Alfredo Catalani: La falce

Alfredo Catalani: La falce

1 CC24261-05 (Opera Discovery Records, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (16 February 2024)

Playing time: 44'14"
Tracks: 6
Booklet pages: 8
℗ 2022 Opera Discovery
© 2022 Opera Discovery
Main country of recording: Italy
Country of manufacture: Italy
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Alfredo Catalani: La falce published on 16 March 2024

Paoletta Marruco, soprano (Zohra)
Fabio Armiliato, tenor (Un falciatore)
Coro da camera di Belluno
Alberto Da Ros, chorus master
Orchestra Classica Italiana
Fabrizio Da Ros, conductor

Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893):

La Falce - Egloga orientale in un atto di Arrigo Boito
1 Prologo Sinfonico - La battaglia di Bedr
2 Introduzione, Invocazione e Romanza di Zohra
3 Recitativo visione di Zohra e sua apostrofe al falciatore
4 Duetto
5 Canzone araba, recitativo e duetto
6 Marcia e Coro della carovana - Finale

Despite the growing influence of the 'verismo' style of opera during the 1880s and early 1890s, Alfredo Catalani chose to compose in a more traditional manner, which showed traces of German symphonism. Catalani was a sensitive and delicate composer who died at the age of thirty-nine. Much admired by Arturo Toscanini, today his works are rarely performed in the theatre. La falce, on a poetic text by Arrigo Boito, was his first opera and was created at the Teatro del Conservatorio in Milan on 19 July 1875. His symphonic Prologue is an authentic masterpiece and this short opera will thrill you with its dark colours and the passionate phrasing of the protagonists.

Studio recording made in June 2021 at Teatro Alfredo Chiesa, Milano, Italy.