Customer Reviews

Preludes & Choruses From Zarzuelas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know almost nothing about zarzuelas, other than that they're Spanish light operas, immensely popular in Spanish-speaking areas and virtually unknown everywhere else. Why they didn't travel and Viennese operetta did, I'll never know; they're a heckuva lot more exciting!

If this disc is any indication, the music, the rhythm, the overall feeling of zarzuela music is infectious. I put this CD on and then couldn't stop listening to it. According to the liner notes, these orchestral selections and choruses are among the best-known from this genre. I can see why they're popular. The playing and singing of the Comunidad de Madrid Orchestra and Chorus are exemplary.

Now please excuse me, while I go sign up for castanet lessons.

Zarzuela is Spanish operetta. This is a fine collection of choruses and preludes from various famous Zarzuelas, particularly for a beginner in the genre. If however you have been "enrollado" in Zarzuela for a while it's a lot like popular classics or "Opera Goes to the Movies" It'll be stuff you've heard before. Maestro Roa knows how to conduct with finess and fire, whichever is required and the performances are easy to appreciate and very easy to understand the lyrics if you speak Spanish. I highly reccommend this disc to anyone who wants to take away the veil of mystery surrounding Zarzuela and start exploring on your own. This disc is an excellent place to begin!

Preludes & Choruses From Zarzuelas~ Miguel Roa was something quite new to me. Having mostly listened to classical from France, Germany, Austria, Russia and Italy I had not listened much to Spanish composers. The end result is that the music is very easy to listen to but feels light and I feel that it sounds a bit to much like movie soundtrack music. The book-let is quite well done and the painting on the front is splendid. The liner notes and the essay inside are well done and it is not overlong or too verbose. I must say that I had never ever heard of any of these composers before and it was a with an adventurous spirit that I started listening to this recording and to my pleasant surprise it was quite good and I therefore give it 4 out 5 stars.

For many years an ancient 78 of one of the items found on this welcome CD was the most requested item for playing on the national radio broadcaster in Australia. Requests for full details of the item always yielded an announcement that everything on the record label was printed in Spanish, that there was not much of it, and all that could be deciphered and translated approximated to "The Dance of the Lovers".

Well, the same item features on Track 13 of this CD in a digitally recorded 1999 Madrid recording, and full information is provided about it and the other zarzuela excerpts in notes by Manuel Garcia Franco. This once popular item on Australian airwaves is a simple verse and chorus, the first in the minor and the second in the major mode. Framed in a short introduction and coda, it is sung twice, and what the female chorus members sing the first time is sung by the male chorus members the second time, and vice versa.

Although the Spanish composers of the zarzuela excerpts included here are represented in my collections by solo items from singers such as Supervia and de los Angeles, the choruses and orchestral excerpts found on this CD are all new to my ears. I have never seen a zarzuela and, welcoming and recommending this collection of samples, would like to read reviews or communications from others with better information.

This CD as a representation of the best of zarzuelas composers. Most beautiful music that I cannot stop listening to. Highly recommended if you like this type of music. A very helpful insert with explanations on the composers and the compositions. Looking to buy more of Spanish classics.

Great selections
Great orchestration
Every thing I was expecting
Wish you had this or any other like it in DVD
thank you

For many years an ancient 78 of one of the items found on this welcome CD was the most requested item for playing on the national radio broadcaster in Australia. Requests for full details of the item always yielded an announcement that everything on the record label was printed in Spanish, that there was not much of it, and all that could be deciphered and translated approximated to "The Dance of the Lovers".

Well, the same item features on Track 13 of this CD in a digitally recorded 1999 Madrid recording, and full information is provided about it and the other zarzuela excerpts in notes by Manuel Garcia Franco. This once popular item on Australian airwaves is a simple verse and chorus, the first in the minor and the second in the major mode. Framed in a short introduction and coda, it is sung twice, and what the female chorus members sing the first time is sung by the male chorus members the second time, and vice versa.

Although the Spanish composers of the zarzuela excerpts included here are represented in my collections by solo items from singers such as Supervia and de los Angeles, the choruses and orchestral excerpts found on this CD are all new to my ears. I have never seen a zarzuela and, welcoming and recommending this collection of samples, would like to read reviews or communications from others with better information.