Rachmaninoff operas take the stage again(September 2004) Though Sergei Rachmaninoff ’s continuing popularity is based largely on a group of evergreen orchestral scores, recent years have seen a wider appreciation of the full range of the composer’s output, spearheaded by the Hidden Perspectives series in London (1999) and the Rachmaninoff Revisited and Focus on Rachmaninoff festivals in New York (2002). One of the major beneficiaries of this repertoire exploration has been the composer’s vocal music, encompassing songs and operas.
This awareness was furthered this year by stagings of Francesca da Rimini by Opera North and The Miserly Knight by the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon and the Glyndebourne Festival. The two stageworks were originally premiered as a Rachmaninoff double-bill at the Bolshoi, but recent possible couplings have included Zemlinsky’s Florentine Tragedy, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Bizet’s Djamileh, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins. The Berlin Konzerthaus plays host to concert performances of Francesca da Rimini next May with the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Eliahu Inbal. "[In The Miserly Knight,] Rachmaninoff’s dark little Pushkin tragedy, a millionaire baron and his son Albert are rivals in love for the hoard of gold…the overture gave warning of the almost Wagnerian extent of their passion… Chaliapin, no less, inspired the centrepiece: a long, psychologically complex scene for the Baron as he reflects on the ecstasies and agonies of his wealth. From the sensuous sibilance of its opening, to its great climax, poised somewhere between Bluebeard and Rhinegold, Sergei Leiferkus’s magnificent performance lifted this monologue to almost Faustian heights." The Times "An extremely dark tale which offered Rachmaninoff opportunities for complex character studies… Some of the score’s greatest moments are in the orchestra, which underpins the vocal lines with a dense fabric of allusive late-Romantic commentary…" Opera News To tie in with the renewed interest in Rachmaninoff's operas Deutsche Grammophon has recently reissued a box set of all three operas, Francesca da Rimini, The Miserly Knight and Aleko, conducted by Neeme Järvi (DG Trio 477 041-2). Singers on the discs include Maria Guleghina, Sergei Larin, Sergei Leiferkurs, Sergei Aleksashkin and Anne Sofie von Otter. > Further information on Work: The Miserly Knight Photo: cover of the Boosey & Hawkes vocal score of The Miserly Knight > News Search |
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