Luigi Rossi Orfeo

[Guest]

While driving home tonight, stuck in traffic, for once the music on In Tune piqued my interest. Sean played an aria from Luigi Rossi's Orfeo. I do not know this work and after a check with Amazon, it seems only 1 recording exists made by William Christie in the 1990's. It appears to be out of circulation as the price is £84 for a used copy. Do any of the forum members know of any other recordings?

Cheers

[oddoneout]

It's being broadcast on Opera on 3 on Saturday(28th)

[MickyD]

I don't think there was ever any other recording. I have to admit, I sold my old copy for a similar sum not so long ago on Amazon!

[doversoul1]

The Guardian's review

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/25/orpheus-review-sam-wanamaker-playhouse-london-opera

[jean]

By the time I saw it last month, Mary Bevan was still too ill to sing and Siobhan Stagg was on stage. She was indeed very good.

The music is enjoyable and it's good fun, thought the plot really is ridiculous - Eurydice doesn't even die until the end of the second act.

The theatre is quite an experience too (it was my first visit) though from upstairs it is quite difficult to see what's happening on stage through the haze of candlelight.

[doversoul1]

6.30pm today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qjfq6

[jean]

I see Mary Bevan's back on stage!

[doversoul1]

I didn’t realise that this was sung in English (The Guardian review does mention).

[jean]

I was disappointed at first, but I quickly realised it would have been impossible to work out what was going on if it had been in Italian; the intricacies of comedy are I think far harder to follow if you can't understand what you're hearing than the broad sweep of tragedy. And there's nowhere in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse where you could put surtitles.

I don't know how close to the original the translation was. I suspect not very. What did people think?

[doversoul1]

I imagine it works well as a music theatre, which is what it is after all, but listening to it on the radio, I found this performance too wordy. It’s a recitative heavy work, at least the first part I listened to sounded that way, and to me, English or this translation was just not musical enough to enjoy the work as music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I imagine it works well as a music theatre, which is what it is after all, but listening to it on the radio, I found this performance too wordy. It’s a recitative heavy work, at least the first part I listened to sounded that way, and to me, English or this translation was just not musical enough to enjoy the work as music.

Yes - this was my response to this broadcast, too; so much so that I didn't get further than the first half-hour or so. (That particular brand of "diction" that some find essential to singing in English didn't help, either.)