So the other Pressburger and Powell film that I recently acquired is their 1951 version of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. There have been claims that this is the first film made of asn opera as opposed to a film of an opera performance but, assuming one accepts that Die Dreigroschenoper is an opera then that prize surely goes to the 1931 Pabst film.
I recently got my hands on restored versions of two Powell and Pressburger opera films. The first is a film of Bartók’s Herzog Blaubarts Burg broadcast on Süddeutscher Rundfunk in 1963. It’s directed by Powell alone I think. The current version was restored by the BFI from an original Eastmancolor negative in their archives and a sound master on magnetic tape from SDR under the supervision of Martin Scorsese and Powell’s widow Thelma Schoonmaker. It was subsequently released on Blu-ray by BFI in 2023 but currently seems very hard to find! It doesn’t help that the BFI on-line shop is currently off-line!
Le Tre Soprano is an intriguing album based on the careers of the Three Ladies of Ferrara; three virtuosi who served as Ladies in Waiting to the young Duchess of Ferrara in the late 16th century and became sufficiently renowned as musicians that Tasso wrote poems about them and Monteverdi, Strossi and others wrote music for them.
The music on the album is all from that period, so it often sounds surprisingly “modern”.. It’s quite varied musically and very well performed by three excellent singers; sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Amanda Powell and mezzo Amanda Crider along with members of the American period ensemble Apollo’s Fire and their leader Jeannette Sorrell who is also responsible for the arrangements. The band consists of Francisco Fullana and Emi Tanabe – violin, Andrew Fouts – violin and viola, René Schiffer – cello, William Simms and Brian Kay – archlute, theorbo, and guitar, Parker Ramsay – baroque triple harp and Anthony Taddeo – percussion with Sorrell on keyboards.
operaramblings 