Massenet: Chérubin

Chérubin is Massenet's lightest, most charming opera. …this is a thoroughly enjoyable performance. …with Emmanuel Villaume conducting the Cagliari forces with a fine feeling for the sugary and... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards 2006 More…

Catalogue No: 33508
Label: Dynamic

Massenet: Chérubin

Michelle Breedt (Chérubin), Patrizia Ciofi (L'Ensoleillad), Carmela Remigio (Nina) & Giorgio Surian (Le Philosophe)
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Lirico di Cagliari
Emmanuel Villaume (conductor) & Paul Curran (director)

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Dynamic, which has already in its catalogue a few neglected operas by Massenet, has the pleasure to offer another rarity by this composer, this Chérubin recorded live in Cagliari in the fall of last year. The old Mozartian Cherubino of Le nozze di Figaro is no longer the young lad in his first naive contacts with women: his age moved on from 13 to 17 years and, of course, takes on more adolescent connotations. Massenet brings these aspects out well as he characterises Chérubin with vocal scoring that favours ample, intensely cantabile phrases, with leaps towards the acute register that give full vent to the lyrical soprano voice, with moments of sudden emphasis and equally rapid disappointments - a real tempest of hormones, light years away from the Voi che sapete of Mozart’s page boy. The orchestration, too, is noteworthy (not so grandiose as usual, lighter and more attentive to detail), some eighteenth-century echoes, various Mozart references, and Italian but especially Spanish accents which ”colour” the score at several points.

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Awards 2006

Chérubin is Massenet's lightest, most charming opera. …this is a thoroughly enjoyable performance. …with Emmanuel Villaume conducting the Cagliari forces with a fine feeling for the sugary and emotional elements in Massenet's score. Chérubin is a confection and as such should not be taken over-seriously.

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Massenet: Chérubin

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