Composer: Franz Ignaz Beck
Performer: Ana Maria Labin, Samantha Gaul, Theodore Browne, Fabian Kelly
Orchestra: La Stagione Frankfurt
Conductor: Michael Schneider
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555336-2
Release: 2021
Size: 389 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
L’isle déserte
01. Overture. Allegro con brio
02. Une épouse infortunée
03. Mon toutou, mon bijou
04. Ah cesse de t’affliger
05. L’amour éprouve mon âme
06. Tout de la reconnaissance nous presente le miroir
07. Épargne á ma misère les pleurs de l’amitiè
08. Pour toi, j’ai l’âme atteinte
09. Je ne puis définir ce qui m’agite
10. Le temps partvient à tout détruire – Vivre ainsi c’est mourir sans cesse
11. Je sens palpiter, tressaillir
Franz Ignaz Beck is one of the most fascinating composers of the eighteenth century, a musical visionary as well as a ‘genuine European’ with roots in Mannheim. His opera L’isle déserte, long regarded as lost, has resurfaced in a score manuscript in France and now is celebrating its recording premiere with La Stagione Frankfurt. Magnificent music and a magnificent text! Beck’s L’isle déserte is particularly interesting in the context of music history: first, because it is by a composer who continued to await discovery; second, because a composer active in France availed himself of an Italian libretto – which continued to be an exception before 1780, especially when Metastasio was the librettist. Beck’s L’isle déserte is thus a model example of a material and text-historical adaptation and even more so of a transfer to the music theater. In other words, in Beck’s version of ‘The Deserted Island’ Italian libretto artistry and French music theater meet, while special appeal is generated by this composer from Germany, an émigré, so to speak, who was not operating with French as his genuinely native language.