Various Artists – Havergal Brian: The Cenci – Opera in Eight Scenes (Live) (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Various Artists – Havergal Brian: The Cenci – Opera in Eight Scenes (Live) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:41:24 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Classics

The Cenci (1951–52) is Havergal Brian’s operatic realisation of Shelley’s gruesome tale of incest and parricide in Renaissance Italy. The score calls it simply ‘Opera in Eight Scenes’, but it rarely goes in for grand tunes; instead, its dark colours reflect Shelley’s fascination with the struggle between good and evil. Stylistically, it is an unusual but highly effective hybrid: a music-drama focused on the intense delivery of Shelley’s text, with the declamatory style of the vocal lines echoing such recent oratorios as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, and the freewheeling orchestral writing producing something of a vocal symphony.

Tracklist:
1-1. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci: Overture (Live) (13:57)
1-2. James Kelleher – The Cenci, Scene 1: An Apartment in the Cenci Palace (Live) (08:48)
1-3. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 2: A Garden of the Cenci Palace (Live) (07:44)
1-4. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 3: A Magnificent Hall in the Cenci Palace (Live) (10:25)
1-5. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 4: An Apartment in the Castle of Petrella (Live) (13:17)
2-1. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 5: Before the Castle of Petrella (Live) (15:59)
2-2. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 6: An Apartment in Orsino’s Palace (Live) (06:15)
2-3. The Millennium Sinfonia – The Cenci, Scene 7: The Hall of Justice (Live) (09:55)
2-4. Helen Field – The Cenci, Scene 8: A Hall of the Prison (Live) (15:04)

Personnel:
Helen Field, soprano
David Wilson-Johnson, baritone
Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir, contralto
Stuart Kale, tenor
Justin Lavender, tenor
Jeffery Carl, baritone
Nicholas Buxton, tenor
Devon Harrison, bass
Serena Kay, soprano
The Millennium Sinfonia
James Kelleher, conductor

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