Takarazuka Revue Musical Opera Songs

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioacchino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

This "Paris" is special because it shows Eccles trying to shunt musical theater in an all-English direction, and move it out of the shadow of the dominant Italian and French traditions. As Lindsay Kemp points out in verbose but thorough liner notes, the word settings, or underlay is for English speech rhythms and the score focuses more on line and melody that decoration and ornamentation. This is a Maske, so it feels much more like music from a play than an opera. The score is a theatrical and musical treat, lived up to in this vibrant and energized performance, conducted by Christian Curnyn and sung by the Early Opera Company. The soloists are well cast, lucid and each of them really grasp the difference between this and opera. The Three Mad Songs that end the program are just that, set pieces from various English plays where the heroin loses it, usually because a man has done her wrong.

Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht - Die Dreigroschenoper / Songs & Chansons - The Original 1930 Recordings
Marlene Dietrich - Lotte Lenya - Kurt Gerron - Erich Ponto
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 127 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Teldec # 9031-72025-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1990, 1931
Genre: Classical, Pop | Style: Early 20th Century, Opera, Chanson

…The Threepenny Opera was first performed at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin in 1928. Despite an initially poor reception, it became a great success, playing 400 times in the next two years. The performance was a springboard for one of the best known interpreters of Brecht and Weill's work, Lotte Lenya, who was married to Weill…

Even though she is a celebrated operatic star with many brilliant coloratura roles in her repertoire, Diana Damrau is also a versatile performer in many other styles of vocal music, including concert arias, art songs, pop standards, and songs from musicals and movies. Because she embraces such a wide range of material with affection and technical ease, she is able to move gracefully between the worlds of Viennese operetta, Broadway show tunes, and music from Disney films, with only the slightest indications from her well-supported vocal production and crisp diction that she is much better known for her performances of Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, and Strauss.