Customer Reviews

Mel Bonis: L'oeuvre vocale

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of Mel Bonis is worthy of a melodrama, or a TV series...musical prodigy, private pupil of Cesar Franck, withdrawn from the Conservatoire because her parents disapproved of a boyfriend and married off to an older man, a later realignment with the 'boyfriend' (now an established singer and critic) resulting in an illegitimate child, the resurgence of her musical creativity. The performances here are only semi-professional, but the music is of more than passing curiosity.

If you like the melodies of Faure, you will like this CD. In a certain mood I love listening to an hour or so of Faure lieder, and Bonis' works have the same effect, but naturally, not nearly so great as his greatest. She studied with Franck but the feeling is the fragrance of Faure. The other reviewer's view that these performances are only semi-professional, seems silly to me. Many famous professionals are given to sliding up and down to notes. Here the charm comes through because they hit the notes right on pitch. Perhaps the reviewer says that because the performances are not very dramatic. There is indeed no great drama, but that fits the music. Similarly, would you ask for drama out of a Mary Cassat painting of a woman with a baby. The same here. Get real aesthetically.