Braunfels: Die Vögel

Walter Braunfel's Die Vögel is that very rare thing - a neglected work which really is worth reviving...The staging is colourful, with plenty of well-coordinated movement, and James Conlon conducts... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2011, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Nov 2010
Catalogue No: 101529
Label: Arthaus Musik

Live Recording From The Los Angeles Opera, 2009
Désirée Rancatore (Nightingale), Brandon Jovanovich (Good Hope), James Johnson (Loyal Friend) & Martin Gantner (Hoopoe)
Los Angeles Opera Orchestra & Chorus
James Conlon (conductor) & Darko Tresnjak (stage director)

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World Premiere Recording on DVD

Set Design by David P. Gordon

A production of the LA Opera House ground-breaking Recovered Voices project, highlighting the works of composers affected by the Holocaust. Walter Braunfels, a strong advocate of neo-Romanticism, made significant contributions to the world of twentieth-century opera. Yet, he lost his rightful places in twentieth-century opera houses.

His music inhabits a very different world, both geographically and aesthetically, nurtured far from Vienna’s charged, multi-cultural atmosphere. Deeply rooted in German Classicism and Romanticism, he conceals none of his admiration for the inherited past and sees himself as building on its fundamentals. By almost any standard, he was a conservative. The premiere of Die Vögel in Munich in 1920, under the direction of Bruno Walter (who still lauded the work as late as 1950), was a huge public and critical success. The number of productions and performances in the following years was staggering. However, in the post- World War II years of his “rehabilitation,” Braunfels never regained a foothold. Die Vögel was not produced again until 1971 in Karlsruhe and 1994 in Berlin.

"A rare chance to hear Braunfels‘s lighthearted, tenderly spiritual and little-known fable…“ The New York Times

"A marvelous performance…the orchestra sounded radiant.“ Los Angeles Times

"Conlon conducted with lustrous élan…We should hear more of Braunfels‘ work.” Financial Times, London

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, ES, IT, JP

Running Time: 132 mins

FSK: 0

Reviews

February 2011

Walter Braunfel's Die Vögel is that very rare thing - a neglected work which really is worth reviving...The staging is colourful, with plenty of well-coordinated movement, and James Conlon conducts his Los Angeles forces persuasively, as well as writing helpfully about the opera in the booklet.

Braunfels: Die Vögel

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