Midsummer Night [Enhanced]

William Alwyn (Composer), Samuel Barber (Composer), Benjamin Britten (Composer), Antonin Dvorak (Composer), Carlisle Floyd (Composer), Bernard Herrmann (Composer), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Composer), Franz Lehar (Composer), Andre Messager (Composer), Kate Royal (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Kate Royal
• Composer: William Alwyn, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Antonin Dvorak, Carlisle Floyd, et al.
• Audio CD (June 2, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B001VEJF46
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,928 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Work, June 10, 2009

By 

David Cady (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Midsummer Night (Audio CD)

As young sopranos go, Kate Royal hasn't really been on my radar. I was vaguely aware of her a couple of years ago, when her first album came out, but for some reason I never got it. Listening to her stunning new disc, "Midsummer Night," I can only think, What was I waiting for? Frankly, I haven't been this excited about a singer in years. Gheorghiu, Netrebko and Dessay have dominated the (soprano) recording landscape over the past few years, but none of them, in my opinion, has released an album as impressive and solidly produced as this. (There's actual artistry in the way the tracks flow from one to the other.) As strong a stage presence as these women are, I haven't always felt that their essence (particularly Dessay's) has translated well to the recording studio. But like Renee Fleming (much of whose repertory is included here), Royal seems to have been born to record. Hers is an exquisite, expressive instrument that truly engages. I'm guilty of sometimes putting on classical music as background noise while reading, surfing the net etc. With "Midsummer Night," Royal compelled me to stop and actually "listen."

A major contributing factor to the disc's success is the selection of material. These are not the usual suspects, and thank goodness for that. As much as I love Puccini, I really don't need another recording of "Mi chiamano Mimi." (Although I have no doubt Royal would sing it well.) These gems by Britten, Herrmann and Korngold, however, don't get much play, and it's a shame, given how musically sumptuous they are. How lucky for us that Royal and her conductor Edward Gardner (and EMI, for that matter) have had the courage to explore such risky, less familiar repertory. (She does sing Lehar's well-known Vilja-Lied, albeit with a disappointing - and uncharacteristic - sharp final note.)

If I have any criticism of Royal, it's that she doesn't always go far enough in creating character here. The trilled "r" she uses in Floyd's "The Trees on the Mountain" is obviously not the speech pattern of a backwoods Appalachian girl; and she is far too young to be singing Barber's Vanessa. I wish, too, that "He has come" weren't presented in a truncated version. The two arias are sung magnificently, however, so why quibble?

All in all, this is as exciting and successful a "recital" disc as I've ever heard. Admirable support is provided by the English National Opera Orchestra, the Crouch End Festival Chorus, and, most pleasantly, Thomas Allen in a duet from "Peter Grimes."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotionally gripping young singer comes into her own, June 2, 2009

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Midsummer Night (Audio CD)

Kate Royal, a rising star in Britain, comes into her own with this fascinating recital. The selections are highly imaginative. I can't think of an opera recital since Renee Fleming's "I Want Magic" and Dawn Upshaw's "The World So Wide" that was this original. The title "Midsummer Night" doesn't announce a theme; it's taken from the first selection, an aria from Alwyn's "Miss Julie," written in a style that spookily channels Samuel Barber down to every chord and curve in the melodic line. Although we bounce from country to country, there's a predominance of velvety post-Romantic melodies from Korngold to Barber himself.

Ms. Royal has the temperament and voice for this repertoire. She puts a touch of lyric poignancy into each aria; her approach is tender and vulnerable, rather reminiscent of Anna Moffo. English is a hard language to sing operatically, and Royal does well, although I lost many words in the aria from Floyd's Susannah (no Southern accent attempted). She makes an ideal Ellen Orford, even managing to sound mature. Anyone who can make this kind of emotional connection with the listener bids well to have a bright future. My only quibble is that Royal's voice can take on a wobble at loud volume, and her intonation isn't perfect on top, where the tone can be pinched, too. But Royal is so perfect in the excerpts from Britten and Walton that British listeners will rejoice to have a worthy successor to Heather Harper and Felicity Lott in that repertoire.

Overall, this CD is fully the equal of the ones I mentioned from Fleming and Upshaw, which is really saying something. To top off Royal's success, the conducting and supporting singers are first rate.

Here's a complete listing:

Alwyn:
Midsummer night (Miss Julie)

Barber:
Vanessa, Op. 32: Do not utter a word

Britten:
Embroidery aria (Peter Grimes)

Thomas Allen (baritone)

Tiny's song (Paul Bunyan)

The Tower scene (Turn of the Screw)

Dvorak:
Song to the Moon (from Rusalka)

Floyd:
The trees on the mountains (Susannah)

Hermann:
I have dreamt (Wuthering Heights)

Korngold:
Die tote Stadt, Op. 12: Mariettas Lied 'Glück, das mir verbleib'

Lehár:
Viljalied (from Die lustige Witwe)

Messager:
Philomel from Monsieur Beaucaire

Stravinsky:
Le Chant du Rossignol

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Walton:
At the haunted end of the day (Troilus and Cressida)

5.0 out of 5 stars Electrifying!, October 24, 2009

By 

Sturgis (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Midsummer Night (Audio CD)

I stumbled across a video promotion of this album on the internet. Never having heard of Kate Royal, I was more intrigued by the repertory than anything else. The visuals on the promotional piece were bizarre and off-putting, but the vocal presence of the singer kept me glued to the screen for the full twelve minutes,and I promptly ordered the disc. I have not been so electrified by a vocal presence since I witnessed the young Anna Moffo seize the stage of a very thread-bare Met touring production of "Faust" in the spring of 1960.

Although Royal's delivery is sometimes reminiscent of Moffo's secret way of inflecting and coloring a phrase, she has more of a dramatic flare. Although I will treasure every single cut on this disc, the Britten arias are most revelatory, especially the "Peter Grimes" excerpt, which must surely derived from a fully studied performance, so deep is the characterization drawn in just a few minutes. One can only hope that Royal will get her wish to perform (and record) Alwyn's "Miss Julie." Strindberg (and particularly this play) has always given me the willies, but I would purchase Royal's recording or dash to her performance in a heart-beat.

Her "Russalka" aria has not displaced Dorothy Maynor's luminous recording or or the burnished gold of Zinka Milhanov's very late performance in my affections, but I get the sense it will grow on me. The Korngold "Marietta's Lied" is magical, the Hermann "Wuthering Heights" hopefully the prelude to a new recording of that neglected work. Hearing Royal's treatment of Floyd's "Susannah" makes me hope she will turn her attention to his treatment of "Wuthering Heights. The Santa Fe Opera, which I believe commissioned it would be a likely place to revive it.

I could go on and on, but don't listen to me. Buy the recording and hear for yourself!