Browsing the back catalogue for fun stuff a few days ago I came across a record of English song featuring Dame Felicity Lott and pianist Graham Johnson. It’s called Favourite English Songs and was released in 2006 so. at the height of the singer’s interpretative powers and with the voice still in excellent shape. It’s an interesting mix of the very familiar; Vaughan Williams’ :High Noon” and some of the Britten folk song arrangements for example, and the less familiar with songs by Maude White, Cecil Gibbs and Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson among the composers I’ve never heard of.
There is nothing like a dame
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Have you ever asked yourself “What if Liszt had written an opera?”. I hadn’t either. But he did start one; Sardanapalo. It’s based on a Byron poem and tells the story of Sardanapalus, king of Assyria, who met a rather grisly end with his favourite concubine Myra after his subjects revolted, objecting to his decadent lifestyle. The libretto is by an unknown hand and it seems only Act 1 ever got written. Liszt made a start on setting that, leaving just about enough material for Cambridge scholar David Trippett to produce a performable version. This was duly performed and recorded in Weimar in 2018.
I’ve been listening to an intriguing new album.
Things happening next month…
operaramblings 