Argento: Casanova's Homecoming

Dominick Argento (Composer), Peter Jacoby (Conductor), Moores Opera Center (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Moores Opera Center
• Conductor: Peter Jacoby
• Composer: Dominick Argento
• Audio CD (June 1, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Newport Classic
• ASIN: B0002A2WGS
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,824 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Who Will Try A Cure For All Afflictions

2. So That Is The Legendary Casanova

3. Though Absent From These Ears And Eyes

4. So Casanova's Golden Days Are Over

5. La Destra Ti Chiedo

6. She's Superb! A Remarkable Performer

7. Joy Seems Greater Than Expected

8. Since I Do Not Know Your Name

9. Come My Angel

10. My Name Is Teresa

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Au Revoir, Madame

2. He's Got It! He's Got It!

3. Giulietta, I Would Like You To Meet Teresa Calori

4. Lorenzo, Pass Out The Priestly Garb

5. Can't We Quit? I Think I'm Going To Throw Up

6. Evil Spirits Departing, A Very Good Omen

7. La Biondina In Gondoleta

8. I Still See That Mad Old Lady

9. Well, Don't Just Stand There! Have Them Brought Up

10. Cavaliere Casanova? You Have Heard The Allegations

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life is the only blessing man possesses!, March 19, 2005

By 

Michael Anthony (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Argento: Casanova's Homecoming (Audio CD)

"Premiered in 1985, Argento's 13th opera, "Casanova's Homecoming," was long overdue for a recording. Now it has a good one, drawn from a live performance three years ago at the Moores Opera Center in Houston. Argento wrote his own libretto for what is surely his wittiest work for the stage, focusing on two lively episodes from the memoirs of the famous 18th-century rake, one involving a plot to discredit the aging Casanova's liaison with a woman impersonating a castrato and the other his presumed swindling of the rich, crazed Madame d'Urfe who is obsessed with occult mind-body transference. Argento weaves all this together skillfully, mixing 18th-century textures with his own lyrically oriented 20th-century idiom. True to opera buffa form, the score moves quickly but never loses a bittersweet, autumnal feeling, as a lovely tenor aria floats in the background and Casanova gives us his motto: 'Life is the only blessing man possesses, and those who do not live it are unworthy of it.' Conductor Peter Jacoby's well-paced performance underlines the show's humor and its sense of heartache, and he gets strong performances from his cast, most of whom, amazingly, are students. One might wish for a little more twinkle, a little more the sense of a raconteur, in Patryk Wroblewski's Casanova, but it's a solid, warm-hearted interpretation, and Débria Brown easily finds the deranged exuberance in Madame D'Urfe. Moreover, it's a tribute to Argento's skill at setting English that one can actually listen to this record without reading along in the accompanying text and understand just about every word. That can't be said about most operas in English."

Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 30, 2005