Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)
Reissue Producer and Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
The RCA Victor recording of Raffaello de Banfield’s 1955 opera Lord Byron’s Love Letter is a true rarity, remaining in their catalogue for only a short time and never reissued on CD before now. Based on a Tennessee Williams play set in late 19th-century New Orleans during the Mardi Gras, it revolves around an eccentric old lady, lost in the past, who displays to visitors an old love letter for money, purportedly by the rakish English poet. The opera was praised by Time magazine for its ‘vocal beauty’.
Raffaello de Banfield: Lord Byron's Love Letter
Scene 1: When are you going to learn how to play that piece? (Old Woman, Spinster)
Scene 2: Won't you come in? (Spinster, Matron, Old Woman)
Scene 2: Also he swam the Hellespont (Old Woman, Spinster, Matron)
Scene 3: Ah! Winston! Remove that silly hat! (Matron, Spinster, Old Woman, Husband)
Scene 4: We set out in the early morning for the Acropolis (Spinster, Old Woman)
Scene 4: Do you mind if I don't climb any higher? (Old Woman, Spinster, Matron)
Scene 4: Une saison enchantee! I mused. Beguiled (Spinster, Old Woman)
Scene 4: Mama, mama - you'll miss it! (Husband, Matron, Spinster, Old Woman)
Scene 5: Canaille! Canaille! Canaille! (Spinster, Old Woman)
Alban Berg: Wozzeck, Op. 7
Act I: Interlude - Military Music - Cradle Song: Soldaten, Soldaten sind schoner Burschen!
Act III: Aber die Pharisaer brachten ein Weib zu ihm
Act III: Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz
October 2011
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“1950s rarity (on a libretto by Tennessee Williams) provides a vehicle for sopranos Astrid Varnay and Gertude Ribla - who's also impressive in a pioneering recording of excerpts from Berg's Wozzeck.”
Scene 1: When are you going to learn how to play that piece? (Old Woman, Spinster)
