| Label: CHANDOS
Catalog: CHAN3167
Format: CD Gerald Finley, baritone; Lucy Crowe, soprano; Anna Marie Gibbons, mezzo-soprano; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner2011 Juno Award Winner - CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: VOCAL OR CHORAL PERFORMANCE
Wholenote Discoveries - April 2010
For no logical reason, opera sounds better when you can’t understand it. We seem satisfied with knowing the plot and reading projected “surtitles” in order to follow the progress of grand opera. We grant a foreign language status as carrier of refinement and class, keeping opera tantalizingly beyond the reach of many potential new followers. English seems just fine for Oklahoma and Pinafore but what about Verdi and Wagner? Baritone Gerald Finley is a key player in the CHANDOS Opera in English series funded by British Philanthropist Peter Moores whose mission is to have us all enjoy opera as much as Italian, French and German audiences do. The project’s core belief is that opera in an audience’s native language conveys the immediacy of each moment more effectively. Perhaps not surprisingly, operas originally written in English seem just fine. And this may actually prove the point. Gerald Finley does a truly splendid job with arias from Adams’ Doctor Atomic and Turnage’s The Silver Tassie. These tracks offer credibility to other selections from Don Giovanni, Die Meistersinger and Otello. The Tosca excerpt is especially rewarding. Whatever the final verdict from opera lovers, it’s clear that opera sung in English translation seems a bit odd – at first. Much depends on the quality of the translation, matching English text to the phrasing and cadence of music never intended as a poetic partner. Done well, however, it actually works. Listen to Gerald Finley and you’ll understand why. Alex Baran
Gramophone Editor's Choice - April 2010
Leading baritone and dramatic interpreter of his generation, Gerald Finley is an artist who sets alight the stage and delights the ear, whatever the role he portrays.
On this his first arias disc, and first for Opera in English, he explores a broad range of repertory: old favourites, hidden treasures and roles which he himself has created, among them J.Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic and Harry Heegan in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie.
Gerald has won accolades across the globe including Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award at the 2006 Gramophone Awards for Stanford: Songs of the Sea (CHSA 5043).
English National Opera director, Edward Gardner offers a great understanding of Opera in English and here conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his debut on Chandos.  Price: $20.98 |
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