This release is an outstanding version of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha. Not only because this recording - which was orchestrated by the American composer and jazz musician Gunther Schuller in 1975 for the Houston Grand Opera - probably comes the closest to Joplin’s original intention, but also because the recording’s crisp and bright sound can now be cherished on 2 SACDs, complete with a full libretto in English.
Joplin’s uniquely beautiful and dearly inspiring score is a buoyant blend of ragtime, vaudeville and grand opera, with lots of dancing, a big portion for the chorus, and arias and ensembles of stunning beauty. The composition has an inherently American tone and it was definitely created by a true entertainer. It is “a landmark set”, as Christopher Cook put it in a review in BBC Music Magazine (August 2005).
