Elena e Costantino : Lopez Cobos / Madrid Simphony Orchestra, Rosique, Mcpherson, etc (2005 Stereo)(2CD)

Ramon Carnicer: ELENA E COSTANTINO

ELENA / RICCARDO Ruth Rosique
COSTANTINO Robert McPherson
EDMONDO Saimir Pirgu
IL GOVERNATORE DI ARLES Eduardo Santamaria
CARLO Lorenzo Regazzo
ANNA Mariola Cantarero
URBINO David Menendez
Chorus and Simphony Orchestra of Madrid
CHORUS MASTER: Jordi Casa Bayer
CONDUCTOR: Jesus Lopez Cobos

PROGRAM INFORMATION:
In the exceptionally rich history of non-Italian composers of opera in Italian, Ramon Carnicer holds more than a minor place.
In younger days, Carnicer was an admirer of Mozart, but the sudden appearance of Rossini's star in the European musical firmament quickly converted him to the Italian's camp.
Unlike his other non-Italian counterparts, who spent at least some time involved in study in Italy, Carnicer spent practically his entire career as composer in Spain, going to Italy only to engage performers and to get a clearer idea of the aesthetic tendencies and fashions of the moment.
With its premiere on June 16, 1821, at the Teatro de la Santa Cruz in Barcelona, Elena e Costantino was enthusiastically received; it is still universally considered one of Carnicer's greatest works.
The libretto is based on an earlier work of Tottola's, set to music by Giovanni Simone Mayr and first performed at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples on January 28, 1814.
This opera calls itself a "heroic-comic drama in two acts", and hence belongs to the semi-serious genre.
The currents of Rossini that underlie Elena e Costantino are obvious from the very opening bars of the first overture; it is clear from this that Rossini's musical language had given rise, in the span of a very few years, to a sort of common international language freely used by all composers of Italian music.
Here the average level of the opera, taken all in all, is very high. ( Dynamic )

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING ON CD. recorded 2005