Bretan: Golem

 Opera no 171

Bretan: Golem

Soloists

Moldava Philharmonic Orchestra

Christian Mandeal

I purchased this blind knowing nothing about the composer, not even his nationality or when he lived. He was a Romanian composer who lived from 1887-1968. He was a singer and administrator as well as a composer and was caught up in the history of 20th century Europe. His Jewish wife’s family were murdered at Auschwitz and he was declared a non-person by the communist government in Romania.

He wrote six operas: this one is a short piece lasting about 40 mins. If you heard it cold you would never think that it dated from the 1920s: it feels like a nationalist opera from the 1870s - indeed parts of it sounded like Meyerbeer and French Grand opera. I suppose that it is a good illustration that the not all composers were at the forefront of musical development and that there was plenty of music being written which harked back rather than forward.

I quite enjoyed this. It is a bit creaky in places but it had vigour, some good tunes and some effective ensemble writing. It will never be a repertory piece but as a one off is was well worth listening to. I don’t regret buying the recording.

Roussel: Padmâvatî

Opera no 144

Roussel: Padmâvitî

Soloists

Toulouse Capital Orchestra

Michael Plasson

I wasn’t much impressed by the Roussel I included in last year’s project https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/search/label/Roussel but I enjoyed this a lot. It is a hybrid work - almost as much a ballet as it is an opera. It seems to me that Roussel was consciously evoking the spirit of the works of Rameau and Lully.  There is nothing old-fashioned about the music itself, which is very much of its time. There are distinct traces of Stravinsky but also of Ravel and Debussy.  I thought that the combination of dance and sung much worked well (as far as one can judge by just listening) and the piece did cause me to rethink my view of Roussel. 

This is another, very late, example of the fascination that French composers had with the ‘exotic’ - in this instance India. I do wonder whether any of them could be performed today in anything like a ‘straight’ version in which the opera spoke for itself, or would the only hope of revival be in some form of ‘distancing’ - the director effectively using the peice as a piece of social commentary. I hope not but I suspect that that would be the only acceptable way of performing them nowadays.