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CHAN 3168M
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CHAN 3168
(multiple CD Set)

Strauss: Ariadne on Naxos/ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

Released Date:
01 Sep 2010

Originally recorded in 2009
Artists:

Scottish Chamber Orchestra


Richard Armstrong


Roderick Williams

baritone - Harlequin

Alan Opie

baritone - Music Master

Dean Robinson

bass - A Footman

Paul Keohone

bass - A Wigmaker

Matthew Rose

bass - Truffaldino

David Watkin

cello

Alice Coote

mezzo-soprano - Composer

Pamela Helen Stephen

mezzo-soprano - Dryad

Catriona Beveridge

piano

Bradley Creswick

solo violin

Christine Brewer

soprano - Ariadne

Gail Pearson

soprano - Echo

Anita Watson

soprano - Naiad

Christine Brewer

soprano - The Prima Donna (later Ariadne)

Gillian Keith

soprano - Zerbinetta

Stephen Fry

spoken - Major-Domo

Declan McCusker

tenor - An Officer

Robert Dean Smith

tenor - Bacchus

Wynne Evans

tenor - Brighella

John Graham-Hall

tenor - Dancing Master

John Graham-Hall

tenor - Scaramuccio

Robert Dean Smith

tenor - The Tenor (later Bacchus)

Venue:

Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2EA


Trident Audio Post, 17 St Anne's Court, London W1F 0BQ



Producer:

Brian Pidgeon


Brian Couzens

(Executive)

Engineer:

Stephen O'Toole

(13 May 2010)

Ralph Couzens

(17-21 January 2010)

Jonathan Cooper

(23-25 and 27-28 January 2010)

Jonathan Cooper

(Assistant: 17-21 January 2010)

Peter Newble

(Assistant: 23-25 and 27-28 January 2010)

Record Label
Opera In English

Genre:

Opera in English


Orchestral & Concertos

Total Time - 152:33
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RICHARD STRAUSS

(1864-1949)
   
 

Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op. 60

 35:11  
1 1 Overture 4:01
2 2 Minuet 1:37
3 3 The Fencing Master 1:44
4 4 Entry and Dance of the Tailors 5:13
5 5 Lully's Minuet 2:28
6 6 Courante 2:28
7 7 Entry of Cleonte (after Lully) 4:20
8 8 Intermezzo 3:10
9 9 The Dinner 10:08
 Bradley Creswick solo violin
 David Watkin cello
 Catriona Beveridge piano
 

Ariadne on Naxos

 117:43  
  Opera in a prologue and one act  
  Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal  
  English translation by Christopher Cowell  
   
  Prologue  
10 Orchestral Introduction 2:23
11 'My good Major-Domo' 3:13
  Music Master, Major-Domo  
12 'This dressing room is given to mam'zelle Zerbinetta' 5:41
  Footman, Officer, Composer, Tenor, Wigmaker, Zerbinetta, Prima Donna, Music Master, Dancing Master  
13 'I can show them the secrets of the universe' 3:09
  Composer, Music Master  
14 'Fellow actors, dearest of friends' 3:08
  Zerbinetta, Composer, Music Master, Prima Donna, Dancing Master  
15 'The company's rising from table' 4:36
  Footman, Music Master, Major-Domo, Prima Donna, Dancing Master, Tenor, Zerbinetta, Composer  
16 'I'm staggered – how unexpected!' 4:22
  Music Master, Composer, Dancing Master, Tenor, Prima Donna, Zerbinetta  
17 'She takes him for the God of Death' 4:29
  Composer, Zerbinetta  
18 'A moment means nothing' 4:06
  Zerbinetta, Composer  
19 'The stage awaits you' 4:36
  Music Master, Prima Donna, Composer  
   
  The Opera  
20 Overture 3:37
21 'Sleeping?' 3:50
  Naiad, Dryad, Echo  
22 'Ah!' 2:51
  Ariadne, Echo, Harlequin, Zerbinetta, Truffaldino  
23 'A golden time was Theseus-Ariadne' 6:42
  Ariadne, Naiad, Dryad, Echo, Harlequin, Zerbinetta, Scaramuccio, Truffaldino  
24 'Loving, hating, hoping, fearing' 2:05
  Harlequin, Echo, Zerbinetta  
25 'There is a land, a world untainted' 5:43
  Ariadne  
26 'The lady, we are sad to see' 4:38
  Brighella, Scaramuccio, Harlequin, Truffaldino, Zerbinetta  
27 'Your gracious Royal Highness' 3:17
28 'The moment I think I'm true to one lover' 6:56
  Zerbinetta  
29 'Quite a sermon, but a waste of effort' 1:27
  Harlequin, Zerbinetta, Brighella, Scaramuccio, Truffaldino  
30 'To console a stubborn woman' 6:17
  Brighella, Scaramuccio, Harlequin, Truffaldino, Zerbinetta  
31 'A shining marvel, a youthful God!' 4:22
  Dryad, Naiad, Echo  
32 'Circe, Circe can you still hear me?' 4:57
  Bacchus, Ariadne, Naiad, Dryad, Echo  
33 'Theseus!' 4:27
  Ariadne, Bacchus  
34 'Me? Can you be sure?' 9:10
  Bacchus, Ariadne  
35 'Shall we not pass over?' 7:22
  Ariadne, Bacchus, Naiad, Dryad, Echo, Zerbinetta  
   
  PROLOGUE  
 Stephen Fry spoken - Major-Domo
 Christine Brewer soprano - The Prima Donna (later Ariadne)
 Robert Dean Smith tenor - The Tenor (later Bacchus)
 Alice Coote mezzo-soprano - Composer
 Alan Opie baritone - Music Master
 Paul Keohone bass - A Wigmaker
 Dean Robinson bass - A Footman
 Declan McCusker tenor - An Officer
   
  COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE PLAYERS  
 Gillian Keith soprano - Zerbinetta
 Roderick Williams baritone - Harlequin
 John Graham-Hall tenor - Scaramuccio
 Matthew Rose bass - Truffaldino
 Wynne Evans tenor - Brighella
   
  OPERA SERIA  
 Christine Brewer soprano - Ariadne
 Robert Dean Smith tenor - Bacchus
 Anita Watson soprano - Naiad
 Pamela Helen Stephen mezzo-soprano - Dryad
 Gail Pearson soprano - Echo
 John Graham-Hall tenor - Dancing Master
  Bradley Creswick guest leader  
  Catriona Beveridge piano  
  Gareth Hancock assistant conductor  
 Richard Armstrong

Richard Strauss: Ariadne on Naxos – Christine Brewer, Gillian Keith, Alice Coote, Roderick Williams, Alan Opie, Stephen Fry, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Richard Armstrong

‘With support from the Peter Moores Foundation, Chandos has assembled an excellent Anglo-American cast for this new recording in English of Strauss’s two-part opera about opera. The dialogue crackles and there’s a palpable sense of drama, notably when Alice Coote, a composer of poise and ardour, is centre stage. With singer-actors of the calibre of Alan Opie and John Graham-Hall, the smaller parts are bracingly characterised, and the casting of Stephen Fry in the speaking role of Major Domo is inspired… The recording value lies in preserving Christine Brewer’s Ariadne – warm, majestic, humane, rising to radiant heights in the finale with Robert Dean Smith’s Bacchus. Armstrong conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra offers clarity and opulence: his experience pays in his immaculate pacing of the climaxes… It comes with Strauss’s Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, which Armstrong handles with a light touch.’

Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 28 August 2010

‘I have nothing but praise for this splendid recording. Sir Richard Armstrong conducts a lucid performance in which every detail is captured by the engineers. It’s sung in English, and the cast is stunning, headed by the American soprano Christine Brewer in glorious voice as Ariadne; the lustrous mezzo Alice Coote tender, impulsive and rapturous as the Composer in the Prologue; Alan Opie, an understanding but exasperated Music Master; Gillian Keith a stratospheric Zerbinetta; and Robert Dean Smith as lyrical a Bacchus as one is likely to find today. There is also a marvellous Major Domo from Stephen Fry, even though one does miss here the character’s untranslatably pompous German.’

Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, 29 August 2010

“…The conductor’s hand is so consistently unerring that this recording becomes a prime recommendation…”
                                                       

William R Braun
   

Opera News (USA) - January 2010

                      BBC Music - Opera Choice

“Christine Brewer joins a line-up of singers without a weak link”

Performance *****      Recording *****
                                                        

David Nice
 

BBC Music Magazine - December 2010

“A strong cast and excellent recording quality make this a must for Straussians.”
                                                                                                

John Steane

Gramophone - November 2010

                  CD of the Week
“… the cast has no weak links, and Richard Armstrong and the SCO set the seal of the recording’s success. It’s a treat too, to have the delightful suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme as an entrée.”         ****
                                                              

Hugh Canning

The Sunday Times - 12 September 2010

“…it can’t be recommended enough…”
                                                     

Robert Levine

International Record Review - October 2010

“…Delightful, tuneful and always understandable, this set represents another victory for Chandos’s Opera in English series.”   ****
                                                                                    

Geoff Brown   

The Times - 3 September 2010

“…Stephen Fry is delightfully pompous in the short spoken-role of the Major-Domo, too. In the second part, Christine Brewer makes a glorious Ariadne and tenor Robert Dean Smith impresses with his unforced, shining account of the cruelly demanding role of Bacchus.”  “ …An excellent English-language performance …’      ****
                                                              

Warwick Thompson 

Classic FM Magazine - November 2010

              “I have nothing but praise for this splendid recording.”   *****
                                             

Michael Kennedy 
 

The Sunday Telegraph - 29 August 2010

“…this English Ariadne is a welcome modern alternative. It comes with Strauss’s suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, which Armstrong handles with an admirably light touch.”   ****
                                                      

Andrew Clark
 

The Financial Times - 29 August 2010

“Hofmannsthal’s fine but word-rich libretto is clear and audible in Christopher Cowell’s translation… Sir Richard Armstrong conducts a voluptuous but brisk performance, with sinewy playing from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra…”
                                                         

Fiona Maddocks  
 

The Observer - 29 August 2010



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