2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Isn't Authentic But It Meets You More Than Half Way !, June 14, 2010
This review is from: Carl Orff: Orpheus (Carl Orff's Original Authorized Recording) (Audio CD)
Monteverdi's three surviving full length stage works are notoriously difficult to bring off in the theatre, and even more difficult to realize musically. The surviving original materials are little more than vocal lines and figured bass. There are any number of approaches that can work or fail. Having attended performances that have used less than ten instruments and up to full scale modern orchestras, I can attest that a lot depends on the commitment of the musicians to "sell" this composer to modern audiences. Carl Orff's somewhat abridged sixty-six minute version of ORFEO in German translation takes the big orchestra approach and may work for many listeners in a way that other more authentic editions of this opera don't. Although Orff uses some archaic instruments for historical "color", this version would double bill quite comfortably with his DER MOND or DIE KLUGE.
The singing of Hermann Prey, Lucia Popp, Rose Wagemann and Karl Ridderbusch is uniformly wonderful and expressive. Orff himself makes a brief appearance as a narrator at the beginning.
Conductor Kurt Eichhorn makes things really exciting in the pit.
Although the singers are sometimes too closely miked, the sound recording is generally excellent.
There is a good note on the development of Orff's adaptation, but the libretto is in German only.
It is somewhat annoying that Monteverdi's name doesn't even appear on the front cover !
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