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I'm reading Bru Zane's brochure for the 2026/27 season, and these are the productions to be recorded and released in the coming year(s) on the French opera series:

September 2026: release of Hérold's Zampa and recording of Massenet's Roma
October 2026: release of Delibes' Jean de Nivelle
January 2027: recording of Joncières' Lancelot
March 2027: release of Cherubini's Médée
April 2027: recording of Hahn's La Carmélite and release of Holmès' La Montagne noire
June 2027: recording of Steibelt's Roméo et Juliette, to be released in 2028.

I hope I didn't overlook anything, but all in all: quite a lot of exciting releases to look forward to!

There is of course a somewhat older recording of Sigurd that I remember as being not all that bad.

Edit: I see there have been at least five recordings of this opera.

I am aware of some of those recordings, but I mentioned it more in the sense that I feel it's an opera that is very deserving of what I would call the "Bru Zane treatment": an informative CD-book with a wonderful recording of the work. I seem to remember reading - but correct me if I'm wrong - that some recordings of Sigurd do not respect the completeness of the score. If Bru Zane were to release a sort of "definitive version" I think that would be incredible.

Also, a multitude of recordings does not mean an opera is not of interest to Bru Zane. After all, Gounod's Faust has been released several times in the past, but Bru Zane released the original version with spoken dialogue.

Bru Zane has also announced the performance of Daniel Steibelt's opera Roméo et Juliette for June 2027, and the work will also be released in the French Opera series in 2028. This sounds very promising!

I still hope they will eventually take on Ernest Reyer's Sigurd though!

This release turns out to be the first in a series of Basque operas on IBS Classical. In 2022 the same label released Lide ta Ixidor by Santos Inchausti (another very unsung composer I guess, he doesn't even appear on Wikidata), followed by Jesús Guridi's Mirentxu in 2024. Guridi definitely falls within our remit, Inchausti too it seems.

I'm curious if they will release more of these in the future, as I am mostly fascinated by the language. I will stick to streaming for now and reading the booklets if they're available on IDAGIO.

That looks promising! I have been streaming some of Reicha's piano works on Toccata lately, so that is a nice coincidence. I gather the numbering of Reicha's catalogue is quite complicated (according to Wikipedia, the opus numbers are in 'disarray' and some pieces were published multiple times), so I'm not sure if everything has been recorded already.

I'd like to add to this thread my experience with the 4th movement of the 2nd symphony, because it's very special to me.
This piece has basically become my go-to piece for my summer holidays in Switzerland.
Even when I'm sitting at home, I can close my eyes and literally picture myself walking my favourite trails in the woods, walks around the lakes, the car rides through the mountains, etc.
While I know many works that evoke beautiful imagery, for some reason it's this piece that presents me that imagery most clearly. I find it interesting that it's especially this work that does that for me.

Fun fact as well: Robert Hermann and I were both born on a 29th of April . (at least, according to IMSLP)

A few days ago a digital realisation of the complete (!) 9th symphony by Dimitrie Cuclin, was posted to YouTube. It is very interesting to listen to the passages that were cut in the 39-minute recording.
This particular piece has already been discussed on the forum of course, my impression being that opinions are divided. Still, I'd say this is a very interesting preview of the entire piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsPpMW1cEdc

They do, but boy do they make you work to find and hear any of it.

I gave up. Life is too short!

Yes, I don't blame you. It is very awkward. You have to click on the arrow which comes up next to MP3 VBR, then scroll down the interminable list until you arrive at whatever track you want to hear/download. I just set it playing and leave it running while I'm working.....

Just click on "Show All" below MP3 VBR and you'll get a list of folders.

I came across this name when looking for German operas with Arthurian themes, and he only has a Wikipedia page in German, to be viewed here:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Hentschel
There is nothing to read about his musical influences, but he did invite Wagner to the premiere of Der Meistersinger in Bremen.

Also, on IMSLP there is only a piano reduction/vocal score of his opera Lancelot. That is all I could find. I have not found any recorded music yet, but maybe future searches will yield more results.

It looks like Sigurd has been performed a few times in Marseille, in April 2025. Hopefully a recording will eventually surface.
https://opera-odeon.marseille.fr/programmation/sigurd

It is now possible to listen to Cuclin's 9th symphony (well, the only recording with the large cuts) and read along with the score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4FRJ8on2po

[Joseph Drechsler]

Joseph Drechsler (1782-1852) was one of 51 composers who (by invitation) contributed to the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein, an anthology of 83 variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. Of these variations, the most famous ones are Beethoven's 33 Diabelli Variations. Some other famous composers who had their variations included in the publication were Czerny, Hummel, Schubert, and even a 12-year old Franz Liszt.

But back to Drechsler. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic and today he is apparently best known for the song Brüderlein fein, which was part of a theatre piece called Das Mädchen aus der Feenwelt oder Der Bauer als Millionär. A full recording of this work is available, but I have not found it yet. The interesting thing about this work is that the playwright Ferdinand Raimund (who wrote the play) claims in his autobiography that he composed the melody for Brüderlein fein and other songs himself, according to the German Wikipedia. Furthermore, it's mentioned that Drechsler took these melodies by Raimund as a starting point for his own compositions for the piece.

The amount of recordings of Drechsler's works is very limited. Besides Der Bauer als Millionär, multiple recordings of Brüderlein fein and his Diabelli variation, there is a quartet for three flutes and alto flute. But here it pretty much ends, as far as I'm aware now.

Also of interest is the fact that Johann Strauss II was one of Drechsler's pupils.

Here's the full Wikipedia page in German. There's also an English one, but the German page is much more informative:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Drechsler

Meanwhile this recording has been issued by the Bru Zane label on the 11th of November, as the 34th installment of their "Opera français" series.

Yes, I understand. I should've checked, apologies for that.

I gave the album a listen on Spotify today. The works featured are clearly some of his earliest works, so they are more conservative than Der Vampyr and Hans Heiling for which he is best known.

My favourite here is the ballet from "Schön Ella", which is incidental music. I found the waltz-like music to be very enjoyable to say the least. It's also a nice surprise to hear the overture to "Der Holzdieb" in much better sound quality, since the recording of the opera itself is quite old (from the 1960s if I remember correctly).

Anyhow, since this is volume 1, I'm very curious about what could be included on a volume 2. Perhaps some works of his later period?