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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018 Breathtaking coloratura: Sabine Devieilhe offers a fascinating and beguiling programme with Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth ‘Écho’ Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini – Les belles fleurs Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor – Lucia, perdona …a; Regnava nel silenzio Halévy La Juive – Assez longtemps la crainte et la tristesse Hérold Le pré aux clercs – Jours de mon enfance Meyerbeer Robert le diable – Robert, toi que j’aime; Quand je quittai la Normandie; Va, dit-elle, va, mon enfant Rossini Guillaume Tell – Ils s’éloignent enfin Weber/Berlioz Le Freyschütz – Hélas! sans le revoir Joyce El-Khoury sop aMichael Spyres ten Hallé Orchestra / Carlo Rizzi Opera Rara F ORR252 (79’ • DDD • T/t) ’ H O T E L I L L A U M E G U : P H O T O G R A P H Y With these two discs Opera Rara moves away from its predominantly Italian repertoire into territory occupied by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and its excellent CD-cum-book series of lesser-known 19th-century French operas. Julie Dorus-Gras (1805‑96) and Gilbert Duprez (1806‑96) starred in the premieres of two operas featured here, Guido et Ginévra and Benvenuto Cellini, and one that isn’t, Donizetti’s Les martyrs. Dorus-Gras appeared in the premieres of Robert le diable and La Juive; Duprez in Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Lucia di Lammermoor, Jérusalem and many others. Joyce El‑Khoury and Michael Spyres perform arias associated with their respective forebears and – a nice touch – each sings in a duet on the other’s recording. The booklets include a background article on the original singers, an introduction to each item, and full texts and translations. Rosie Ward quotes Berlioz’s praise of Duprez’s ‘chest voice … with … a beauty of sound for which nothing had prepared us’. She doesn’t quote Rossini’s comment that Duprez’s top C, the famous ut de poitrine, sounded like the squawk of a capon having its throat cut. Nothing of the sort can be levelled at Michael Spyres, who delivers Cs, Ds and, in Le lac des fées, an astonishing top E flat with overwhelming power and confidence. He begins with the French version of Otello’s ‘Ah! sì, per voi già sento’: if this is indeed Othello’s first utterance, it makes for a more commanding entrance than the recitative that precedes it in the original. Equally martial, with similar dotted rhythms, is the aria from Rosmonda. With Halévy’s Guido et Ginévra we are on really unfamiliar ground. Like Romeo, Guido mourns at his beloved’s tomb (and, like Juliet, Ginévra is not really dead). His air begins with a mournful trumpet solo in B flat minor and ends surprisingly in B major. The duet from the following act is powerfully dramatic. Spyres is magnificent throughout the disc, lacking only the honeyed tone of Nicolai Gedda where Benvenuto Cellini yearns for the 38 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018 Click on album covers to buy from gramophone.co.uk

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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018

Breathtaking coloratura: Sabine Devieilhe offers a fascinating and beguiling programme with Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth

‘Écho’ Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini – Les belles fleurs Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor – Lucia, perdona …a; Regnava nel silenzio Halévy La Juive – Assez longtemps la crainte et la tristesse Hérold Le pré aux clercs – Jours de mon enfance Meyerbeer Robert le diable – Robert, toi que j’aime; Quand je quittai la Normandie; Va, dit-elle, va, mon enfant Rossini Guillaume Tell – Ils s’éloignent enfin Weber/Berlioz Le Freyschütz – Hélas! sans le revoir Joyce El-Khoury sop aMichael Spyres ten Hallé Orchestra / Carlo Rizzi Opera Rara F ORR252 (79’ • DDD • T/t)

’ H O T E

L

I L L A U M E

G U

:

P H O T O G R A P H Y

With these two discs Opera Rara moves away from its predominantly Italian repertoire into territory occupied by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and its excellent

CD-cum-book series of lesser-known 19th-century French operas. Julie Dorus-Gras (1805‑96) and Gilbert Duprez (1806‑96) starred in the premieres of two operas featured here, Guido et Ginévra and Benvenuto Cellini, and one that isn’t, Donizetti’s Les martyrs. Dorus-Gras appeared in the premieres of Robert le diable and La Juive; Duprez in Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Lucia di Lammermoor, Jérusalem and many others. Joyce El‑Khoury and Michael Spyres perform arias associated with their respective forebears and – a nice touch – each sings in a duet on the other’s recording.

The booklets include a background article on the original singers, an introduction to each item, and full texts and translations. Rosie Ward quotes Berlioz’s praise of Duprez’s ‘chest voice … with … a beauty of sound for which nothing had prepared us’. She doesn’t quote Rossini’s comment that Duprez’s top C, the famous ut de poitrine,

sounded like the squawk of a capon having its throat cut. Nothing of the sort can be levelled at Michael Spyres, who delivers Cs, Ds and, in Le lac des fées, an astonishing top E flat with overwhelming power and confidence. He begins with the French version of Otello’s ‘Ah! sì, per voi già sento’: if this is indeed Othello’s first utterance, it makes for a more commanding entrance than the recitative that precedes it in the original. Equally martial, with similar dotted rhythms, is the aria from Rosmonda. With Halévy’s Guido et Ginévra we are on really unfamiliar ground. Like Romeo, Guido mourns at his beloved’s tomb (and, like Juliet, Ginévra is not really dead). His air begins with a mournful trumpet solo in B flat minor and ends surprisingly in B major. The duet from the following act is powerfully dramatic. Spyres is magnificent throughout the disc, lacking only the honeyed tone of Nicolai Gedda where Benvenuto Cellini yearns for the

38 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018

Click on album covers to buy from gramophone.co.uk

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