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Notes
Around 1902 Leo Blech nabbed the subject of the “original romantic-comic magic” play by Viennese theater manager/actor/playwright Ferdinand Raimund, had it streamlined, and turned it into his fifth opera. A cantankerous misanthrope terrorizes family and servants with his paranoid mistrust. He’s only cured when faced with his own behavior courtesy of supernatural role reversal. Highbrow opera meets folksy farce with unexpectedly gorgeous, splendidly orchestrated music somewhere between Wagner and Humperdinck. The premiere at the Dresden Court Theater was a sensational success. Then all of Blech’s music was banned and once the Nazi horror was over, it never came back. Now you can hear what we missed.
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Reviews
**** Excellent Album
Pierre Flinois – Classica magazine (France) – March 2023
“… The entire cast, under Ward’s careful direction, is refreshingly artless and idiomatic, as if they have been singing this worthy rarity their whole lives…”
Allan Altman – American Record Guide – January/February 2023
“An extremely valuable and well-presented first recording of a neglected work which by no means deserves its obscurity.”
Paul Corfield Godfrey – MusicWeb-International.com – 29 November 2022
Sound 9 Booklet 9 Repertoire 8.5 Interpretation 9
“… two hours of frank pleasure, with inspired orchestral preludes for each of the three acts (the horns are valiant in the initial opening), and an overall atmosphere which is not without evoking again the memory of the magic of Humperdinck, but also accents of Richard Strauss.”
Jean Lacroix – Crescendo magazine.be – 23 November 2022
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