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A specially recorded performance of this Meyerbeer rarity was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur on 18th February 2023 and has now been posted on youTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w5972JJoP4&t=69s

The recording is based on the staged version in Bonn during the previous season and is a new edition based on all the available material that reflects the second performance at the Royal Opera House in Berlin in 1844.  This production was recorded over three days at the end of last December and is obviously intended as a CD release.
For this performance a narrator has been added.

A real pity, again, though, about the  presentation. At first I thought that it was an advert for the SNP! It's not exactly encouraging for anyone who doesn't know what it's about.

Coming during the Festival Val d'Itria on 19 & 20 July 2023!

'L'Adorable Bel-Boul' is a one-act operetta by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) to a libretto by Paul Poirson.

It was created on April 17, 1873 at the Circle of the artistic union (circle of Mirlitons). Never published, this work fell into oblivion until July 2017 when the Divertissements royaux troupe (now renamed Opera-ci, Opera-la) revived it during its festival at the Château de Chabenet on the initiative of the soprano Marie-Laure Brossolasco.

Characters:
Zaï-Za, pupil of Ali-Bazar (soprano)
Fatime, follower of Zaï-Za (mezzo-soprano)
Ali-Bazar, merchant (baritone)
Sidi-Toupi, whirling dervish (tenor)
Hassan, in love with Zaï-Za (tenor)Plot

The plot takes place at the merchant Ali-Bazar in the city of Samarkand.

Zaï-Za returns from the extraordinary session given at the mosque by the whirling dervish Sidi-Toupi. She is very restless; a young man has just saved her from the fury of the dervish and his followers, provoked by the loss of her veil during the ceremony. Young man who hastened to return home with a bouquet leaving no doubt about his intentions.

However, Ali-Bazar has just told Zaï-Za that she could not marry until her daughter Bel-Boul was. But Bel-Boul, in addition to being scary ugly, has an execrable character and of course no one wants him... except old Omar for a dowry of 1000 sequins. But for Ali-Bazar this is not an option.

Zaï-Za, with the help of her servant Fatime, is looking for a solution, when it comes of itself in the person of the dervish Sidi-Toupi. Having seen the features of Zaï-Za, he falls in love with her and comes to ask her in marriage. Fatime immediately makes him believe that his mistress is actually called Bel-Boul, and that he will have to use a stratagem because Ali-Bazar does not want to marry her and discourages suitors by making her look ugly.

Sidi-Toupi falls into the trap and goes so far as to promise 1000 sequins if he changes his mind. When the veil falls on the truth, everything works out for Zaï-Za and her lover Hassan. Sidi-Toupi withdraws by paying the 1000 sequins which will be used for the marriage of Bel-Boul with the old Omar. So they can get married. As for the dervish, he will return home without saying a word, at the risk of being the laughing stock of all Samarkand.

Has there been any systematic attempt at numbering them?

Almut Runge-Woll made no attempt to number Emilie Mayer's compositions. Two main reasons are likely:

1 Emile Mayer kept no catalogue of her works.

2 Emile Mayer didn't date her manuscripts.

Opus numbers were given by  pubishers. Opp 12, 13 & 16 were published by Challier & Co., Berlin.

What differences are there between the two versions of the D minor trio?

1) In the first movement the 'Adagio' introduction of the 1st version is missing in the second version.

2) In the second movement the 'Un poco adagio' of the first version has become 'Adagio' but otherewise is identical.

3) In the third movement the 'Scherzo - Vivace' of the first version has become 'Scherzo - Allegro vivace'

The middle of the movement appears to be new in the second version with the 'Minuetto - Andantino' of the first version changing to a 'Trio' in the second version with different notation.

The return of the 'Scherzo' is similar in both versions.

4) The fourth movement is different in the second version.

 The trio in "E minor" without opus number listen in Wikipaedia is not an error, so doesn't refer to the "D minor" trio that's been recorded. It's Trio I in e-minor and was broadcast in 1993 in Südwestfunk played by the Clara Wieck-Trio. The movements are i Allegro, ii Adagio, iii Scherzo, Allegro vivace and iv Allegro.
In total there are 8 piano trios of which there are two versions of Trio II. The first is in D minor with the movements i Adagio-Allegro, ii Un poco adagio, iii Scherzo-Vivace with Trio andantino and  iv Finale. The second version is the one recorded by the  Hannover Trio on Genuin.
Apart from the two mentioned above the remaining unrecorded piano trio is one in B major with the movements: i Allegro con moto, ii Scherzo-Allegro, iii Un poco adagio and iv  Allegro.

SAINT-SAËNS's Déjanire was performed in Monte Carlo on 16th October this year. A studio recording was made during the previous week!

HOLMES's La Montagne Noire in Dortmund seems to have disappeared. Perhaps it was so dark they couldn't find it.

A real unsung next year in Wexford: Camille Erlanger's L'aube rouge!

The first of its kind explained:

190 years ago, on February 2, 1826, the singspiel "Dráteník" (wire binder) was staged for the first time in the sold-out Estates Theatre in Prague. The opus by František Škroup (1801-1862) was the first opera with an original Czech libretto.

František Škroup was only 25 years old when he composed the opera. He was studying law in Prague at the time. He financed his studies through music lessons and as a temp in the Estates Theatre. Škroup was also involved in amateur theatre and in 1823 was a co-founder of the first Czech opera association. In 1823, the popular opera "The Swiss Family" by the Austrian composer Josef Weigl was performed in the Estates Theatre in Czech translation. The performance prompted Škroup to write an opera with a Czech libretto. The poet Josef Krasoslav Chmelenský worked on the libretto for several months, and Škroup finished the score at the end of 1825. The premiere of the first Czech opera was a major event. At that time, the audience in the Estates Theatre included well-known personalities from Czech cultural life, including the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl and the historian František Palacký. The opera was a great success. Škroup, who sang the lead role of Wirebinder at the premiere, gave up his law studies and henceforth devoted himself exclusively to music.

Those who want to burn CDRs from all this, a break during the first act is necessary, since it goes for 82 minutes...

I use 90 minute CDs for this kind of thing! I have a copy albeit with mini repairs that are practically unnoticeable. I can't upload as I'm ikn Scotland and only have mobile internet with limited capacity.

Act 3 runs to 38 minutes and acts 4 & 5 to 72 minutes.

Sorry, my computer has chewed up Audacity!

Only the first symphonic poem was broadcast. The works will appear on the CPO label.

The scheduled performance in March 2020 was cancelled because of COVID. Other cancelled concerts have not been resurrected so my inkling is that a recording will be made.

Georg Schumann's oratorio 'Ruth' will be performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Choir on March 5, 2023 at 8 p.m

Marcelina Beucher
Julie Marie Sundal
Jonas Boehm
Hanno Müller-Brachmann
Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt
Conductor: Jörg-Peter Weigle

'Ruth' - a moving story of female power

"O night, you starry, you beautiful summer night ..." - this highly romantic song sounds in 'Ruth', the opus magnum by Georg Schumann, the long-standing director of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. First performed in 1908, 'Ruth' is a jewel of late romantic tonal sensuality, was considered one of the most popular oratorios and was a worldwide success. Schumann's publisher proclaimed: "Everyone, from a teenager to the coarse philistine, has to croon the leitmotif when they get up and go to bed."

During the Nazi years people were bothered by the Jewish subject and so in the post-war period the work was unjustly forgotten.

1st October 21:30 in Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Hugo Kaun
,,Minnehaha" und ,,Hiawatha", Sinfonische Dichtungen op. 43
Sinfonie Nr. 3 e-Moll op. 96

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Conductor: Jonathan Stockhammer

In the downloads section two mp3 files:

Saint-Saëns, Ouverture de Fête, opus 133.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Kazuki Yamada

Massenet, La Nef triomphale.
Choeur de l'opera de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Kazuki Yamada

It's a great pity DUX didn't see fit to include the text in the otherwise informative booklet!