Igor Stravinsky's Perséphone is rarely recorded and performed because it is what would now be termed a multimedia presentation: it is written for tenor soloist (Eumolphe), a female speaker (the title role), a Greek chorus, with children's voice, a dancer, and an orchestra. The melodrama form is unfamiliar today, but the dance element should not form any impediment: many of Stravinsky's most famous scores are ballets. At any rate, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, leading the Finnish National Opera Chorus, Children's Chorus, and ...
Read More
Igor Stravinsky's Perséphone is rarely recorded and performed because it is what would now be termed a multimedia presentation: it is written for tenor soloist (Eumolphe), a female speaker (the title role), a Greek chorus, with children's voice, a dancer, and an orchestra. The melodrama form is unfamiliar today, but the dance element should not form any impediment: many of Stravinsky's most famous scores are ballets. At any rate, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, leading the Finnish National Opera Chorus, Children's Chorus, and Orchestra in a well-recorded live performance, makes an excellent case for broader distribution. The work is in French, with a text by André Gide that Stravinsky broke up into choppy syllables, much to Gide's annoyance. But it has the punchy rhythmic quality of Stravinsky's best neoclassic works, with the large orchestra often broken up into chamber groupings. Sample the very beginning for an idea. The text is a bit odd, a sort of progressive Christian interpretation of the Greek...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.