Fascination Opera: A Virtuoso Firework of Fantasies & Variations

Nineteenth-century opera arrangements for flute and piano form an extensive body of work that has so far received little attention in the annals of music history. Its neglect by researchers is in stark contrast to the prominence of such arrangements in the performing practice of the period. Through these pieces, opera lovers have access to works that often disappeared from the repertory not long after their premiere and for the most part are not available in modern editions. These works lie forgotten in libraries and archives; the arrangements are testimony to their former popularity. In order to reproduce the flute sound of the time in all its diversity, Dorothea Seel has chosen three different flutes for this recording: a flute by Ignaz Ziegler (c. 1830) with 10 keys, an instrument by H.C. Stumpel (c. 1860) with 11 keys, and a conical ring-key flute (c. 1890). Dorothea Seel specializes in the transverse flute of the 18th and 19th centuries and is active in leading period instrument ensembles. She is the artistic director of the Barocksolisten München. (Munic Baroque Soloists) and has released albums of orchestral music with her ensemble, as well as chamber music in collaboration with Christoph Hammer. Beyond standard repertoire such as the flute sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, she is dedicated to exploring new musical territory, as her recordings of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s sonatas for flute and pianoforte, arrangements of bel canto opera, as well as the sacred music for large chamber ensemble of Johann Zach demonstrate.