Global Fascinations and Sophistications

Che Originali!

Guild Music Ltd, who are based in Switzerland, have their UK setup in St. Helier, Jersey. A label that specializes in the unfamilar, Che Originali! is a delightful little-known comic opera by Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845), a Mendorf-born composer educated in a Benedictine Monastery, who found a Baron as patron. Travelling to Bergamo and Venice he started on an operatic career and became Maestro di Capella with 80 operas, symphonies, chamber music and 600 sacred works to his credit. He taught Donizetti.

To a libretto by Gaetano Rossi, the opera-buffa concerns a Don's manic enthusiasm for art with his two daughters providing the love interest. Whatever difficulty listeners experience unravelling the complex naïvety of the plot are more than made up by the music, which however indebted to Haydn, Beethoven and Rossini, also conjures up reminders of Cimarosa and Paisiello in the arias and set ensembles [listen - disc 2 track 7, 0:20-1:20]. The main singers are Thomas Gropper, Stefanie Früh and Gisela Gropper, and the Georgisches Chamber Orchestra is conducted Franz Hauk. The Italian text comes with English translation and the admirably clear recording is produced by Jonathan R Wearn.

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