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BelAir Classics has just released the world premiere video recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden featuring an all Russian cast with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris National Opera, Music Director Philippe Jordan and conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov. It is a magnificent and very emotional production which brought tears to my eyes during the opera's 4th act finale when the Snow Maiden melts away. And what a performance by the very pretty Soprano, Aida Garifullina in the title role. I had never heard of her before this recording. Does any UC member know about her?

The opera is in a Prologue and 4 Acts and is about 3 hours and 15 minutes long. It is available in 2 versions, BAC 186 (2 DVD Set) and BAC 486 (1 Blu-ray disc).

The only negative thing about the performance was the omission of the famous "Dance of the Tumblers" from Act 3 which would have added about 10 more minutes to the recording. Why was it cut? If anyone out there knows, please post it.

The 2018 performance by the Odyssey Opera Orchestra and Chorus of Gounod's La Reine de Saba will be released as a 3 CD Set in June 2021. It is uncut and includes the extensive Act 3 ballet. It can be preordered now at the following website: <odysseyopera.org/recordings>.

No sooner than mentioning a couple of days ago that the Bard College Video of Dvorak's "Dimitrij" would soon be available online, here it is now, just posted today for all to watch, listen and enjoy at <https://americansymphony.org/online/>. I just watched it earlier and enjoyed it immensely It's just a few minutes longer than the 3 CD Supraphon set (SU 3793-2) which
incidentally contains a complete multi-lingual libretto and is something that rarely exists on today's CD 0pera releases.

The only other Bard Festival Opera I can think of that met our UC requirements was Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots" in 2009. I don't know, however, if was videotaped back then. Does anyone know?

Thank you Mark for your much appreciated conversion of the two previous Bard Festival Operas ("Le Roi Malgré Lui" and "The Wreckers") from online to download and thank you in advance for hopefully doing the same for "Dimitrij".

Videos of Chabrier's "Le Roi Malgré Lui" and Smyth's "The Wreckers" are two recent online operas available from the ASO archives at former Bard Music Festivals. They both can be viewed at https://americansymphony.org/online/ by just scrolling down for each one. Also the one that I've been waiting for, the uncut Dvořák's "Dimitrij" from the 2017 Bard Festival, will soon be available according to the ASO publicity staff. I'll post it here when that happens.

Finally, as was previously done with "Demon" and "Oresteia", we need downloaded versions of the Chabrier and Smyth operas to be posted here.

Following the video of Rubinstein's Demon from the 2018 Bard Music Festival, now comes the video of Taneyev's Oresteia from the 2013 Bard Music Festival. Go to<https://americansymphony.org/concerts/online/taneyev>. Also there is an audio of Taneyev's Symphony No. 4. Scroll down after arriving at the above website for the links to each of these performances.

The version of Oresteia conducted by Botstein is uncut and lasts a little over 3 hours. The previous Melodiya CD was slightly abridged and only lasted 2¾ hours. I hope some UC member can download it to our website like was previously done with Rubinstein's Demon.

Here is an update on the world premiere recording by Naxos of Massenet's Don Cesar de Bazan. It will be a 2 CD set, Catalog No. 8.660464-65, of the 1888 version and will be released on June 12, 2020. As a mail order dealer/distributor, DBA Collectors Records, this information was just sent to me by Naxos of America along with the following description:

Don César de Bazan is an opéra-comique with a narrative of dashing Spanish chivalry and romance. Its plot revolves around deception and comedies of reversed identity, with a struggle between true nobility and wicked selfishness maintaining an animated momentum throughout. This was the young Jules Massenet's first full-length opera and yet it is filled with the composer's mature symphonic style, his gift for melody, feeling for the picturesque, and vivacity of rhythm. These distinctive qualities reveal an operatic feast whose time has at last arrived. Conductor Mathieu Romano works within all genres from the Baroque to the contemporary, both on the concert stage and in opera. Romano has worked with ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor and the Latvian Radio Choir, and on operatic productions with Les Frivolités Parisiennes and contemporary projects with Ensemble Itinéraire. He also works with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, the Normandy Regional Orchestra, Les Siècles and Sinfonia Varsovia. He regularly appears with Ensemble Aedes, of which he is the founder and artistic director. His discography includes a number of acclaimed releases devoted to choral repertoire.

I have just been informed by the ASO (American Symphony Orchestra) that their July 2018 BARD Summerscape performance of Anton Rubinsteins opera 'Demon' conducted by Leon Botstein will be available to view from the ASO online website this coming Wednesday, April 15, 2020. In a way this could be considered as being a world premiere performance since the opera was given uncut with the complete ballet and extended final scene from Act 2 included. This indeed is a rarity since, to the best of my knowledge, one or the other of these two sections are always omitted in all available audio or video recordings ever released.

I hope one of our members could download this performance so it could be viewed by all members.

The following information was given on the back cover of the March 2019 issue of the UK Opera Magazine.

More than a hundred years after its creation, Saint-Saëns drama lyrique, L'ancêtre, will be staged at the Prinz Regenten Theater in Munich, Germany on March 20 through March 30, 2019 by the August Everding Theater Academy and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester.

More information can be found on the following website <www.theaterakademie.de>. No information was given on any broadcast or recording but lets keep our fingers crossed that there will be.

The website gave a little information in German on the plot of the opera and I have translated it into English below.

The sun is rising over Corsica. A peaceful hum can be heard when the hermit Raphaël sends out his bees for honey-gathering. But this idyll is deceptive. For decades, a bloody family feud rages between the Pietra Neras and the Fabianis, which demands more and more victims. Driven by the hate of the ancestor Nunciata, the young Vanina gets into a murderous conflict between love and loyalty. A love story unfolds between Vanina, her milk sister Margarita and the young Tébaldo from the clan of Pietra Neras. Their outcome seems predetermined.

About a month ago I sent the following Email to John Allison, Editor of the UK 'Opera' magazine:

Dear John,

As a longtime USA subscriber I read, on pages 176 & 177 of the February 2018 issue of Opera, about the Boris Pokrovsky Moscow Chamber Theatre's staging of Rimsky-Korsakov's Servilia, Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting.
   
The article also mentioned that a studio recording was made over a 10 day period preceeding the staged performance.
That took place in 2016 but as of today, almost two years later, no one seems to know, even in Russia, when the recording will be released.

I would specifically like to know who the USA distributor will be, on what CD label it will appear and the approximate date of the release. The Opera article was written by Alexandre Matoussevitch but I have no way of contacting him so you are my only source of information at the present time. Any help you can supply me with would be sincerely appreciated.

A few days later, I received the following reply from John after he heard from the Russian author mentioned above:

It was made by the Pokrovsky Chamber Opera on the Mosfilm Cinema studio in 2016. The theatre did not have any definite obligations with any sound recording company, the talks have been carrying out but without any result. So up to now there is no contract with any sound recording firm and it means that no firm is planning to release the recording.

All rights to the recording belong to Gennady Rozhdestvensky (not to the Chamber Opera) and now he stopped any talks concerning this case. It occurred after the decision by the Ministry of Culture in Russia to join Chamber Opera to the Bolshoi Theatre. Maybe you have heard about this scandalous situation. The Chamber Opera works and exists till the June of this year and after that it becomes a part of the Bolshoi. It's the end of this institution with unique repertory and it's very sad.

Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but it seems to me that Rozhdestvensky has taken offense at the Ministry and at the Bolshoi Theatre. Still his position concerning accession of one theater to another isn't known. He just is silent and doesn't make any contact. That is the difficult situation in general and about Servilia's recording just nobody already remembers.

It was recently announced by Palazzetto Bru-Zane that their 5th Edition Paris Festival will feature 6 fully staged performances of the first opera by Saint-Saëns, "Le timbre d'argent" (The Silver Bell). Also featured is a concert version of the Halevy opera rarity, "La reine de Chypre" (The Queen of Cyprus). It's also rumored that these two operas will be recorded and released on the Ediciones Singulares label in 2018. Dates, times and more information can be found on the following website:

http://www.bru-zane.com/2016/?page_id=17680&lang=en

It was just announced by Palazzetto Bru-Zane that the following 3 Operas will be performed (and hopefully recorded) at their June 2017 Festival

Halévy: La Reine de Chypre (1841) Concert Version
Saint-Saëns: Le Timbre d'argent (1877) Fully Staged
Lemoyne: Phèdre (1786) Fully Staged

For further information and dates go to http://www.bru-zane.com/2016/?page_id=17680&lang=en

Back on March 25, 2016 UC Member Christopher posted a message about an April 15, 2016 performance by the Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre of Rimsky-Korsakov's Servilia preceded by the opera's first CD recording. The message in part stated as follows:

"The  little-known opera occupies a special place in the artistic heritage of the famous Russian composer. Quite atypical for Rimsky-Korsakov's theme, era and genre, as well as the unsuccessful premiere of the opera was originally given an unusual status, and as a result it has always stood apart among the many masterpieces of its author. Since "Servilia" still remains the only unrecorded opera by Rimsky-Korsakov, the theatrical premiere will be preceded by a full recording in a studio under the direction of Gennady Rozhdestvensky."

Does any UC member know something about this planned recording? Has it been issued in Russia? If so, on what label and catalog number? If not, has it been postponed or even canceled? And what about the April 15 performance? Did it take place and, if so, has it been reviewed?

Any information would be helpful and appreciated.                                 

The long promised commercial recording of Herold's "Le Pré Aux Clercs" is scheduled to be released on October 17, 2016 on the Ediciones Singulares label (ES 1025). It will be their standard 2 CD book format set with a complete French/English libretto and the following cast: Marie-Eve Munger, Marie Lenormand, Jeanne Crousaud, Michael Spyres, Eric Huchet & Christian Helmer, with the Chorus and Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra of Lisbon, Paul McCreesh conducting. It will be performed in the original French Opéra Comique version with spoken dialogue. More information can be found at the following website:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/louis-joseph-ferdinand-herold-le-pre-aux-clercs/hnum/4898991

Marbecks Record Store in Auckland, New Zealand has recently posted information on its website about the future Ediciones Singulares release of Lalo's "La Jacquerie" completed by Arthur Coquard. It will be their standard 2 CD Set/Book format and the release date is listed as September 16, 2016.

For more information go to:  http://www.marbecks.co.nz/detail/552474/Lalo-La-Jacquerie

I just listened to the "World of Opera" broadcast of Macbeth from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Alain Altinoglu. It's one of my favorite Verdi operas and I was wondering, are there any commercial recordings, CD or DVD, of the complete opera available which include the Act 3 ballet music in its proper location, not as an added supplement? If there are, please let me know their label and catalog number.

On another subject, I just received an announcement from Opera Rara on their future recording plans in 2016 through 2018.  The following works were listed:

BELLINI - Adelson e Salvini (May 2016 Recording);
ROSSINI - Semiramide (August 2016 Uncut Recording);
GOUNOD - Le Médecin Malgré Lui (February 2017 Recording);
OFFENBACH - La Princesse de Trébizonde (December 2017 Recording);
DONIZETTI - L'ange de Nisida (July 2018 Recording);
LEONCAVALLO - Gli Zingari (No Recording Date Given);
DONIZETTI - Il Paria (No Recording Date Given);
MASSENET - Don César de Bazan (No Recording Date Given);
OFFENBACH - Maître Péronilla (No Recording Date Given);
PUCCINI - Le Villi (No Recording Date Given)

Plus a host of other long lost gems. No titles or composers were mentioned.

Thank you for the download of Le Pré aux clercs. I would like a French-English libretto for the opera. I have searched the Internet and all I could find is a French-English piano vocal score which is no good for me since I can't read music. Do you or any other member have a source? If so, please upload a PDF version. If not, can you tell me where i could purchase a copy.

Thank you,

Collrec