Trojahn: Orest

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With bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel inhabiting the part with total, sometimes terrifying conviction, and electrifying conducting from Marc Albrecht, this live recording from the premiere run... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 10th Feb 2014
Catalogue No: CC72605
Label: Challenge Classics
Length: 76 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Trojahn: Orest

Work length1:15:59

Album only

Dietrich Henschel, Sarah Castle, Johannes Chum, Romy Petrick, Finnur Bjarnason
Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Marc Albrecht

Szene 1

Track length17:43

Album only

Szene 2

Track length12:42

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

Szene 3

Track length10:56

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Szene 4

Track length9:50

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Intermezzo

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Szene 5

Track length11:20

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

Szene 6

Track length11:57

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

About
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About

Orest, the opera by the German composer Manfred Trojahn, was written for the Netherlands Opera. The world premiere took place in Amsterdam, amid spectacular splashes of gore and commensurate splatters of sound, in December 2011 and this recording was made during those performances. The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Marc Albrecht, and the title role of Orestes is sung by the celebrated German baritone Dietrich Henschel with Rosemary Joshua as Helen.

Manfred Trojahn’s Orest is a music theatre work in six scenes set to the composer’s own libretto. This 2011 premiere production by Netherlands Opera was directed by Katie Mitchell with set designs by Giles Cadle. Netherlands Opera commissioned Trojahn’s sixth opera to finish a series that focused on the House of Atreus, rounding off the cycle of violence by adding the murder of Helen of Troy to the carnage surrounding Iphigenie, Idomeneo and Elektra. Trojahn’s libretto is based on Euripides and the narrative follows the Greek story closely. The subject matter, with its myriad musical and literary allusions, seems to have steered the composer towards a harmonic language more rooted in the past than he might otherwise have adopted. Certainly Richard Strauss’s influence is amply audible.

Reviews

May 2014

With bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel inhabiting the part with total, sometimes terrifying conviction, and electrifying conducting from Marc Albrecht, this live recording from the premiere run of the piece in 2011 amply proves why Opernwelt magazine picked Orest as its 'Preimiere of the Year'.

August 2014

From its very first sounds—the spine-chilling scream that opens the work and provides the foundation for much of the music that ensues, including the ‘spectral’ timbres that recur with such diverse colouring— the music serves the drama in a grippingly direct and vivid manner. And in part because of the way it folds a plethora of different idiomatic allusions into its enclosing modernist style, the music is also rich and rewarding in its own right.

Opera Now

Albrecht’s conducting is concise and exciting. Dietrich Henschel’s Orest is a model of clarity and Sarah Castle’s beautifully sung and even-toned Elektra captures the character’s resolution and passion. Rosemary Joshua’s gleaming soprano suits Helena’s solipsism and Romy Petrick’s soars even higher as Hermione.

Trojahn: Orest

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