Search - Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wladimir Jurowski, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland :: L'Étoile du Nord

A jewel discovered

John Cragg | 01/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought l'Etoile du Nord solely because Elizabeth Futral sang Catherine. Now it is probably the most played of my opera collection. Meyerbeer should not be so neglected - the music is quite lovely, the melodies memorable, the choruses stirring, and the arias, particularly Catherine's various pieces, outright thrilling. The down-side is that it is a "live" recording (from the Wexford Festival) so that the sound is not terribly good. Principals seem to wander out of effective reach of the microphones from time to time. Some of the other voices are less than great -while Vladimir Ognev is superbly resonant as Peter the Great, the three tenor voices leave something to be desired, notably the ability to reach and hold the higher notes without warbling. Of course all of this matters little to a Futral fan: the price of the CD is justified just to hear her sing (and I say that as someone who has heard both Renee Fleming and Ruth Ann Swenson on the stage of the Met within the past few months).Incidentally, I am not sure why this review space is set up for reviewers "under 13" only since I doubt that many of them listen to Meyerbeer with any regularity. I am quite a bit older than 12, but the review will not post unless I enter and age, and "12" is the highest age available in the "click box"."

Great Comic Opera

John Cragg | Delta(greater Vancouver), B.C Canada | 04/15/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I usally find Meyerbeer's Grand Operas a bit of a bore, though they do have some magnificient pieces and real show-case material for great voices. This is a very different story: a light, fairly frothy comedy well sung and conducted with a lot of verve. If none of the voices stands out and grabs you by the throat, they do combine to give a fine performance. The Wexford forces are not only enthusiastic, but well honed, and the enterprise is much to be praised for presenting such an out of the way, but very worthwhile work. While taken from a live recording, the miking is such that the audience does not intrude -- indeed the rather limited applause that comes through sounds "off stage", a nice piece of engineering!"