Ariadne auf Naxos (English): R.Armstrong / Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Brewer, R.D.Smith, etc (Stereo)+le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (2CD)

RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Ariadne on Naxos - sung in English
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

Christine Brewer (soprano)
Robert Dean Smith (tenor)
Gillian Keith (soprano)
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
John Graham-Hall (tenor)
Wynne Evans (tenor)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Matthew Rose (bass)
Alan Opie (baritone)
Paul Keohone (bass)
Anita Watson (soprano)
Pamela Helen Stephen (mezzo-soprano)
Gail Pearson (soprano)
Dean Robinson (bass)
Declan McCusker (tenor)
Stephen Fry (Major-Domo)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Sir Richard Armstrong, conductor

On the opera stage, Christine Brewer has made a speciality of the late romantic repertoire and of Richard Strauss in particular. This is the first time that she has recorded her superb interpretation of the part in a complete recording of the opera, and the first time that this opera has been recorded sung in English. With an all-star cast, the recording is a major addition to the Chandos Opera in English catalogue.

As a bonus, the orchestral suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, op.60, is also included. The music was written for a play to be performed before the opera Ariadne auf Naxos, but it was felt that the play, followed by an opera would make for too long an evening. Strauss later wrote a new prologue for the opera (the one we are now used to) and arranged this suite from the incidental music to the play. It shows Strauss at his most delightful - the eighteenth-century flavour reflected in the fact that Strauss based No.5-No.7 on airs by Jean-Baptiste Lully who had provided the music for Moliere’s original play.