MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK


Johann Simon MAYR (1763-1845)
Fedra - melodramma serio in two acts (1820)
Fedra, second wife of the king - Capuine Chiaudani (soprano); Teseo - Tomasz Zagorski (tenor); Ippolito - Rebecca Nelson (lyric soprano); Atide, confidante of Fedra - Hyo-Jin Shin (soprano); Teramene - Dae-Bum Lee (bass);
State Orchestra and Chorus of Braunschweig/Gerd Schaller
rec. live, State Theatre Braunschweig, 28, 30 March, 5 April 2008.
world premiere recording
OEHMS CLASSICS OC920 [64.28 + 50.46]
Experience Classicsonline

German born, Mayr was studying in Italy when his patron died. Faced with an uncertain future the composer Niccolo Pacini encouraged him to write opera. Mayr’s first opera, Saffo (1794) attracted other commissions with his Ginevra di Scozia premiered in Trieste (1801) making him known throughout Italy. Subsequently Mayr wrote operas for Naples, Rome, Milan and Venice. His works were also performed in Germany, London, St. Petersburg and New York among other places. In all Mayr wrote over sixty operatic works, many in the buffo style. Significantly he brought more vividness and orchestral detail to opera buffa, with depictions of storms, earthquakes and the like as well as complex choral scenes. These built on and extended the compositional style of Domenico Cimarosa (1749 –1801) and Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) with Mayr’s influence being readily heard in the operas of both Rossini and Donizetti.
 
As well as composition of operas, Mayr found fame as a composer of church music and as author of a treatise on Haydn. He also founded a Conservatory in Bergamo where his students included Donizetti whom he taught, without charge, for ten years. Mayr also paid for Donizetti’s study with Padre Mattei, a renowned teacher of counterpoint. He later ceded commissions to his pupil that helped his career to take off. Mayr’s most famous work is his Medea in Corinto (1813). He eventually went blind. Verdi, recognising his influence on Italian music, perhaps even his own, attended his funeral.
 
It was in the papers of Verdi’s estate, only recently opened to scholars, that a copy of the score of Mayr’s Fedra was discovered. The opera, premiered at La Scala in 1830, is based on Racine’s play derived from the Greek myth concerning Fedra the second wife of King Theseus. Fedra becomes infatuated with her stepson during the king’s absence and later commits suicide after accusing the stepson of having seduced her. The rather fractured synopsis in the booklet further complicates the story by using the names from the play rather than those in the opera. The libretto is given in full in Italian but without any translations. A sensible track-related synopsis using the opera’s named characters would have been a huge benefit to my overall enjoyment of Mayr’s music and this strong live performance.
 
The discovery of the score and Ricordi’s subsequent publication caused the Braunschweig State Opera to change their schedule in order to stage the work in 2008, its first ever performance in Germany. In the name part Capuine Chiaudani sings the role with vocal warmth and a wide range of expression if not always being ideally steady. Very much in the bel canto mode is the flexible light soprano of Rebecca Nelson in the trouser role of Ippolito. She gives an all-round satisfactory feel to the solo singing (CD 1 tr.7. CD 2 tr.10). Tomasz Zagorski is a strongly sung Teseo with the hallmarks of a bel-cantoist in his vocal strength and range as well as in recitative (CD 2 trs.12-13). As Teramene, Dae-Bum Lee’s bass is strong and smooth (CD 1 tr.3).  On the rostrum Gerd Schaller handles the ensembles and recitative with a felicitous touch. He keeps the plot moving along yet allows for the enjoyment of Mayr’s melodies and dramatic touch. The chorus sing with commitment and vibrancy. There are a few stage noises.
 
Mayr, aged 57 at the time of the writing of Fedra was at his compositional peak, with imaginative use of woodwind and complex ensemble as in the quartet that concludes act 1 (CD 1 trs 13-14). The music for the singers is very much in the bel canto style with more dramatic impulse and demand than found among many of Mayr’s contemporaries or, indeed, some who followed. His imaginative user of the instruments of the orchestra was doubtless a model for his pupil Donizetti, who by the time of the composition of Fedra had still to make his mark with Zoraida Di Granata (see review).
 
As far as I am aware other of Mayr’s operas featuring on records are restricted to Ginevra di Scozia and Medea in Corinto both issued by Opera Rara, ORC 23 and ORC 11, each on three CDs. The former was recorded at a revival at Trieste to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the premiere and features Elizabeth Vidal and Daniella Barcelona among the principals. The latter has the spinto soprano Jane Eaglen alongside Opera Rara regulars Yvonne Kenny, Bruce Ford and Alastair Miles as well as the Rossini specialist Raul Gimenez. In 2008 Opera Rara also issued a CD titled Mayr Rediscovered (ORR 244) involving excerpts from eight of his operatic works including the two mentioned as well as Fedra. Those issues benefit greatly from the full librettos and translations as well as the historical background, synopses and scholarly essays by Jeremy Commons, who is referred to in the notes with this issue. The background information with this issue mentions the Milan premiere, and its cast and reception, as well as the staging at Braunschweig from which this welcome recording derives.
 
Robert J Farr
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.