Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini album cover

Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini

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Title

Berlioz’s flamboyant opera Benvenuto Cellini is inspired by the life of the legendary Florentine goldsmith and Renaissance figure. Its first performances in Paris during 1838-39 were disastrous as it proved too great a challenge for the musicians of the day. Yet even by Berlioz’s high standards it contains music of exceptional inventiveness and beauty.

Composer Berlioz
Conductor Sir Colin Davis
Performers London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus
Soloists Gregory Kunde, Laura Claycomb, Darren Jeffery, Peter Coleman-Wright, Andrew Kennedy, Isabelle Cals, Jacques Imbrailo, John Relyea, Andrew Foster-Williams, Alasdair Elliott

Benvenuto Cellini: Disc 1
1. Ouverture
2. Teresa!
3. Enfin Il Est Sorti
4. Les Belles Fleurs!
5. Quand J'aurai Votre Âge
6. Cellini!
7. Ah! Mourir, Chère Belle
8. Ciel! Nous Sommes Perdus!
9. A Nous, Voisines Et Servantes!
10. Ah! Maître Drôle, Ah, Libertin!
11. Une Heure Encore
12. A Boire, À Boire
13. Amis, Avant Qu'on Recommence
14. Cette Somme T'est Due
15. Oui, Oui Cette Somme Ètait Due
16. C'est Trop Fort
17. Ah! Aui Pourrait Me Résister?
18. Finale - Le Carnaval
19. Vous Voyez, J'espère
20. Venez, Venez Peuple de Rome


Benvenuto Cellini: Disc 2
1. Entree D'arléquin
2. Ariette de Pasquarello
3. Il Plaît Fort
4. Soyez Surpris
5. Ah! Cher Canon Du Fort
6. Entr'acte
7.Ah, Qu'est-il Devenu
8. Ma Dague en Main
9. Ah! Je Te Trouve Enfin
10. Le Pape Ici!
11. Ah, Maintenant de Sa Folle Impudence
12. Prelude
13. Tra la la La
14. Seul Pour Lutter
15. Bien Heuruex Les Matelots
16. Vite Au Travail, Sans Plus Attendre
17. Peuple Ouvrier
18. Ciel, C'est Fieramosca!
19. Couvrez-moi Ce Drôle
20. Teresa, Teresa, Ici
21. Du Métal! Du Métal

Release date May 2008
LSO0623 | 0822231162322

Digital booklet in English / Notes de programme en français / Einführungstexte auf Deutsch. Includes complete libretto with English translatio. Sung in French.

Producer James Mallinson
Engineers Classic Sound Ltd
Recorded June 2007 in the Barbican Hall, London

Available on streaming services

Reviews

No conductor today excels Sir Colin Davis in Berlioz’s music and this performance of perhaps his most brilliant opera finds him in sparkling form. The American soprano Laura Claycomb is excellent in the coloratura role of Teresa, dominating the performance with her charm and vivaciousness.

- Sunday Telegraph

Berlioz’s unconventional opera Benvenuto Cellini curiously mixes the heroic and the farcical. Still, the composer thought it one of his most original scores. Colin Davis is a renowned Berlioz interpreter, and this new recording, taken from live performances with the London Symphony, makes the strongest case for this fascinating work.

- The New York Times

Conductor and tenor are the joint heroes of this exhilarating release ... Davis remains the supreme Berliozian of our day, brilliantly evoking the mercurial wit of the comic repartee ... anyone who doesn’t own this fabulous score should snap it up.

- The Sunday Times’ Classical CD of the Week