Reinthaler's opera Das Käthchen von Heilbronn is due out from cpo later this month:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Karl-Martin-Reinthaler-1822-1896-Das-K%E4thchen-von-Heilbronn/hnum/4287707 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Karl-Martin-Reinthaler-1822-1896-Das-K%E4thchen-von-Heilbronn/hnum/4287707)
By golly, what would we all be doing were it not for CPO! This is a quite unexpected release, and I much welcome it. To be sure, it didn't quite set the world alight, but I very much enjoyed his early oratorio 'Jephta und deine seine Tochter' previously recorded by CPO. I thought it a generally fine piece, and got rather fed up with a repeated 'a bit like Mendelssohn, but not half so good' from many critics and reviewers. (I considered that kind of comment rather a silly stance to adopt, and it is another example of lazy journalism.) We ought, in my view, give Reinthaler a decent chance. Which is why this release is especially good news.
...and lovely Romantic operatic fare it is too. Try these tantalising excerpts here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reinthaler-Heilbronn-Papandreou-Opernchor-Philharmonisches/dp/B008KUJXM8/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1342799326&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reinthaler-Heilbronn-Papandreou-Opernchor-Philharmonisches/dp/B008KUJXM8/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1342799326&sr=1-1)
If you are not really a fan of Wagner and would prefer some more conservative, melodic German operatic fare, then why not try this lovely opera? It has some absolutely glorious moments and is generally very well done in this live, premiere recording made in Erfurt, one of the many lesser-known, but still first-class German theatres.
By the way, don't think this opera will sound like second-rate Mendelssohn - it doesn't. It is, after all, a grand opera (well, "Romantische Oper"), so it has far more heft than you might imagine. Certainly one for all lovers of mainstream 19th century opera.
It's lovely lyrical stuff, conservatively orchestrated for its time - I have a recording of the radio broadcast of this production. Jeff Joneikis, in his description for recordsinternational's August catalogue (http://www.recordsinternational.com/cd.php?cd=08O005) says " the musical style begins in Mendelssohn and goes through Schumann to Brahms." and that about sums it up for me.