I think of Il Prigioniero as Puccini meets Berg. Dallapiccola has taken Berg's heavy romantic approach to the 12-tone system and Italianized it. As 12-tone music goes, it's pretty darned lyrical; and Patricia Racette, Gerald Finley, and Peter Horare make the lyrical most of it in this dramatic performance.
The NY Phil radio broadcast with Gerald Finley is finally
available at InstantEncore.
I could not find an English translation, but here is the original Italian libretto.
And here are the NY Phil program
notes by Alan Gilbert. For more background, here are two reviews: Zerbinetta’s
for Bachtrack, and Anthony
Tommassini’s for the New York Times.
This is the problem with opera blogs - I hear about things and I want to listen to them, and the list gets longer and longer and longer . . .
ReplyDeleteI hope your move is going well!
My move could be going worse! At least I had time to listen to Il Prigioniero. The good news is it's about 45 minutes total, so it's not a huge time investment for a once-through. On the other hand, it rewards multiple re-listenings.
Delete