Carlos Gomes: Opera Overtures and Preludes
8.574409 (Naxos Records, CD)
DDD
FIRST RELEASE (24 March 2023)
Playing time: 58'18"
Tracks: 10
Booklet pages: 9
℗ 2023 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
© 2023 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
Main country of recording: Brazil
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Carlos Gomes: Opera Overtures and Preludes published on 14 March 2023
Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra
Fabio Mechetti, conductor
Carlos Gomes (1836-1896):
1 Il Guarany: Overture (1870)
2 Maria Tudor: Act I Prelude (1878)
Condor (1890):
3 Act I Prelude
4 Act III Nocturne
5 Fosca: Overture (1873)
6 Joana de Flandres: Act I Prelude (1862)
7 Salvator Rosa: Overture (1874)
8 A noite de castelo: Act I Prelude (1861)
Lo schiavo (1889)
9 Act I Prelude
10 Act IV Prelude 'Alvorada'
Carlos Gomes was not only Brazil's leading operatic composer, but he also helped pave the way for Italian verismo during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The preludes and overtures from his operas chart a course from early experimentation with orchestral sonority to a new conception of atmosphere and tension in his historically based dramas. In Alvorada ('Dawn') from Lo schiavo his descriptive writing comes close to the status of a symphonic poem. The music from his greatest artistic triumph, Il Guarany, weaves themes into an organic whole, while his final opera, Condor, is reminiscent of French orchestral music in its employment of whole-tone scales.
Recorded 20-24 February 2022 at Sala Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.