The Mask of Orpheus [Box set]

Omar Ebrahim (Performer), Alan Opie (Performer), Harrison Birtwistle (Composer), Andrew Davis (Conductor), BBC Singers (Performer), Anne-Marie Owens (Performer), Jean Rigby (Performer), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Marie Angel (Performer), Peter Bronder (Performer), Jon Garrison (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Omar Ebrahim, Alan Opie, BBC Singers, Anne-Marie Owens, Jean Rigby, et al.
• Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Andrew Davis
• Composer: Harrison Birtwistle
• Audio CD (January 25, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Nmc Records
• ASIN: B000009NNP
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,490 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Duets of Love: Duet of Hope

2. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Duets of Love: Duet of Distance

3. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Duets of Love: Duet of Despair

4. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Songs of Magic: Song of Words

5. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Songs of Magic: Song of Arches

6. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Songs of Magic: Song of Tides

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Statements of Reason: The Explanation

2. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Statements of Reason: The Argument

3. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Whispers of Change: Whisper of Death

4. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Whispers of Change: Whisper of Birth

5. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Whispers of Change: Whisper of Eternity

6. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Songs of Failure: Failure in Life

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Shouts of Gratitude: Shout of Victory

2. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Shouts of Gratitude: Shout of Wonder

3. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Hidden Trios: Trio of Tears

4. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Hidden Trios: Trio of Invective

5. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Hidden Trios: Trio of Abandon

6. The Mask of Orpheus, opera: 3 Poems of Reminiscence: Poem of Miracles

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing, Amazing - a Masterpiece, April 22, 2000

By 

Chad Witt - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mask of Orpheus (Audio CD)

Quite simply put, The Mask of Orpheus is not only one of the truly great operas of the twentieth century, but also one of the truly great masterpieces in 20th century music. At times gentle, at others violent, Mask is always lush.

Every note is amazing music. True, a little is lost since we're not able to actually see the opera - but the libretto is very extensive and those with any imagination whatsoever will be able to realize the piece in their own minds.

Birtwistle is on familiar territory here for those of you familiar with his other work: rituals, labyrinths, questions, quests, repetition, changes, examination, minute detail.

And for those of you not familiar with his music, this piece will take you on a totally remarkable ride. With each listen it astonishes me more and more.

As an aside, I bought this over a year ago but was going out of town, but I brought it along, first hearing it in the desert, in the middle of nowhere and was totally overwhelmed by what I heard - the love affair hasn't ended. Very much modern music, but as I said, always lush and astonishingly beautiful.

Do not under any circumstances miss out on this piece - I'm listening to the last act now and few operas have affected me in the same way, Wagner's Parsifal, Berg's Lulu and Luigi Nono's Prometeo being the others. Few operas work 100% - The Mask of Orpheus does. Birtwistle hooks you completely within the first 3 minutes of the piece, the end of the first track. Within a minute of the second track, he grabs you and doesn't let go. It is in every sense, a remarkable journey from a remarkable composer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Birtwistle's Underworld, November 30, 1998

By 

David Herter "David Herter, author" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mask of Orpheus (Audio CD)

The Mask of Orpheus -- like HB's masterpiece The Triumph of Time -- is obsessed with ideas of procession and precession; the listener moves through a musical landscape that is itself in motion, constantly revealing different angles of its terrain -- usually with great vividness. In Orpheus, we add a dramatic dimension, treated in similar fashion. The myth is continually shattered and reassembled around us, recited and sung, mimed, finally collapsing into another, wholly invented language in the third act. What gives this opera its peculiar power is the immensity, and to some extent the insanity, of its design. As drama it can be overlong and not entirely involving (especially without a visual element), but as landscape it creates a singular experience -- interludes for synthesizers evoke the presence of ancient times and Otherness (and are alone worth the price of the CD); the second act, with its metaphorical/literal depiction of the arches of the Underworld, becomes an echo chamber of myth, and a dwelling place; while the third act, with its invented language, is less opera than drug trip, reminiscent of Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mask(s) of Orpheus, April 6, 2002

By 

Adam (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mask of Orpheus (Audio CD)

I am a huge fan of Birtwistle and an opera buff in general, which means I'd like to give a whole-heartedly positive response to this work, but I do have some qualms. First off, the libretto is simply too austere for its own good. It is always fun to incorporate archetypal imagery into a new approach to mythic topics, but when EVERYTHING represents something else, it's impossible to get one's head around it. That is especially true of the 17 arches, and the ordering of 100+ set pieces in threes. The opera world has known works of incredible formal construction (Berg's operas, and Birtwistle's own Punch and Judy, for example) that did not require one's study to comprehend the work at hand. Berg even wished that the structures of Wozzeck and Lulu would be ignored. My only other qualm is that some of the electro-acoustic music drones to some length without any relief. (I have the same complaint about what little I have heard of Stockhausen's Licht. Luckily, this work does not suffer from the main conceit of Licht: an egocentric mythologizing of the composer's own autobiography. On the other hand, this work is certainly tremendously unique. If mind-bending post-modern music drama sounds delicious to you, this should provide hours of amusement and consternation. And perhaps I will stumble upon the key to this ambitious but frustrating opera. The performances and sound quality are first-rate, and the libretti and notes, while giving Finnegans Wake a run for its money in terms of comprehensibility, are certainly in great abundance. Happy listening.