Opera-comique en trois actes. Running Time: 1 hour 21 minutes. OperaScribe recently posted a review of this work and Gretry during the French Revolution available here. Before Rossini wrote his mammoth four hour long take on the Swiss legend, Gretry tried his hand at a much, much shorter version. Premiered at the height of the […]
Opera in seven tableaux (variously performed in three or five acts). Running Time: 2 hours 51 minutes. For this review, which is apparently my 300th, I am going to review the opera as if it were in one continuous act of nearly three hours, sort of a Das Rheingold review. LOOK OUT FOR: Scene 1: The […]
Opera in three acts. Running Time: 2 hours 25 minutes. Let me start by saying that I have already read the criticism this opera receives. Even Nielsen himself considered the last two acts to be suffering from debilitating structural issues which he fatefully never got around to fixing, but it is also the Danish national […]
Opera comique (seriously, it actually is!) in one act. Running Time: 1 hour. This post marks my 3rd year anniversary! Thank you to all readers! PHIL OF THE OPERA WORLD: Get ready to have your mind blown, somebody beat Weber to being Weber! French composer Mehul accomplishes this by using the violas, lots of violas, […]
Oratorio in four acts. Running Time: 2 hours 8 minutes. Genoveva is a work that must be understood within context, otherwise it makes little sense and will make you want to cut your own wrists out of sheer boredom. Written at the same time Wagner composed Lohengrin, (although no one of less stature than Wagner himself looked at […]
Opera en trois actes. Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes. This review is of a 1941 live performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City of the French version using a 19th century style orchestra. This recording was released by Naxos and is available on Amazon Music. This was the second Reform Opera that Gluck […]
Cantata. Running Time: 30 minutes. Lili Boulanger was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome. She did so with this cantata for mezzo, tenor, baritone, and full orchestra, at the age of 19. Her life was cut short when she died at age 24 of either Tuberculosis or undiagnosed Crohn’s Disease. Her family […]
