Composer: John Corigliano
Performer: Anthony Roth Costanzo, David Portillo, Jarrett Ott, Kathryn Henry, Matt Boehler
Orchestra: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Conductor: Gil Rose
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Pentatone
Catalogue: PTC5187008
Release: 2023
Size: 2.51 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
The Lord of Cries
CD 01
Act I
01. Prologue. Taking the Mask
02. London in Chaos
03. He flies tonight, on dragons wings
Scene 1
04. Jonathan in Madness
05. Lucys Entrance and Jonathans Interrogation
06. And oh, how new! How pure we felt!
07. Lucy Departs, Seward Remembers “Hush, no more now”
08. Weakness! Weakness!
Scene 2
09. Montage
10. Interlude. Lightning over London
Scene 3
11. The Stranger in Chains
12. His temple. How you profane it
13. Seward Resists He casts no reflection
14. Interrupted: Give him what he wants, Seward
15. So I shall tend to him
16. Echoed. July twelve: midnight…
17. Dionysus on High “Listen!”
18. Finale
CD 02
Act II
Scene 1
01. Narrated. The beauty of it!
02. Dialogue in the Ruins “Listen a moment”
03. Seward Fails a Third Time
04. Seward Seduced “I ask”
Scene 2
05. Lullaby “Hush, darling: hush”
06. Entrance of the Wolf-Prince “Lucy…”
07. Lucy, Tempted “Your husband seems subdued tonight”
08. The Wolf-Prince, Relentless “Who is Lucy tonight?”
09. Scherzo. I cannot say it!
10. Seward, Transformed “Oh, Father, gaze upon me!”
11. Recognition Scene “Look at the sky”
12. Vengeance of the Lord of Cries
13. Finale Ultimo. The lure of frenzy
Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Gil Rose present the world premiere recording of The Lord of Cries, a breathtaking opera by John Corigliano and Mark Adamo. Telling the story of Euripides’s The Bacchae with the characters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the piece explores the power of sexual desire and humans’ need to blame and attack others for what they can neither resist nor accept in themselves. Corigliano returns to opera for the first time since his The Ghosts of Versailles, introduced by the Metropolitan Opera, made an international sensation in 1992. The brilliant cast– most of whom introduced their parts in the world premiere in 2021–is led by star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role.
Multi-award winning composer John Corigliano’s music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. The Pentatone recording of The Ghost of Versailles, released in 2016, won two Grammy Awards. Composer-librettist Mark Adamo’s four previous operas, including Little Women (1998) have been staged, recorded, and broadcast hundreds of times on five continents. Under the leadership of conductor Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project has become an unsurpassed advocate for 20th and 21st century American music; they make their Pentatone debut with The Lord of Cries.
The global acceptance from audiences and a willingness to stage new operas have been a wonder for the operatic world. It is a great benefit to all that John Corigliano, well into his eighties when writing this score, returned to this genre. The Lord of Cries is a unique combination of story building that combines the ancient Athenian play The Bacchae by Euripides and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, setting the story of Dionysus in 19th century England. Composer and librettist Mark Adamo — Corigliano’s husband — previously penned an opera with this combination and presented it to the Houston Grand Opera. Though rejected, the pair later decided to return to the concept with Corigliano writing music to Adamo’s libretto, and the result is music and text that fully intertwine. The role of Dionysus/Dracula was written with star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in mind; here, he leads a mostly returning cast from the opera’s 2021 premiere at the Santa Fe Opera. The forces recorded here gave the work’s East Coast premiere in 2022, with Gil Rose leading the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Chorus of Odyssey Opera. While Costanzo will rightfully be heralded for his performance here, the entire cast delivers very strong, dramatic performances. The Odd Sisters (Felicia Gavilanes, Leah Brzyski, and Rachel Blaustein are tasked with providing much of the drama throughout and do excellent work: They are challenged with extreme ranges and harmonies, and they are on point. Stoker’s story is widely popular, thanks in part to modern media, though Dionysus’ story might have a narrower scope. Coming in cold to the music might make it difficult to follow the combined plot, and having a synopsis on hand and a background on the two stories is certainly helpful.