Prom 59: Benvenuto Cellini - 2.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Monday 2 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Hector Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini (concert performance; sung in French, with surtitles)

Michael Spyres Benvenuto Cellini
Sophia Burgos Teresa
Matthew Rose Balducci
Tareq Nazmi Pope Clement VII
Krystian Adam Francesco
Ashley Riches Bernardino
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor

Sir John Eliot Gardiner brings his five-year series of Berlioz performances to a triumphant close, and this summer’s 150th-anniversary celebrations to a spectacular climax, with the composer’s rarely performed opera Benvenuto Cellini, based on the life and loves of the Renaissance sculptor – culminating in the forging of a vast masterwork. With its sprawling storytelling and vastly demanding score, this is a piece built for the scope of the Royal Albert Hall. American tenor Michael Spyres sings the title-role.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I must try to get to know this work. I have the Philips Colin Davis recording, and have listened to it only once.

[Bryn]

The Elder/Gilliam DVD/Blu-ray is pretty impressive, I find:



though the Colin Davis LPs were my introduction to the work.

[vinteuil]

... the Colin Davis LPs were my introduction to the work.

... I too began with Colin Davis - but nowadays prefer John Nelson -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00030FJA8

and also -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000HT3RSQ

(tho' I suspect Alpie might be less keen on this one... )



.

[Bryn]

... I too began with Colin Davis - but nowadays prefer John Nelson -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00030FJA8

and also -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000HT3RSQ

(tho' I suspect Alpie might be less keen on this one... )



.

Yes, I have the Nelsons too, twice; once in its own right (but for a small fraction of its current asking price) and again in the big Warner Berlioz box. I'm a great admirer of Berlioz's music.

[vinteuil]

.

I'm a great admirer of Berlioz's music.

.




.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm also a great admirer of Berlioz, but I don't think I've ever heard this particular work. Hearing it for the first time courtesy of JEG is something I'm looking forward to a lot.

[Bryn]

Weather permitting, I am planning on joining the Arena queue by 8:00 a.m., collecting my cloakroom ticket at 9:00 and visiting an ailing friend in North London during the day.

[Master Jacques]

I'll be there (don't know where, as on press tickets) but there's a silence about the edition we'll be hearing. 154' sounds too long for the revised Weimar version but on the short side for an uncut Paris "original" version (with or without the bits Berlioz cut out himself). Perhaps it will be a pick n'mix version, like the famous old Colin Davis recording.

Does anyone have any specific information on what JEG will be performing?

[Bryn]

I'll be there (don't know where, as on press tickets) but there's a silence about the edition we'll be hearing. 154' sounds too long for the revised Weimar version but on the short side for an uncut Paris "original" version (with or without the bits Berlioz cut out himself). Perhaps it will be a pick n'mix version, like the famous old Colin Davis recording.

Does anyone have any specific information on what JEG will be performing?

The schedule listing claims 3 hours 29 minutes and allows 3 hours 30 minutes. Given that the Nelson CDs take 3 hours 07 minutes, and with a nominal 20-minute interval on Monday, it does look a bit tight for the original version to be performed. However, should JEG opt for some quicker tempi than Nelson . . .

[Darkbloom]

The schedule listing claims 3 hours 29 minutes and allows 3 hours 30 minutes. Given that the Nelson CDs take 3 hours 07 minutes, and with a nominal 20-minute interval on Monday, it does look a bit tight for the original version to be performed. However, should JEG opt for some quicker tempi than Nelson . . .

I just checked and the Proms website has it at 154 minutes.

[bluestateprommer]

I'll be there (don't know where, as on press tickets) but there's a silence about the edition we'll be hearing. 154' sounds too long for the revised Weimar version but on the short side for an uncut Paris "original" version (with or without the bits Berlioz cut out himself). Perhaps it will be a pick n'mix version, like the famous old Colin Davis recording.

Does anyone have any specific information on what JEG will be performing?

Yes, c/o the Monteverdi Choir's page as follows:

https://monteverdi.co.uk/berlioz-150-benvenuto-cellini

"The score of the work exists in three main versions, and for the 2019 performances John Eliot Gardiner has selected parts of all three, incorporating part of Berlioz’s initial score before the rehearsals in 1838; the version with changes made during the first production; and the revised version created by Berlioz for the Weimar revival of 1852, conducted by Franz Liszt."

(I actually posted this quote in this thread, but no harm in repeating useful info .)

[Master Jacques]

Yes, c/o the Monteverdi Choir's page as follows:

https://monteverdi.co.uk/berlioz-150-benvenuto-cellini

(I actually posted this quote in this thread, but no harm in repeating useful info .)

Thank you very much indeed - that answers the question precisely. We're indeed going to get a JEG pick n'mix!

[bluestateprommer]

OK, in a phrase: this Prom is a complete blast so far :) .

In more than a phrase: JEG pretty much lets the ORR loose, as well as the Monteverdi Choir (let's not forget the chorus besides the orchestra), and everyone is running with it pretty much full throttle. However, the proceedings do properly subside at the moment when Pompeo snuffs it (spoiler alert, sorry). Maybe the innkeeper overdoes the caricature a bit, but that does allow the goldsmiths to mock him back in imitation. If you happen to have both the Colin Davis and the John Nelson recordings of the opera, you're going to need both, if you plan to give it a listen later.

[Bryn]

OK, in a phrase: this Prom is a complete blast so far :) .

In more than a phrase: JEG pretty much lets the ORR loose, as well as the Monteverdi Choir (let's not forget the chorus besides the orchestra), and everyone is running with it pretty much full throttle. However, the proceedings do properly subside at the moment when Pompeo snuffs it (spoiler alert, sorry). Maybe the innkeeper overdoes the caricature a bit, but that does allow the goldsmiths to mock him back in imitation. If you happen to have both the Colin Davis and the John Nelson recordings of the opera, you're going to need both, if you plan to give it a listen later.

When you write "you're going to need both", do you mean both Nelson and Davis or both the Davis recordings, or all three? So what about the Elder (directed by Gilliam)?

As to tonight's performance, I arrived early, got cloakroom ticket 13 for the Arena Day queue, then later in the day remembered I had agreed to send a friend's recording of two song cycles to one of his friends to celebrate the latter's 80th birthday. I thus turned on my heel and headed for home to send the recording. Who wants to stand for over 3 hours listening to Berlioz, anyway. I did, that's who! Now I have to make do with just the Sounds.