Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict

Advantages: Colourful and always exciting
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...-based "Béatrice et Benedict" came so late in his career to offer any great consolation. Always a great recycler of his own music he made many sets of collections of music written at different periods and published under one title. He revised and included his early set of songs after Faust into his dramatic legend "La damnation de Faust," among other pieces and, at the other end of the scale, he wrote the unbelievably beautiful "L'Enfance du Christ," a work that is difficult to believe is by Berlioz. In 1848 he wrote his famous "Mémoires" (updated in 1865) that is a fascinating read of this often exaggerating and always unique writer/poet/composer. After the death of his second wife in 1862 and of his beloved son Louis in 1867, Berlioz became a shadow of his former self, finally dying in 1869 a broken man. © berlioz... Read review

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Advantages: Susan Graham sings nearly everything
Disadvantages: She doesn't live next door to me...

...and Silently Come Ned Rorem is a rather under-rated composer. These are his tone-poems that describe very specific pictures. Here Ms Graham sings it as if not only is she seeing the snowed up woods or the sidewalk cafes on the streets of Paris in the early morning, but as she is in those pictures herself. BERLIOZ: Beatrice et Benedict: 12. Comment le dedain pourrait-il mourir? 13. Dieu! Que viens-je entendre? From a witty opera based on Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing,' Ms Graham sings Beatrice's arias with flare and effectively accenting just the right phrases to highlight conflicting emotions. Her pianissimo is beautifully smooth and her French diction is faultless. HEGGIE: Dead Man Walking: 14. This journey to Christ 15. Who will walk with me? 16. Dead Man Walking! 17. He will gather us around Susan Graham created... Read review

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Advantages: Bellini's music. Gruberova, Kasarova, Bernardini
Disadvantages: Morosow

...Among the Bellini operas, Beatrice di Tenda may not be as compelling musically as Norma or La Sonnambula, but it contains some of bel canto's most beautiful tunes and one of the most beautiful trio ever written. THE STORY: Filippo, the Duke of Milan, is married to Beatrice, but covets her lady in waiting Agnese. He plots to get his wife out of the way by accusing her of having an affair with Orombello (whom Agnese loves, but who is in love with Beatrice). Agnese backs the false charge, thinking that if she can't have Orombello then she doesn't want Beatrice to have him either. A few changes of heart follow in the course of the opera, but Beatrice is the constant good gal who gains a moral victory at the price of her own head. This is a live CD recording from a performance in Vienna in 1992 conducted by Pinchas Steinberg... Read review

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