Search - Gian Carlo Menotti, Paolo Vaglieri, Milan Chamber Orchestra :: Menotti: The Telephone

Gian Carlo Menotti, Paolo Vaglieri, Milan Chamber Orchestra
Menotti: The Telephone
Genres: Pop, Classical

Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
1. The Telephone (L'amour ? trois), opera
2. Ricercare and Toccata on a Theme from The Old Maid and the Thief, for piano: Ricercare
3. Ricercare and Toccata on a Theme from The Old Maid and the Thief, for piano: Toccata
4. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Gli amanti impossibili
5. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Mattinata di neve
6. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Il settimo bicchiere di vino
7. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Lo spettro
8. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Dorme Pegaso
9. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: La lettera
10. Canti della lontananza, song cycle for soprano & piano: Rassegnazione

CD Details

All Artists: Gian Carlo Menotti, Paolo Vaglieri, Milan Chamber Orchestra, Silva Costanzo, Anne Victoria Banks, Gian Luca Ricci
Title: Menotti: The Telephone
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Nuova Era
Original Release Date: 1/1/2007
Re-Release Date: 8/7/2007
Genres: Pop, Classical
Styles: Vocal Pop, Opera & Classical Vocal, Historical Periods, Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 4011222241733

Synopsis

Album Description

Menotti's "neo-Rossinian" short comic opera The Telephone was first performed in 1947. This recording comes from a revival at La Scala in 1991. The Old Maid and the Thief was an opera Menotti wrote for radio in 1939. A theme from the opera inspired this 1953 composition rooted in Italian Renaissance organ style. The seven Canti della Lontananza, or "Songs of Absence," were written in 1967 and dedicated to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Gian Carlo Menotti (b. 1911), an Italian-American who has dared to center his career on writing operas, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music among other awards. Unashamedly conservative in technique, Menotti has always written in a traditional tonal language.

CD Reviews

Accessible Opera!

Music Is Everything | Colorado Springs, CO USA | 05/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm very glad to see this recording back in print, as it's the best recording of Menotti's "The Telephone."

Plot: Lucy and Ben are a young couple in love. Ben has to leave on a business trip and wants to ask Lucy to marry him before his train leaves in one hour. Arriving back at Lucy's apartment, Ben tries repeatedly to pop the question, only to be interrupted again and again by her telephone. Lucy carries on the most mundane conversations while Ben's nerves get the best of him. Finally, Ben leaves while Lucy is on the phone and it appears there will be no happy ending. Of course, Ben calls from the train station and proposes over the phone and all ends well.

This is as accessible as opera can be: only 25 minutes, sung in English, with believable dialogue and fun characters.

Also included on the disc are Menotti's Ricercare e Toccata for piano with Silva Costanzo performing, and Canti Della Lontananza with Anne Victora Banks singing and Costanzo again at the piano. These are also fine performances.

All things considered, this is a wonderful little recording and a window into the world of Gian Carlo Menotti, who managed to write fine modern operas that could still reach average audiences into the late twentieth century. Highly recommended."