Rappaccini's Daughter / Obsidian Butterfly

Catan (Artist), Vazquez (Artist), Mora (Artist), Suaste (Artist), Diazmunoz (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 19, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00006RHPU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,918 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most exciting and rewarding of modern composers., May 3, 2004

By 

Augustus Caesar, Ph.D. (Eugene, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rappaccini's Daughter / Obsidian Butterfly (Audio CD)

Daniel Catan (b. 1949) was born in Mexico, studied philosophy in England, and earned a Ph.D. in composition at Princeton. Despite his studies under serialists like Milton Babbitt, Catan has forged a reputation based on his unerring melodic instinct, his lush, highly chromatic harmonic style, and his rich scoring. His opera "Florencia en el Amazonas" is one of the sensations of the contemporary opera scene, thrilling audiences at major opera houses around the world with wave after wave of melody and passion. Indeed, "melody and passion" pretty much sum up the essence of Catan's music.

Those words are certainly applicable to "Rappaccini's Daughter," which was premiered in 1988. Like "Florencia," this earlier opera has a Spanish libretto, but while "Florencia" is based upon the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Rappaccini's Daughter" is based upon Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

The plot is a moving story of doomed love--the usual opera fare. But it is served well by an excellent libretto and, more importantly, Catan's extraordinary music. In his liner notes, the composer cites as influences everyone from Monteverdi to Berg, and the music here sometimes resembles a mixture of Debussy and Bellini, as Catan merges some neo-impressionist harmonies with the sort of long, arched melodies that make Bellini's music so moving. Catan is, however, wholly original in how he uses his influences, and "Rappaccini's Daughter" is a magnificent, entirely worthy addition to the international opera repertory.

Those who think contemporary classical music means dissonance and abstraction will find in this opera all the qualities that make the works of Puccini and Mozart beloved, but in a modern, non-derivative idiom. Any music this melodic deserves a listen.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, October 13, 2005

By 

J. Cloud - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rappaccini's Daughter / Obsidian Butterfly (Audio CD)

Of all of the modern operas I've heard, this is by far
the lovliest. The music is rich, and the story magical.
Opera is alive and well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marvelously inventive and intoxicating music, July 23, 2009

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rappaccini's Daughter / Obsidian Butterfly (Audio CD)

The Mexican composer Daniel Catan (b. 1949) writes music deeply rooted in tradition, with obvious influence in particular of Strauss and Britten. It is lush, tonal, post-romantic, richly orchestrated and with soaring vocal lines. It has certain similarities with a style of music I don't generally appreciate very much (think later Penderecki, for example), but I cannot help having been very much convinced by Catan, who is - despite the slightly eclectic approach - able to meld the influences into a rather personal and very imaginative musical language.

The excerpts from Rappaccini's daughter (1988) are the most impressive, beautiful and dramatically urgent with intoxicating, varied textures and even melodies of great distinction. The performances are also seemingly excellent - splendid singing and wonderful orchestral playing - although the recorded sound is somewhat overripe. This is a contemporary opera that (at least based on the excerpts here) deserves every degree of success it obtains, and to survive in the repertoire. I didn't enjoy the excerpt from The Obsidian Butterfly, from 1984, in quite the same way - it is a long scene for the soprano, and a real tour de force, excellently sung by Encarnación Vázquez, but the music is less inventive and varied, falling at times dangerously close to mainstream, dourly grey neo-romanticism (avoided in Rappaccini's Daughter). But to sum up, Daniel Catán is truly a composer to investigate and one who deserves a rather central place among contemporary composers, and this disc is recommended to anyone who enjoys the music of Richard Strauss and Britten, not just to new music fans.