Heroines – Opera Overtures and Intermezzi
Beatrice Venezi / Orchestra Haydn (Warner)
(scroll down for English review)
近來女性主題的雜錦碟，以這張最為有趣，是不同國家歌劇的序曲或間奏曲，劇名都是女人，除了《崔斯坦與伊索德》（軌九），不過都是男人寫的歌劇。但這點我完全沒有問題，樂曲質素以及演奏質素是最重要的。
我覺得最難得是有一些意大利歌劇的序曲或間奏曲，是平時很少聽到，哪管是以全齣歌劇上演或只奏序曲：例如威爾第《聖女貞德》（軌一）、佐丹奴《費多拉》（軌五）或者雷斯碧基《貝基絲》（軌12）。有德語劇目如華格納（軌九及十）及理察史特勞斯（軌11），但又有皮亞梭拉的探戈歌劇《布爾諾斯艾利斯的瑪莉亞》（軌七），以及音樂劇《貝隆夫人》（軌八）。
只是演奏水平在職業水準以下，尤其是需要較炫技或力水的蕭斯塔高維契（軌二至四）以及《女武神飛行》（軌十），不過在抒情段落這位指揮算頗有耐性去鋪排，例如《愛之死》（軌九）及《七重紗之舞》（軌11）的中段。純粹聽冷門曲目而言，這碟值得一聽。
Although exclusively written by men, all the selections here are from operas bearing the name of their heroines, with the exception of Tristan und Isolde. What attracted me to this CD were the pieces from Italian operas which are rarely staged today, such as Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco (track 1), Giordano’s Fedora (track 5) or Respighi’s Belkis (track 12).
These are balanced with Wagner (tracks 9 and 10) and R.Strauss (track 11). Surprisingly, the 20th century was represented by Piazzolla’s tango-opera Maria de Buenos Aires (track 9) and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita (track 8). But the key question is the playing. I’m sorry to say these are mostly sub-standard performances, in particular the Suite of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk (tracks 2-4) and the Ride of the Valkyries (track 10).
But in more tender pieces the conductor took the time to build things up and I enjoyed Isolde’s Liebestod (track 9) and the middle portion of the Dance of the Seven Veils (track 11). I recommend this album solely on its programming merits, though.