Pierre Michel Bertran

This live recording from Paris in 1972 has two main attraction: the chance to hear a very young - 25 years old, in fact - José Carreras at the outset of his career and, more importantly, I think, the opportunity to hear Vasso Papantoniou, an excellent soprano largely unknown outside her native Greece where she has made her career and who at times sounds uncannily like her compatriot, Maria Callas, especially in the middle of her voice and in her deployment of highly expressive downward portamenti. Her vibrato is faster and, like Callas, top notes can be shrill, be she is a complete artist who obviously impressed the Parisian audience. To hear her at her best either her opening or closing aria will do; listen to her from "M'odi, ah! mo'di" to the end of the opera, where she opts to use the virtuoso aria Donizetti wrote especially for diva Henriette Méric-Lelande and very good she is too.

Si l'activité artistique est bien un travail, ses logiques échappent largement aux catégories habituelles de la sociologie et de l'économie. Des écarts considérables de succès peuvent-ils résulter de différences minimes de talent ? Le génie est-il soluble dans l'analyse sociologique ? Comment expliquer l'attrait exercé par des carrières aléatoires qui exposent la plupart des aspirants à la surproduction du marché ? …

Hayedée ou Le secret (literally "Hayedée or the secret") was created on 28th December 1847 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra Comique (literally "The Comic Opera Theatre") in the second Salle Favart (Favart Hall).
The libretto is inspired from the new Russian Six and four translated by Prosper Mérimée. The final choice for the name Hayedée may be linked to the dazzling success of Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas (1845) with Hayedée as the heroine. This name also sounds like Aïaut;da which was chosen later by Ghislanzoni and Verdi. Hayedée can be counted among Auber's best scores.

Le domino noir (The Black Domino) is an opéra comique by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed on 2 December 1837 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris. The libretto to the three-act piece is by Auber's usual collaborator, Eugène Scribe. It was one of Auber's most successful works, clocking up 1,207 performances by 1909. It received its UK premiere in 1838 and appeared in the USA the following year. Some of Auber's music has a Spanish flavour to reflect its setting.