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| 1. Maria Di Rohan - Various Performers |
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Review
Mark Elder conducted a concert performance of Donizetti's opera seria set in the court of Louis XIII at London's Royal Festival Hall two years ago. This studio recording with the same cast and orchestra had been made immediately beforehand, and the dramatic tautness that was such a feature of the live event comes across vividly on disc. It's one of Donizetti's most economical scores, its mood sombre and threatening, and Elder and the period instruments of the OAE bring out all the dark tints in the scoring. The wonderfully secure soprano Krassimira Stoyanova is the conflicted heroine, with the tenor José Bros as her former lover Chalais and Christopher Purves as her husband Chevreuse, not always sounding at home in repertoire that one doesn't generally associate with this fine baritone. Elder uses the original version of the score, as performed at the premiere in Vienna in 1843, but, punctilious as ever, the Opera Rara set also includ --Guardian,17/11/11
Donizetti's taut, dark opera of stifled desire in 17th-century France is handsomely presented and performed in the 1843 Vienna version under Mark Elder. There is little wastage. Musky period brass and woodwind intensify --Tim Ashley, The Guardian (reviewing the concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall, November 2009)<
Krassimira is glorious: she captures the despair of this troubled character, especially in her 'preghiera'. Mark Elder conducts with his usual fire and exemplary attention to dynamic markings. --Gramophone,Feb'12
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With more than 20 Donizetti titles already to its credit, Opera Rara presents the premiere on disc of the original 1843 Vienna version of Maria di Rohan, one of the Swan of Bergamo's tautest and most action-packed creations. Recent performances in Wexford, Buxton and London, with this studio-recorded cast, justify OR's scholarly annotator s claim that this opera is Donizetti s most advanced , and unique in his output . The drama, a love triangle enmeshed in political intrigue under the repressive regime of Cardinal Richelieu at the court of Louis XIII, proceeds at breakneck speed indeed, the three acts take less than 100 minutes. As usual, the set is lavishly presented: Jeremy Commons's sumptuously illustrated essay and a performance history proclaim one of Donizetti's most spectacular successes, with productions all over the world almost annually until 1919. (Modern revivals date from c 1957.) Mark Elder's frisky baton keeps the dramatic momentum and emotional temperature at white heat; Krassimira Stoyanova (as Maria), Jose Bros (Chalais) a --Sunday Times,20/11/11
Krassimira Stoyanova adds another highly favourable recording to her discography. The voice is well placed, focused and crystalline, with a tang that enables it to inject a dramatic touch, yet it possesses a softer element for the intimate portions of the story. --IRR,Feb'12
Mark Elder conducted a concert performance of Donizetti's opera seria set in the court of Louis XIII at London's Royal Festival Hall two years ago. This studio recording with the same cast and orchestra had been made immediately beforehand, and the dramatic tautness that was such a feature of the live event comes across vividly on disc. It's one of Donizetti's most economical scores, its mood sombre and threatening, and Elder and the period instruments of the OAE bring out all the dark tints in the scoring. The wonderfully secure soprano Krassimira Stoyanova is the conflicted heroine, with the tenor José Bros as her former lover Chalais and Christopher Purves as her husband Chevreuse, not always sounding at home in repertoire that one doesn't generally ass --Guardian,17/11/11
Orchestral playing and choral singing are first-rate, and as with last year's Opera Rara Linda , Mark Elder is changing the way we listen to Donizetti: his approach is full blooded and it suits this work better than the its predecessor, making you think afresh about the composer's idiom. --Opera,Apr'12
Chosen as one of the Top 100 Cds of 2011 ----Sunday Times,11/12/11
Highly recommended. Performance **** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine,Jan'12
Donizetti's taut, dark opera of stifled desire in 17th-century France is handsomely presented and performed in the 1843 Vienna version under Mark Elder. There is little wastage. Musky period brass and woodwind intensify --Tim Ashley, The Guardian (reviewing the concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall, November 2009)<
Krassimira is glorious: she captures the despair of this troubled character, especially in her 'preghiera'. Mark Elder conducts with his usual fire and exemplary attention to dynamic markings. --Gramophone,Feb'12
br >
With more than 20 Donizetti titles already to its credit, Opera Rara presents the premiere on disc of the original 1843 Vienna version of Maria di Rohan, one of the Swan of Bergamo's tautest and most action-packed creations. Recent performances in Wexford, Buxton and London, with this studio-recorded cast, justify OR's scholarly annotator s claim that this opera is Donizetti s most advanced , and unique in his output . The drama, a love triangle enmeshed in political intrigue under the repressive regime of Cardinal Richelieu at the court of Louis XIII, proceeds at breakneck speed indeed, the three acts take less than 100 minutes. As usual, the set is lavishly presented: Jeremy Commons's sumptuously illustrated essay and a performance history proclaim one of Donizetti's most spectacular successes, with productions all over the world almost annually until 1919. (Modern revivals date from c 1957.) Mark Elder's frisky baton keeps the dramatic momentum and emotional temperature at white heat; Krassimira Stoyanova (as Maria), Jose Bros (Chalais) a --Sunday Times,20/11/11
Krassimira Stoyanova adds another highly favourable recording to her discography. The voice is well placed, focused and crystalline, with a tang that enables it to inject a dramatic touch, yet it possesses a softer element for the intimate portions of the story. --IRR,Feb'12
Mark Elder conducted a concert performance of Donizetti's opera seria set in the court of Louis XIII at London's Royal Festival Hall two years ago. This studio recording with the same cast and orchestra had been made immediately beforehand, and the dramatic tautness that was such a feature of the live event comes across vividly on disc. It's one of Donizetti's most economical scores, its mood sombre and threatening, and Elder and the period instruments of the OAE bring out all the dark tints in the scoring. The wonderfully secure soprano Krassimira Stoyanova is the conflicted heroine, with the tenor José Bros as her former lover Chalais and Christopher Purves as her husband Chevreuse, not always sounding at home in repertoire that one doesn't generally ass --Guardian,17/11/11
Orchestral playing and choral singing are first-rate, and as with last year's Opera Rara Linda , Mark Elder is changing the way we listen to Donizetti: his approach is full blooded and it suits this work better than the its predecessor, making you think afresh about the composer's idiom. --Opera,Apr'12
Chosen as one of the Top 100 Cds of 2011 ----Sunday Times,11/12/11
Highly recommended. Performance **** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine,Jan'12
Product Description
José Bros (Riccardo) - Christopher Purves (Enrico) - Krassimira Stoyanova (Maria) - Graeme Broadbent (Il Visconte di Suze) - Loïc Félix (Armando di Gondì)... - Geoffrey Mitchell Choir - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Sir Mark Elder, direction
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
'MARIA DI ROHAN' - ANOTHER WINNING THOROUGH BRED FOR OPERA RARA'S STABLE OF DONIZETTI RARITIES..
24 Nov 2011
Format:Audio CD
Strange how easily one takes a particular singer for granted, until out of the blue, a recording appears that casts past impressions into another light. This occurred last week when I heard the stylish Spanish tenor José Bros's performance in the latest release from Opera Rara - Donizetti's 'Maria di Rohan'.
This recording of the penultimate work in the astonishingly prolific Italian composer's 70-plus operatic canon stars the creamy-voiced Bulgarian soprano, Krassimira Stoyanova - an exciting new discovery for me - in its title role of Maria, Contessa di Rohan, with Bros singing the romantic lead, Riccardo, Conte di Chalais. Set in 17th century Paris, the love-triangle plot of this three-act lyric tragedy rivals the most melodramatic in the genre. Suffice it to say the opera's score, written for Vienna in 1843, is one of the composer's finest, compactly constructed, each number as melodically charged as the last, the soprano's entrance scena, ` Cupa fatal mestizia', compelling several encores before one moves on.
With conductor Sir Mark Elder in fine fettle at the helm of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, one of Europe's finest period instrument bands, this scholarly recording follows the original score, but includes, by way of appendices, revisions Donizetti added for a subsequent Paris run of the work. The last track, `Non sequite la caccia', an extra number for the tenor, has Bros fearlessly pitching his lyric tenor into the vocal stratosphere. Thrilling singing that had me reprising this track repeatedly before revisiting other bel canto recordings of this fine singer (among them Opera Rara's recordings of two other Donizetti operas, 'Roberto Devereux' and 'Parisina'. Also the same composer's 'Anna Bolena' and 'Lucrezia Borgia', and Bellini's 'La Sonnamubula', the latter three sets on the Nightingale label starring the indefatigable Edita Gruberova).
British baritone Christopher Purves and mezzo soprano Enkelejda Shkosa head Opera Rara's exceptionally strong supporting cast of Maria di Rohan. This handsomely presented two-disk set is accompanied by Jeremy Commons' exhaustively informative notes, a performance history of the work, and the libretto translated into English. Well worth acquiring.
REVIEW BY WILLIAM CHARLTON-PERKINS, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
This recording of the penultimate work in the astonishingly prolific Italian composer's 70-plus operatic canon stars the creamy-voiced Bulgarian soprano, Krassimira Stoyanova - an exciting new discovery for me - in its title role of Maria, Contessa di Rohan, with Bros singing the romantic lead, Riccardo, Conte di Chalais. Set in 17th century Paris, the love-triangle plot of this three-act lyric tragedy rivals the most melodramatic in the genre. Suffice it to say the opera's score, written for Vienna in 1843, is one of the composer's finest, compactly constructed, each number as melodically charged as the last, the soprano's entrance scena, ` Cupa fatal mestizia', compelling several encores before one moves on.
With conductor Sir Mark Elder in fine fettle at the helm of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, one of Europe's finest period instrument bands, this scholarly recording follows the original score, but includes, by way of appendices, revisions Donizetti added for a subsequent Paris run of the work. The last track, `Non sequite la caccia', an extra number for the tenor, has Bros fearlessly pitching his lyric tenor into the vocal stratosphere. Thrilling singing that had me reprising this track repeatedly before revisiting other bel canto recordings of this fine singer (among them Opera Rara's recordings of two other Donizetti operas, 'Roberto Devereux' and 'Parisina'. Also the same composer's 'Anna Bolena' and 'Lucrezia Borgia', and Bellini's 'La Sonnamubula', the latter three sets on the Nightingale label starring the indefatigable Edita Gruberova).
British baritone Christopher Purves and mezzo soprano Enkelejda Shkosa head Opera Rara's exceptionally strong supporting cast of Maria di Rohan. This handsomely presented two-disk set is accompanied by Jeremy Commons' exhaustively informative notes, a performance history of the work, and the libretto translated into English. Well worth acquiring.
REVIEW BY WILLIAM CHARLTON-PERKINS, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By bill
Format:Audio CD
Having been bought this recording for Christmas I have now had the opportunity to listen to it several times. Its an interesting opera but not,pace the author of the Opera Rara notes, one of Donizetti's best.The singing is mostly good, particularly from the Soprano and Baritone leads. The tenor I did not warm to,in fact the more I listened to him the less I liked the performance. Overall however a good buy and like all Opera Rara releases the booklet is truly splendid containing full text and translation,thoughtful notes on the Opera and some wonderful drawings of Singers of the past who have taken on the Opera.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By S. Wells
Format:Audio CD
Although titled "Maria di Rohan", I thought the best work on this set was that of Jose Bros as Riccardo, the Count of Chalais. He uses his bright tenor voice to deliver a lively and empassioned performance. Compared to him, the rest of the cast sounds more studied than invovled. Krassimira Stoyanova seems mistcast. Her lyric voice is suited to Verdi's Desdemona rather than Donizetti's countess-in-a-quandary. The voice is laboured above the staff and the coloratura is lightly etched instead of cleanly articulated. Christopher Purves is very good, if a bit unidiomatic, as Maria's husband, the Duke of Chevreuse. The Geoffrey Mitchell Choir and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment respond admirably to Sir Mark Elder's conducting.
The work itself is top-drawer Donizetti with very compact action. This recording uses the original Viennese version of the score that plays well under two hours. The later additions for the Parisian premiere are included in appendices. My only quible with the recording is that, other than the tenor, the rest of the singers sound quite univolved in the drama. As a point if reference, I pulled out and played an older recording of the work on the Nuova Era label. This was recorded live in 1988 at the Festival of the Valle d'Itria. The recorded sound is less than optimal and the orchestra and chorus are decidedly provincial, but the three main singers (Mariana Nicolesco, Giuseppe Morino and Paolo Coni) sound like they're eating up the scenery when compared to their counterparts on Opera Rara. I'm happy to have both sets, but if I had to choose between them, I'd go for the Opera Rara set under review.
The work itself is top-drawer Donizetti with very compact action. This recording uses the original Viennese version of the score that plays well under two hours. The later additions for the Parisian premiere are included in appendices. My only quible with the recording is that, other than the tenor, the rest of the singers sound quite univolved in the drama. As a point if reference, I pulled out and played an older recording of the work on the Nuova Era label. This was recorded live in 1988 at the Festival of the Valle d'Itria. The recorded sound is less than optimal and the orchestra and chorus are decidedly provincial, but the three main singers (Mariana Nicolesco, Giuseppe Morino and Paolo Coni) sound like they're eating up the scenery when compared to their counterparts on Opera Rara. I'm happy to have both sets, but if I had to choose between them, I'd go for the Opera Rara set under review.
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