Berlioz: (Les) Nuîts d'Été

Advantages: The experience of getting inside an artistic head
Disadvantages: French not quite idiomatic

...to this CD is almost like eave-dropping on her private musings. It is a very intimate listening experience. You don't even have to understand French to know exactly what she is thinking as she sings the songs. Everything that needs to be communicated is there in the voice itself. A mellow and vibrant burgundy voice with a woodsy clarinet-like quality. Kasarova might not speak French well, but she sings like she has a fine French wine in her veins. Tracks: BERLIOZ: Les nuits d'ete (Summer Nights): This set of 6 songs don't really tell a single story, though they are songs set to the poems of Theophile Gautier and sharing the 'by-the-water' background theme. It is as if the singer is an unconsumated/abandonned lover who is sitting alone by the seashore and musing of her many missed romantic opportunities. 1. Villanelle 2. Le spectre de la rose 3... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Colourful and always exciting
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...not have been a Soldier's March in Berlioz's first serious, but ultimately unfinished opera "Les Francs-Juges") V. Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat (Dream of the Witches' Sabbath) The artist sees himself in a Witches' Sabbath, surrounded by terrifying shadows, warlocks, monsters of various kinds, all gathered to participate in his funeral. Strange noises, moaning, high-pitched laughter, distant screaming that is answered by another scream. (Certainly some of the most imaginary tone-painting an orchestra could produce. And remember, its 1830!) The melody of the beloved makes its appearance amid great clamour, but it has lost its noble and sensitive character. It is nothing but an everyday dance-tune, trivial and grotesque: SHE has arrived in the Sabbath… She is greeted by loud shouts… She throws herself amid the demonic orgy… The death bells... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good Music
Disadvantages: None

.... Marieke 14. Madeleine 15. Les Bigotes 16. Vesoul 17. Le Moribund 18. Au Suivant 19. Le Dernier Repas 20. Je Suis Un Soir D'Ete... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful