Anyone who loves Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage should try to hear this two-disc set. Whether they'll make it all the way through is another matter. For those who adore the opera's joyful lyricism, its dancing rhythms, and its brilliant orchestrations, the chance to hear a live broadcast recording of the work's premiere at Covent Garden in 1955 with Joan Sutherland as Jenifer will be irresistible. This is as it should be: Sutherland was one of the great sopranos of the '50s and '60s and her performance here is everything ...
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Anyone who loves Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage should try to hear this two-disc set. Whether they'll make it all the way through is another matter. For those who adore the opera's joyful lyricism, its dancing rhythms, and its brilliant orchestrations, the chance to hear a live broadcast recording of the work's premiere at Covent Garden in 1955 with Joan Sutherland as Jenifer will be irresistible. This is as it should be: Sutherland was one of the great sopranos of the '50s and '60s and her performance here is everything one could hope for from the young prima donna: radiantly fresh, effortlessly virtuosic, and deeply moving. Coupled with the heroic but not always confident tenor Richard Lewis, Sutherland grants warmth and humanity to the at times heavily symbolic libretto. As far as it's possible to tell, given the poor sound quality, conductor John Pritchard leads the Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus in a bright, alert, and colorful performance. But so poor is the sound quality that most of the...
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