Sirene

Les yeux vifs et le nez pointu, Pinocchio est un malicieux pantin de bois ! À peine fabriqué, il tire la langue au vieux Geppetto, son père, et lui vole sa perruque. Et ce n'est pas fini ! Car le petit pantin a horreur du travail, se moque des bons conseils et adore faire des bêtises. Heureusement, la Fée, son amie, est là pour le guider et le protéger…

Auber earned international adulation in the late 1820s for his revolutionary grand opera La Muette de Portici and by the time he composed La Sirène, the success of which inspired potpourris of its melodies, he occupied a central place in French musical life. The mysterious siren of the title is part of a plot that abounds in fantastic comedy, love, betrayal, farce and festivity in the lineage of Italian popular theatre. The German poet Heinrich Heine wrote that ‘La Sirène was received with resounding bravos … The author and the composer know how to amuse us agreeably, and even to enchant us, or to dazzle us by the luminous facets of their spirit.’

Une réécriture du conte mettant en scène un père alcoolique qui tente de noyer son enfant difforme, un couple de monstres de foire en cavale poursuivi par un policier corrompu et une sirène aux prises avec un forain sadique qui se lie avec un garçon homard. …

In a scene where the recordings of young sopranos tend toward an extreme sameness, Austria's Anna Prohaska would deserve kudos simply for the ambition of this release of soldiers' songs. The idea, especially for a female singer, is original, and the music draws on a great variety of sources, from Scottish song to Wolfgang Rihm. Better still is the execution, which shows Prohaska's extreme versatility.