Chloe Flower News
American classical pianist
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2024-04-23
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2024-03-28 03:30:00
Lang Lang: Saint-Saens
by Bill HeckSaint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals, Piano Concerto 2; Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte; Debussy: Petite Suite 71; Faure: In paradisium; Delibes: Delibes: Lakmé: Flower Duet; Saint-Saens: Toccata after the Fifth Concerto (from Six Études pour piano op. 111); Faure: Pavane op. 50; Farrenc: Étude No. 10; Sohy: Song without Words; Tailleferre: Valse lente; Bonis: The Little One Falls Asleep; Boulanger: Of a Bright Garden; Saint-Saens: The Swan. Lang Lang, Gina Alice (pianos), Gewandhaus Orchestra cond, Andris Nelsons. DG 505859 Based on an admittedly very small sample, it seems that DG is interested in producing events as much as producing recordings. I suppose that’s their business, and but my curmudgeonly side is, shall we say, a little jaded. There’s no doubt that Lang Lang is a musical superstar, and I suppose that it’s natural for DG to be trading on that fame. Thus, you can find video sections […]
2024-03-02 13:54:01
Sometimes I wonder. What was the need to pluck the Flower, dissect it, analyse it, study it, and wor
2024-02-26 09:11:00
Beyond coloratura: Strong performances and a serious approach in Chelsea Opera Group's account of Léo Delibes' Lakmé
[…] Paz Nieto's Miss Ellen was certainly no cool English rose and Paz Nieto sang her with delightful coquettish charm, whilst Caroline Carragher gave Miss Rose a nicely contrasting demure poise. Sarah Pring was great value as their governess, performing with great aplomb.The two Indian servants were finely taken. Polly Leech as Mallika only appeared in Act One, but she made a lovely foil for Haegee Lee and sang with lovely warm tone in the famous Flower Duet. Magnus Walker as Hadji also provided discreet and firm support. David Padua, John Vallance and Kevin Hollands were good value in their stand-out performances during the Market Scene at the opening of Act Two, though is was a shame that the chorus seemed to find Delibes' fiddly vocal writing here something of a challenge. Elsewhere, the chorus was on strong form often providing firm underpinning to the larger-scale scenes.Conductor Matthew Scott Rogers clearly loves […]
2024-02-13 08:15:00
Pierre Loti's writings inspired Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé and a whole genre of Orientalist operas
[…] colonised people had their daily lives displayed for visitors, giving Debussy his first experience of the Balinese Gamelan.Léo Delibes' Lakmé, however, has another layer of exoticism too in the form of the the novelty of exotically colonial English people and it is hero Gérald's desire to put country and duty above love that give the opera one of its engines.Whilst the music from the opera remains well known, with the Bell Song being a popular coloratura showcase and the Flower Duet being virtually ubiquitous, performances are still rare. The opera reached Covent Garden in 1910, but the present company (formed after World War Two) has never staged the opera and its last major London outing seems to have been at Opera Holland Park in 2015 [see my review].Delibes had quite a varied career, though he remains best known for his ballets, Coppelia and Sylvia. As a boy he sang in the première of Meyerbeer's Le prophète at […]
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