for Massenet devotees. "Don Cesar de Bazin" is due for a Naxos release [can't find a confirmed date yet] as performed by Les Frivolites Parisiennes and soloists. And now news of "Bacchus" coming around midyear. If we count the "unofficial" releases of "Panurge" and "Ariane" from St-Etienne this will mean we will have recordings of all the operatic works in the generally accepted canon of Massenet's completed operas.

Very good news that "Don Cesar de Bazin" is at least on the radar for a recording. And if "Bacchus" gets on someone's list we will have [at least one way or another] recordings of all the extant, generally accepted, completed Massenet operas [well, there is the early one-acter "La Grande Tante" as well]. I still wonder what happened to the proposed Leon Botstein concert/recording of "Ariane" that was announced and then just vanished into thin air a couple of years ago ?

Grateful thanks for the Spontini "Olympie" upload. I tried to "reecouter" it online but by the time it got all the way to Australia the sound was very average. It's a thrilling performance with what I take to be "period" instruments. I presume the BruZane people will issue a recording at some stage. I see that it is due to be given again in October in Holland.

I believe there will be a France Musique broadcast of the June 3 performance "Olympie" [recorded at the Theatre des Champs Elysees]. It will take place on Saturday June 11 at 19h.

There is a recording of "Eine Herbstsymphonie" by Leon Botstein and The American Symphony Orchestra. It runs 59 minutes [at least in it's iTunes incarnation it does], so I am interested in the running time given in the original posting here : 80-90 minutes. Does anyone know if the Leon Botstein recording is heavily cut ?

For those interested in long forgotten ballet music, there is a recent release by Timpani of a Schmitt ballet score "Le Petit Elfe Ferme-l'oeil". The work has a complicated history having been worked up from an original piano duet suite. It's scored for a large orchestra and is interesting to hear the sonorities, which I have associated with his large scale "oriental" scores, used for a Hans Andersen inspired work.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable listen for anyone with a taste for Gounod/Thomas/Massenet. One question : the Act 3 ballet consists of one number lasting 2.20 minutes. I am wondering if the ballet has been cut for this recording or whether the single number is all that was intended. Most ballet sequences for French operas on this scale would be considerably longer. I am hoping that eventually the researchers at the Palazzetto Bru-Zane get around to unearthing some of the full evening ballets from the period that they are doing so much to revive interest in.

Back around 2005 I spent a lot of time tracking down and finally getting a recording by the "Orchestre de l'Opera Ballet de Minsk" of the ballet scene from "Bacchus" which bears the subtitle "Les Mysteres Dionysiaque".It was coupled with a musique concrete piece entitled "Musique des Vignes". The Massenet is quite extensive and extremely entertaining and fits right in with his other ballet scena's such as the more extended ones from "Le Mage" and "Le Cid". I am glad to have a new recording of the "Bacchus" suite and hopefully look forward to a recording of the entire work at some future stage.

The Leon Botstein performance of the suite from "Les Metamorphoses" is now available on iTunes.

Thanks very much Scarpia for the report on the Steinberg piece [especially the movement titles]. It would appear that the original libretto was created by Bakst and Steinberg, working from Ovids's "Metamorphoses". It was written as 3 Tableaux [Semele, Midas, Adonis]. But Diaghilev was not enthusiastic about the work and was possibly currying favour with Rimsky's family [after the dreadful fallout over the treatment of "Scheherazade"] in staging the work. He reduced the score to just the central 'Midas' section. Bakst was so overworked with mounting Strauss' "Josephlegende" that he handed design duties over to Doboujinsky. From Scarpia's title list it would appear that the suite contains music from all 3 tableaux.

Yes I have followed that revival of "Le Dieu Bleu", with the Scriabin replacement, with some interest. I managed to get a piano reduction of the Hahn score many years ago, and it is fascinating as it contains a very large number of specific directions regarding the various comings and goings of the ballet's action. A pity if, as you suggest, orchestral materials have disappeared.

I think "Metamorphosen" may be the ballet score written for Diaghilev and staged under the title of "Midas". It is generally [the ballet, that is] regarded as a failure but to hear the score would be incredibly interesting. Along with Hahn's "Le Dieu Bleu" and Rieti's "Le Bal", it is an important missing gap in the Diaghilev discography.