Channel: Music
Uploaded: December 31, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Author: Meyerbeer1
Length: 02:20
Rating: 5.00
Views: 75
Giacomo Meyerbeer Opera: L'Esule di Granata, Melodramma serio in two acts, first performance 12 march 1822, Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Libretto: Felice Romani Duetto, stretta: Trema, i toui complici Almanzor: Patricia Spence Sulemano: Alastair Miles Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: David ParryIn form this is a typical Rossinian three-part duet: an introductory movement leads ino a broader slow section (at 'Il trono avito -- io non pretendo'), which is followed, first by a short tempo di mezzo (which contains the actual murder attempt and its prevention), and then by a final fast movement (at 'Trema I tuoi complici'). The music, however, is individual and recognisably Meyerbeerian. It is, moreover, a duet which gets better and better as it goes on. The introductory movement keeps the dialogue moving as the two adversaries circle each other and measure each other up, but the real interest begins with the slow section. Even though the two voices sing a symmetrical manner that similar emotions appear for each singer at the same points. No matter whether we are listening to Almanzor or Sulemano, the music consequently seems equally relevant and expressive. Fascinatingly, too, Meyerbeer was never to forget the snappy little phrase, moving first up, then down, to which he set 'Così piangendo -- vo dire al re' and 'Il re clemente risponderà'. Twenty-seven years later he was to use a variant of it in 'Comme un éclair', the allegretto second half of Fidès' 'O toi qui m'abandonnes' in Le Prophète. If this central section is noteworthy for its fluency and eloquence, the final fast movement, 'Trema I toui complici', is even more startling. Typically Meyerbeerian in its rhythmical patterns, it is a brilliant and effective show-piece, demanding maximum speed and accuracy from its performers.