Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande

Zurich Opera, Alain Altinoglu

BELAIR BAC 157

Debussy’s only opera was conceived as a fairy tale, a fantasy, but there has been a recent spate of productions which try to give it a naturalistic gloss. Glyndebourne’s most recent production did this with considerable success, by putting the whole story into the thinking of the composer. In Dmitri Tcherniakov’s approach we are in a highly realistic modern, and very expensive, flat which serves for all the scenes. Characters eat, drink and move about in the most relaxed way but the text regularly has nothing to do with the visual impact. Melisande, a convincing portrait of neurosis by Corinne Winters, is either insane at the start or becomes increasingly so as the work progresses. Golaud is her psychiatrist – there is no hint of royalty or palace about the production – and Pelleas his younger sparring partner.

It is unclear how much of what is said is aimed to help Melisande come to her right mind – to unlock the causes of her neurosis – or whether they are all equally mad.

Thankfully the singing is splendid and the orchestral playing beautifully balanced. I found myself quite often simply listening. Yet again the CDs might have been more impressive than the DVD.

Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Theatre des Champs Elysees, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Jeremie Rhorer

NAXOS 2.110592

This is an odd but remarkably successful combination of forces. Le Cercle de l’Harmonie under Jeremie Rhorer bring us original instrument tonalities and a really sparkling support where on stage Laurent Pelly’s production is as post-modern as one might wish for with its setting of vast pages of manuscript paper.

The cast are in modern dress but the interaction of characters is so forceful as to sweep away any lurking objections. Add to this some very fine singing, particularly from Michele Angelini’s glorious high tenor as Almaviva, and there is a great deal here to admire and enjoy.

Jaromir Weinberger

Orchestral works

Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Karl-Heinz Steffens

CPO 777 513-2

It would be easy to dismiss Weinberger as a one-work-wonder but this would be a disservice to his abilities as this new cd shows. We may all know the Polka from Schwanda, the Bagpiper but the excerpts here show the work is full of lovely folk melodies and a creative use of orchestration.

Set alongside the six Bohemian Songs and Dances, and the overture to the ill-fated The Beloved Voice, and we get a sense yet again that the one popular hit can be a mill-stone to a composer who might be much better known without it.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg

Chamber symphonies 1 & 3

East-West Chamber Orchestra, Rostislav Krimer

NAXOS 8.574063

I have to admit not knowing Weinberg before encountering this new recording and made the mistake of assuming it was by Weinberger. No connection of course and these lyrical chamber pieces speak eloquently for themselves. The composer did not have an easy time and spent the last years of his life in obscurity, his style now very much out of fashion. Thankfully we are – I hope – more open to recognising quality regardless of whether it happens to be fashionable or not and these are certainly worth following up in their own right.