MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet
Download: Classicsonline


Great Operatic Arias
see end of review for details
Cheryl Barker (soprano)
Gillian Keith (soprano: 2,8), William Dazeley (baritone: 4,6,12)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/David Parry
rec. Blackheath Halls, 5-8 April 2009
Texts enclosed
CHANDOS CHAN3161 [67:43]
Experience Classicsonline


Australian-born soprano Cheryl Barker has a busy career in both Australia and Europe and she has recorded extensively for Chandos. Until this recital disc arrived I hadn’t heard her and the first track, Adriana’s aria from Adriana Lecouvreur at once revealed that the loss definitely was mine. Here was a nuanced, well equalized voice with a natural vibrancy of the kind that announces a singer with spinto quality. A Renata Tebaldi voice, if you like. The second aria from the opera is deeply intense. Lisa’s aria from The Queen of Spades also sound tonally idiomatic and dramatically well conceived. Especially in Lisa’s arioso she depicts the vulnerability, so prominent in many of Tchaikovsky’s female characters. Nedda’s aria from Pagliacci, with its colourful orchestration, is sung with ever-increasing intensity and is followed by the long duet with Silvio. This has always been one of my favourite excerpts from this opera, ever since I heard it with Callas and Panerai. William Dazeley sounds as youthful as Panerai did and is superb in Then will you say why you have enslaved me. And Cheryl Barker sings with silvery beauty in her following solo as well as when they sing in unison. Lovely!

Marguerita’s death from Mephistopheles brings us back to Tebaldi repertoire. Cheryl Barker may not have the creamy tone of Tebaldi but she has the necessary chest-notes and the power, enabling her to give Catalani’s La Wally aria a thrilling dramatic climax.

Jake Heggie’s music for the Graham Greene-based The End of the Affair is fascinating and accessible and Cheryl Barker makes a good case for the opera, in which she sang Sarah at the world premiere. The other contemporary composer, Malcolm Williamson is also well represented with Berthe’s aria from The Violins of Saint-Jacques, the main melody of which has a true romantic cantilena, something between Richard Strauss and Elgar. Superb singing.

‘ Real’ Strauss, finally, in two duets from Arabella. The first one is probably the most famous part from the opera, with the voices of the two sisters soaring so beautifully. I first got to know the duet through a recording with the original Arabella and Zdenka, Viorica Ursuleac and Margit Bokor, recorded shortly after the premiere in Dresden 1933. Cheryl Barker and Gillian Keith have nothing to fear from a comparison and their voices are sufficiently different in timbre to make them a finely contrasting couple, while they blend well in the concluding unison singing.

The final duet between Arabella and Mandryka is a suitable end to this programme - and with glorious singing. Singers like Lisa Della Casa and Kiri Te Kanawa, not to mention Elisabeth Schwarzkopf may have invested this music with more creamy sounds and greater lyricism but Cheryl Barker’s is still a worthy reading and William Dazeley is again splendid.

Excellent recording, premium playing from the LPO under the experienced David Parry, and good notes add to the pleasure of the issue and there are several photographs from the recording sessions. Chandos can be proud with this latest addition to their Opera in English series.

Göran Forsling 

Track listing
Francesco CILEA (1866 - 1950)
Adriana Lecouvreur
1. See now, I am exhausted … I am the humble servant of God’s immortal art (Io son l’umile ancella) [3:15]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 - 1893)
The Queen of Spades
2. You need not close the windows just yet … Oh why am I so tearful [4:49]
Ruggiero LEONCAVALLO (1857 - 1919)
Pagliacci
3. His eyes were flashing with anger … Through the air they soar (Stridono lassu) [4:54]
4. My fate is in your hands … Then will you say why you have enslaved me (E allor perché, di’, tu m’hai stregato (Nedda and Silvio’s duet) [11:34]
Arrigo BOITO (1942 - 1918)
Mephistopheles
5. To the moonlit waves they cast him (Death of Marguerita) [5:57]
Jake HEGGIE (b. 1961)
The End of the Affair
6. Nineteen forty-four. March. May. June [6:36]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
The Queen of Spades
7. It’s nearly midnight now [5:10]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 - 1949)
Arabella
8. He’s not the one who is right for me … The one who is right for me (Aber der richtige) Arabella and Zdenka’s Duet [6:19]
Francesco CILEA
Adriana Lecouvreur
9. Poor little flower (Poveri fiori) [2:23]
Malcolm WILLIAMSON (1931 - 2003)
The Violin of Saint-Jacques
10. How can I explain to you [4:12]
Alfredo CATALANI (1854 - 1893)
La Wally
11. I’ll float into the distance (Ebben? Ne andrò lontana) [3:48]
Richard STRAUSS
Arabella
12. I’m very glad, Mandryka (Das war sehr gut, Mandryka) Arabella and Mandryka’s Duet [7:41]

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.