L’Étoile du Nord is an 1854 opera written by Meyerbeer for the Opéra-Comique. It follows on from a series of successful grand operas for L’Opéra de Paris. To some extent it’s an attempt to create something lighter than the early works but the composer doesn’t quite seem able to let go and the work combines comic and serious elements in a way I cannot describe as successful. Format wise it’s pretty much an opéra-comique with no ballet (though some folk/social dancing) and spoken dialogue. Continue reading
L’Étoile du Nord
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Michael Hersch is a very distinct musical voice. His subject matter tends to be disturbing and his musical style is abrasive. One of his most recent works is the one act opera Poppaea which is based on the life of historical Poppaea after the point at which the Monteverdi opera leaves off. Strictly, it’s not set in Nero’s Rome but rather in a time and place inspired by it. The very effective libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann includes a distinctly non-classical take on space and time. It’s an exploration of overweaning ambition and where it leads which is about as relevant to today’s world as any theme could be.
Unremembered is a cycle of thirteen songs by Sarah Kirkland Snider to poems by Nathaniel Bellows about his childhood in rural Massachusetts. But this is the darker side of childhood. There are ghosts, witches and houseguests freezing to death. It’s not Anne of Green Gables with baked beans!
Ecstatic Science is the fourth album from New York sextet yMusic. They are a young group of really excellent instrumentalists noted for their collaborations with composers who defy easy classification. There is plenty for a composer to work with in terms of palette. The group consists of Alex Sopp – flute, Mark Dover – clarinet, CJ Camerieri – trumpet and horn, Rob Moose – violin and guitar, Nadia Sirota – viola and Gabriel Cabezas – cello. The music on the record is all by young(ish) American composers noted for their eclectic styles. So everybody involved is a first rate classically trained musician who isn’t afraid to go to non-traditional places. 
Daron Hagen’s The Art of Song is a cycle of 24 songs for voices (various) and piano grouped thematically into four “seasons”. The texts are drawn from a wide variety of sources from Sappho to Donald Trump via, among others, Dante, Blake, Rossetti and Yeats plus various modern poets including members of the composer’s family.
Cherubini’s Médée of 1797 is undergoing something of a revival at the moment albeit in an Italian version. But there’s an earlier and less known version of the same story with a libretto by (as opposed to based on) Corneille. It’s Charpentier’s Médée of 1693. It’s a tragédie lyrique with all the expected elements; an allegorical prologue in praise of Louis XIV, a classical subject, five acts, gods, spirits and demons and lots of spectacular theatrical effects. The Lully formula in fact. 
To round out this mini survey of the early discography of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas I’m going to fast forward a bit to the 1995 recording by Tafelmusik. The most striking thing about this version is the very small instrumental ensemble; two violins, viola, violincello and harpsichord led by Jeanne Lamon. One quickly gets the feel for how they are going to perform with a very fast and rhythmically sprung overture.
And so we come to the third in our historical sequence of recordings of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. We are talking about Andrew Parrott’s recording with the Taverner Players and Choir recorded at Rosslyn Hill Chapel in 1981. It’s a record that I bought when it first came out and has been a point of reference for me ever since.
So, to continue our look at the recording history of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas we turn to the 1961 Decca recording with Janet Baker in the title role. This has won so many awards and featured on so many “best of” lists that it might reasonably be considered to serve as some sort of “gold standard”. It’s certainly very good but I’m more interested in looking at what it says about the evolution of performance practice of Dido and Aeneas than in adding to the praise for Dame Janet’s performance.
Titration is a song cycle for unaccompanied choir by American composer Shara Nova. On the CD it is performed by The Crossing and their conductor Donald Nally. It’s an interesting and unusual, indeed quite unconventional, piece but it is oddly compelling and has won a fair bit of recognition including a Gramophone “Critics Choice” award this year.
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