jmc's classics
Today is the anniversary of the premier of the opera "Martha" By Fredrick von Flotow(1812-1883). The premier took place in 1847 in Vienna Austria. Flotow is a "one hit wonders" of classical music and opera. He wrote other operas. The only one that is rerly performed was "Alessandro Stradella" which I have wrote about. The CPO label has issued a CD off Flotow's two Piano Concertos. I know that
Flotow wrote other works. It was a recording from 1903 of Edouard De Reszke singing the Porter Song that got me hooked on this opera. I then purchased a CD of this opera. There are only a few CDs available of this opera. There are individual areas from Martha and Alesandro Stradella available. Other famous opera singers have recorded arias from this opera. In the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera Nelson Eddy it opens with the Porter song. The other areas that are famous are "Ach so fromm" for tenors and the "Last rose of Summer" for sopranos. This opera has not been performed at the Met since 1960. I hope that it is revised soon along with Alesandro Stradella. The overture to Martha is one of the most appreciate works of Fredrick von Flotow. This is a comic opera in the Bel Canto tradition. "Bel Canto" is Italian for beautiful singing. I am not that in to serious operas. I like the comic operas much better. Bel Canto operas were popular in the 1800's. They were more of comic operas and not of a tragic or serious matter. There are many theories about why this opera fell in to obscurity. It is sometime referred to a "singer's opera" which means that the chorus has a bigger part. Flotow like Leoncavallo with I Pagliacci and Mascagni with Calveria Rusticanna are the biggest one hit wonders of opera. The Version that I have is that of Johannes Schuler with the Berlin Staatskapelle on the Berlin Classics label. It is from 1944. It is a good recording. I don't know much about any of his other works. I know that the two piano concertos exist. I doubt that there are any other recordings of them. The CPO label is a German label and they have released a lot of recordings of some of the obscure composers. I like their CDs. I applaud them for their work!
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