Composer: Amédée de Beauplan, Fabio Campana, Gaetano Donizetti, Angelo Mariani, Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante, Jacques Offenbach, Giovanni Pacini, Ambroise Thomas
Performer: Bruce Ford, David Harper, Majella Cullagh, Diana Montague, Mark Stone, Elizabeth Vidal, Roland Wood, Sine Bundgaard, Barry Banks, Paul Austin Kelly
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Opera Rara
Catalogue: 9293802424
Release: 2021
Size: 261 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Thomas: Le soir
02. Pacini: Quando lo miro
03. Thomas: Ange et mortel
04. Campana: Prends patience
05. Mariani: Splende nel ciel
06. Campana: Pour toi
07. Offenbach: Si j’etais petit oiseau
08. Campana: Pres de la mer
09. Mercadante: Ecco qual fiero istante
10. Thomas: La serenata
11. Pacini: Il soldato
12. Donizetti: T’intendo si mio cor con tanto
13. Elwart: Le Chalumeau
14. Coppola: Vieni diletta, che guinta
15. Mariani: Il giglio
16. Beauplan: La Galopomanie
This disc is accompanied by a fully illustrated 64 page booklet with an introduction and notes to the songs by the distinguished writer, broadcaster and music journalist Patrick O’Connor. One of the most inspired of Opera Rara’s recent initiatives has been a series exploring the more intimate world of the salon (salotto, in Italian) and the music written for this most sophisticated of social environments. Throughout 19th-century Europe the drawing-rooms of fashionable hostesses (or occasionally, like Rossini, hosts) rang to the sound of high-quality music-making, especially when the performers, in the very best houses, were the great singers of the day. Opera Rara responds, aptly, with some of the leading bel canto singers of our day, including Diana Montague, Bruce Ford, Majella Cullagh and Barry Banks. Composers both major and minor would regularly attend such occasions, and many wrote songs, duets, trios and larger ensemble pieces especially to delight the guests. This latest selection takes its title from a setting by Ambroise Thomas, and includes his most famous song, the enchanting Le soir, as well as other examples from the pens of Mercadante, Donizetti, Offenbach and Pacini and several of their lesser-known contemporaries. And there’s a sure winner in the sextet La Galopomanie, written by Amédée de Beauplan in 1840 in response to the latest dancing craze – the gallop!