French Overtures: Hérold, Auber, Thomas, Boieldieu, Adam
Paul Paray / Detroit Symphony (Eloquence)
(scroll down for English review)
帕雷Mercury錄音全集頗特別的一張，六首法國歌劇序曲，冷門到不只是六首歌劇本身已在冷宮，連序曲都極難在新錄音或現場演出見到。不過作品質素遠超預期，我肯定你會對改變歌劇序曲就一定是華格納、威爾第或羅西尼的想法。
軌一 Hérold《Zampa》序曲，我覺得很像華格納《戀愛禁令》序曲，它比華格納早五年，再加上未成名的華格納，像海棉的吸取流行歌劇的元素，很大機會是華格納抄考了。這首聯同軌二的Auber《Crown Diamonds》序曲，都是用頗多不同旋律去組織出一首序曲來。
之後那些沒那麼慷慨（或浪費），較願意把旋律寫下去，也更有完整的感覺，其中我覺得軌三及四的兩首Thomas序曲是全碟最佳，尤其是軌三的《迷孃》序曲。剩下兩首也不俗，雖然不夠前四首序曲傑出，我相信已比不少較平凡的威爾第或羅西尼序曲寫得認真，而且好玩得多。
These six overtures all belong to operas that are now obscure; these overtures themselves are hardly played or recorded nowadays, to me this is just criminal. If you think the best overtures belong to Wagner, Verdi, Rossini, you’d definitely reconsider after listening to this collection.
Hérold’s Zampa Overture (track 1) reminded me of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot Overture. Hérold’s opera was premiered five years before Wagner’s so I had reason to believe Wagner simply copied the style, given his habit to sponge up anything that could help him make his break. This Hérold overture and Auber’s Crown Diamonds Overture (track 2) took numerous and wildly different themes into a mercurial overture.
The remaining pieces seem to work differently as their composers were more willing to work on a fewer number of themes, so they have a more unified feel and less potpourri-like. Of these my favourites are the two Thomas overtures (tracks 3 and 4), especially the Mignon (track 3). The final tracks are less memorable but are still written with much craft and provide more fun than the not-so-marvelous examples of Verdi or Rossini.