HECTOR BERLIOZ

Benvenuto Cellini

 

Gregory Kunde (Cellini)

Laura Claycomb (Teresa)

Darren Jeffery (Balducci)

Andrew Kennedy (Francesco)

Isabelle Cals (Ascanio)

John Relyea (Pope Clement VII)

Peter Coleman-Wright (Fieramosca)

Jacques Imbrailo (Pompeo)

Andrew Foster-Williams (Bernardino)

Alasdair Elliott (Cabaretier)

 

London Symphony Chorus

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis

 

This title will not be issued on standard CD A high density DSD recording (5.0), live at the Barbican, June 2007

 

Between 2000 and 2003 Sir Colin Davis made six incredibly successful recordings of Berlioz's works on LSO Live.They garnered praise from around the world as well as collecting numerous awards. Sir Colin returned to the cycle in late-2007 with an acclaimed recording of Berlioz's oratorio L'enfance du Christ and follows it with the opera Benvenuto Cellini. Sir Colin has had a special affinity with Berlioz throughout his career, having almost single-handedly rescued many of the composer's works from obscurity.As with so many of his compositions, Berlioz's flamboyount opera, inspired by the life of the Florentine goldsmith, proved almost impossible to cast or stage.Yet even even by Berlioz's standards it contains music of incredible inventiveness and beauty. Joining Sir Colin on the new recording are a fantastic cast led by Gregory Kunde as Cellini and Laura Claycomb as Teresa.The recording was made during edge-of-seat performances at the Barbican in London during June 2007.

 

"In Davis's hands, its [the opera's] originality and imagination are fully vindicated. The cast attack the piece with skill and immense vigour. Gregory Kunde rises to the full stature of Berlioz's thinly disguised self-portrait of the artist as romantic hero. Davis's identification with the score brings out the best in his forces, allowing this neglected work to register as a masterpiece" *****The Guardian

 

"every last detail … is painted with lively brushstrokes by the orchestra and excellent London Symphony Chorus ... Kunde gradually integrates the various parts of his tenor to triumph as the vindicated sculptor and silversmith. As Cellini's beloved, Laura Claycomb is a convincingly youthful and vulnerable Teresa, and Isabelle Cals excels in the trouser-role of Ascanio. Peter Coleman-Wright's Fieramosca is a masterpiece of coiled jealousy" The Times

 

Libretto in French with English translation. Sung in French

 

LSO 2SACDs LSO0623