Loder: Raymond & Agnes

With the clear influence of Weber, Loder’s music is certainly much the best element, but quite a lot of it falls back into the limited world of the music-shop ballad – though there are undoubtedly... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2018, 3 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Release Date: 10th Aug 2018
Catalogue No: RO005
Label: Retrospect Opera

Opera

October 2018

Recording of the Month

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Loder: Raymond & Agnes

Majella Cullagh (Agnes), Mark Milhofer (Raymond), Andrew Greenan (Baron), Carolyn Dobbin (Madelina), Quentin Hayes (Antoni), Alessandro Fisher (Theodore), Alexander Robin Baker (Francesco)
Retrospect Opera Chorus, Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Richard Bonynge

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Interview, Richard Bonynge on Edward J. Loder

28th August 2018

The veteran operatic conductor talks to Katherine about the world premiere recording of the Bath-born composer's Gothic melodrama Raymond and Agnes, out now on Retrospect Opera.

Loder’s Raymond and Agnes (1855) is the supreme example of the height of English Romantic opera of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Set long ago in a Germany of forest and castle, it features a passionate Gothic love story, with a wicked Baron, a ghost and an ill-treated heroine. This 2-CD Digipak is the first complete recording of the opera, recorded at St. Jude-on-the-Hill, London in October 2017. Its comprehensive accompanying booklet offers three authoritative essays as well as the complete libretto.

Reviews

November 2018

With the clear influence of Weber, Loder’s music is certainly much the best element, but quite a lot of it falls back into the limited world of the music-shop ballad – though there are undoubtedly sections of finer and more serious cast, starting with a more than respectable overture.

October 2018

The score has an abundance of magical moments…The performance is mostly good. Bonynge is an old hand in this area of the repertory, of course…As far as the singers go, Mark Milhofer’s Raymond is the standout: sweet-toned, ardent and agile…For anyone interested in 19th-century opera, this a major release

October 2018

Not everything works, but the numbers in Raymond and Agnes that really make one sit up are the duets and ensembles, mercurial in mood and flexing a dramatic muscle unmatched in English music of the time…[Bonynge’s] stylistic sense in Romantic British opera is impeccable, and despite some rough edges the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is awake to the nuances of Loder’s orchestration. The 24-strong chorus is exceptionally good.

Opera Now January 2019

So the arias are relatively straightforward in their charm and grace, but it’s in the ensembles and finales that he really becomes interesting – for example, the Act II quintet, where the voices weave across each other and take turns at the fore, showing that Loder knew his Lucia di Lammermoor sextet. The singing is good.

Loder: Raymond & Agnes

2 CDs

Contents

Interview, Richard Bonynge on Edward J. Loder

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