Ritratto

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Jeths’s story about the meaning and purpose of art is a powerful and accomplished piece of music theatre. His own post-modernist style helps...It’s invidious to single out individuals from the... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 11th Dec 2020
Catalogue No: CC72849
Label: Challenge Classics
Length: 88 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

February 2021

Opera Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 0: ‘Warm Welcome’

Work length3:41

£0.80

£1.12

Martin Mkhize
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 1: ‘Party at the Palazzo’

Work length12:15

£1.61

£2.25

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo, Sam Carl
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 2: ‘A Break by Brooks’

Work length22:00

Album only

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo, Sam Carl
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 3: ‘Three is a Crowd’

Work length8:23

£1.20

£1.69

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 4: ‘The End of an Era’

Work length4:10

£0.80

£1.12

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 5: ‘The Two of Us Together’

Work length18:58

Album only

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

Jeths: Ritratto, Scene 6: ‘Battlefield Deliberation’

Work length18:50

Album only

Cameron Shahbazi, Lucas van Lierop, Dominic Kraemer, Martin Mkhize, Frederik Bergman, Paride Cataldo, Sam Carl
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch National Opera
Geoffrey Paterson

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'Ritratto' or 'Portrait' is an opera by Dutch composer Willem Jeths which focusses on the legendary figure of Luisa Casati, the richest Italian woman living at the beginning of 20th Century and muse of many great artists.

"I wish to be a living work of art," reads the famous comment made by Luisa Casati, the extravagant Marchesa who drew everyone's attention to herself as a high society personality in the early 20th century and who inspired a number of leading artists to take up their writing pens, paintbrushes and cameras: Casati was the most prolifically portrayed woman of her age. She was both Muse and Maecenas who gathered an extensive coterie of famous artists around herself an egregious set of people, some of whom were also her lovers, including Gabriele D'Annunzio, Man Ray, Filippo Marinetti, Kees van Dongen, Giovanni Boldini and Romaine Brooks. The Russian designer Lon Bakst dressed her in the most exotic of costumes.

She led a split existence. On the one hand, she turned herself into a living work of art and organised grotesque parties as the backdrops to her own performances; on the other hand, she commissioned artists to immortalise her as a "piece of art" and artists were queuing up at her door as she had enormous wealth at her fingertips to realise these whims.

In the opera, Casati's biography is compressed into a single party evening at her Venetian palazzo. Over seven scenes, we see a melange of events from the heroine's life that actually occurred over many decades, to which the creators then added their own dreamed-up plot. Jeths's palette as a composer has become ever richer and more dramatic as the years have passed. His spectrum ranges from attention to sound and colour to a subtle use of harmonic tension. His musical language was originally more atonal, but he has always flirted with tonality. And now more than ever, his notes are at the service of the text, the theatrical impression and the beauty of the human voice. In his music, Jeths employs multiple references to existing music.

"Jeth's story about the meaning and purpose of art is a powerful and accomplished piece of music theatre." Christopher Cook, BBC Music Magazine Opera Choice of the Month, Performance: 5 STARS / Recording: 5 STARS

Reviews

February 2021

Jeths’s story about the meaning and purpose of art is a powerful and accomplished piece of music theatre. His own post-modernist style helps...It’s invidious to single out individuals from the young cast...but Verity Wingate is compelling as Luisa, and Paride Cataldo’s posturing D’Annunzio all but steals the show. Laurels, too, for Geoffrey Patterson who conducts the Amsterdam Sinfonietta with complete conviction.

May/June 2021

the singers on this recording are really wonderful. From her soaring voice, clear intonation and control, Verity Wingate is very obviously committed to this role…the same goes for the rest of the singers, as well as the instrumentalists of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta—all are clearly balanced and coordinated in the execution of the score.

Ritratto

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