Cornelius: Der Cid
Soloists
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Gustav Kuhn
I was particularly looking forward to this. Cornelius’ Barber of Baghdad is one of my favourite operas and certainly one of the greatest comic operas of the mid 19th century. So I was keen to discover what a more serious opera by Cornelius might be like. To be honest it took me quite a time to get on its wavelength - I couldn’t quite understand what Cornelius was doing in the first part of the work. Yes there were some attractive melodies and moments of harmonic piquancy, but it did all seem rather shapeless. But as the work continued, and perhaps as my focus improved, I really started to appreciate the piece. There was some remarkable music here - an intense love duet and then a big ensemble which really had an impact with energy and rhythmic drive. By the end I was captivated - perhaps I need to go back sometime and listen again to the first part of the opera - perhaps I was just not quite in the right mood to appreciate it.
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