Global Fascinations and Sophistications
Che Originali!
Guild Music Ltd, who are based in Switzerland, have their UK setup in
St. Helier, Jersey. A label that specializes in the unfamilar, Che Originali!
is a delightful little-known comic opera by Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845),
a Mendorf-born composer educated in a Benedictine Monastery, who found a
Baron as patron. Travelling to Bergamo and Venice he started on an operatic
career and became Maestro di Capella with 80 operas, symphonies,
chamber music and 600 sacred works to his credit. He taught Donizetti.
To a libretto by Gaetano Rossi, the opera-buffa concerns a Don's
manic enthusiasm for art with his two daughters providing the love interest.
Whatever difficulty listeners experience unravelling the complex naïvety
of the plot are more than made up by the music, which however indebted to
Haydn, Beethoven and Rossini, also conjures up reminders of Cimarosa and
Paisiello in the arias and set ensembles [listen - disc
2 track 7, 0:20-1:20]. The main singers are Thomas Gropper, Stefanie
Früh and Gisela Gropper, and the Georgisches Chamber Orchestra is conducted
Franz Hauk. The Italian text comes with English translation and the admirably
clear recording is produced by Jonathan R Wearn.
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Copyright © 26 July 2000
Bill Newman, Edgware, UK
CD INFORMATION - GUILD GMDD 7167/8
PURCHASE THIS DISC FROM AMAZON
PURCHASE THIS DISC FROM CROTCHET
VISIT THE GUILD MUSIC WEBSITE
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