Erik Bruchez
Mon, 09 Feb 2004 22:10:52 -0800
1. A new CD has just been released by the "Region of Tuscany" (Regione Toscana) entitled "Omaggio a Mascagni". It contains an anthology of most of Mascagni's opera. The discography entry is available here:
This CD may or may not be available outside Italy, but I am told that it is possible to obtain more for a price of $4. Please contact me if interested, and I will try to see what I can do.
The selection is in a vein similar to that of "Rarita Mascagnane", a CD released almost 10 years ago by Bongiovanni:
The selection here is very good as well. The audio restoration, although decent, is not quite state of the art, and the sound is sometimes boxy, which is typical of too much noise reduction. The music is very enjoyable nonetheless.
One of my favorites is the Nerone excerpt sung by Margherita
Carosio ("Danzo notte e di"). I hadn't heard her with such clarity
before. She has a wonderful voice, and this is one of the most
beautiful Mascagni aria. It is also, probably, one of Mascagni's
last operatic compositions. As far as I know this is one of the two
excerpts recorded and filmed on November 5, 1936 for the movie
Regina della Scala, under the direction of Mascagni. Carosio
appears to have recorded the piece again twenty years later, in
1956!Another gem is "Va' nella tua stanzetta", from Il piccolo Marat, and you can compare with the version sung by Lazaro on "Rarita Mascagnane".
2. Following the release of the second volume of songs by Boccaccini & spada, I have updated the page dedicated to Mascagni's songs:
For those who missed it, the page features actual songs performed by Patricia Wright and David Vine, as well as some information about scores and recordings.
One new item of interest is a volume of songs published in Japan, featuring songs by Catalani, Leoncavallo, Zandonai and Mascagni.
3. I put online a few new documents, including an advertisement endorsed by Mascagni during his 1902-1903 tournee for a weird instrument called a piano-player (not a player piano). It looks like it is a piano "add-on", which you place in front of an existing piano.
4. Finally, the following Rapsodia Satanica items, a program for the performance of April 27, 2003 in Amsterdam, and a photo of the front page of what appears to be an old libretto:
http://www.mascagni.org/book-reader/image/506874/1/0 http://www.mascagni.org/book-reader/image/506877/1/0 http://www.mascagni.org/framed-images/500271/9
-Erik _______________________________________________ mascagni-interest mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.alphanet.ch/mailman/listinfo/mascagni-interest