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CHAN 9605
    2 Ratings
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CHAN 9605
Opera - Martin's Lie

Menotti: Martin's Lie

Released Date:
01 Mar 1998

Originally recorded in 1997
Artists:

Northern Sinfonia


Richard Hickox


Alan Opie

baritone - Stranger

Matthew Best

bass - Sheriff

Pamela Helen Stephen

mezzo-soprano - Naninga

Malcolm Martineau

piano

Judith Howarth

soprano

Robin Leggate

tenor - Father Cornelius

Connor Burrowes

treble - Martin

Tees Valley Boys` Choir



Venue:

St Nicolas Hospital, Gosforth


St Pauls Church, Knightsbridge, London



Producer:

Ralph Couzens



Engineer:

Jonathan Cooper


Richard Smoker



Record Label
Chandos

Genre:

Orchestral & Concertos


Choir

Total Time - 71:06
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Opera - Martin's Lie

 

GIAN CARLO MENOTTI

Select Complete Single Disc for
premiere recording
 

Martin`s Lie

 43:44  
  opera da chiesa  
1 Naninga 'So he touched the first door. . .' - 9:00
2 Fugitive 'Open, open!' - 9:13
3 Sheriff 'You filthy blackguards' - 5:08
4 Father Cornelius 'Martin, my boy. . .' - 8:10
5 Sheriff 'I've had enough of this' - 9:15
6 Naninga, Children & Father Cornelius 'Heavenly Father' 2:58
   
 

Five Songs

 12:53  
7 1 Eternal Prisoner 1:43
8 2 The Idle Gift 1:26
9 3 The Longest Wait 3:31
10 4 My Ghost (premiere recording) 2:46
11 5 The Swing 3:15
   
 

Canti della lontananza

 14:54  
12 1 Gli amanti impossibili 1:32
13 2 Mattinata di neve 2:51
14 3 Il settimo bicchiere di vino 0:53
15 4 Lo spetto 1:50
16 5 Dorme Pegaso 1:17
17 6 La lettera 3:08
18 7 Rassegnazione 3:10


Following the Second World War, Menotti was America’s most acclaimed opera composer.  He has a brilliant sense of theatre which combines with an intuitive grasp of character and situation. He was also something of a prodigy, having composed his first opera at the age of eleven. Encouraged by Toscanini, he went to the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia) where he met Samuel Barber, who became his close companion. A double-bill of The Medium (1945) and  The Telephone (1946) proved a huge success, helped by Toscanini’s advocacy of these and his other works. The gripping drama of The Consul (1949) was another major success, reinforcing Menotti’s high profile, whilst Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951) earned him mass popularity as a  work  specially written for television. Following that success, he composed further operas for television, inluding  Martin’s Lie (1964).

Though the effectiveness of his operas has never been in question, his style of music fell out of favour during the 1970’s, but the tide has now turned. On this recording, the rarely heard Five songs for Tenor and piano and Canti della Iontananz  show how effective Menotti was as a writer of songs, and in Martin’s Lie - a compulsive and gripping one-act opera we can understand why hw was so successful as an opera composer.

"... Hickox  and the Northern Sinfonia bring the score alive...The treble Connor Burrowes is cast as martin, and the chorus of his fellow orphans is sung with vigour and a refreshingly un-cathedral-like sound by the Tees Valley Boys’ Choir. Burrowes has a sparkling voice and sings with great sensitivity ... the cast give good, well-characterized performances..."

Erica Jeal - Opera - December 1998


"...The opera’s lean score is of great simplicity and transparency, and these qualities plus this sympathetic performance lend it pathos and transform it inot a touching listening experience, especially in this fine recording featuring baritone Alan Opie as the Stranger and tenor Robin Leggate as Father Cornelius... Both groups of songs are more sophisticated in their dramatic and musicl ideas that Martin’s Lie and more tonally astringent... Judith Howarth and Robin Leggate are joined by pianist Malcolm Martineau in creating these chohesive, convincing performances..."

John Ardoin - Dallas Morning News - 28 June 1998


"...Hickox again directs with committe zeal, this time with the Northern Sinfonia and a small cast including Alan Opie and Matthew Best who bring the story convincingly to life."

Michael Dungan - Classical Ireland - Summer/Autumn 1999


Performance ****      Sound ****

 

George Hall - BBC Music Magazine - July 1998


"...This world premiere British performance ... is excellent."

Daily Review - USA - 5 May 1998


"Warmly recomended."

Timothy Ball - Classic CD - June 1998


"...The cast is excellent In the name part the boy treble Connor Burrowes delivering a remarkably marture performance as Martin... Richard Hickox conducts the robust voices of the Tees Valley Boys’ Choir and the Northern Sinfonia with befittingly innocent relish. To complete the disc, Leggate and Judith Howard sing two sets of poignant songs..."

SP - The Sunday Times - 26 April 1998


"...Warmly involving singing and playing. Judith Howarth and Robin Leggate are the singers in the two brief song cycles, with Menotti’s writing all the richer in the Italian settings." ****

The Guardian - 10 April 1998


"...The music is richly colorful, the characterisation lucid and succinct: this is a composer who makes every note tell. The accompanying songs make engaging listening ..."  ****

The Scotsman - 3 April 1998




*****
J Centeno

*****
K Allen