Resurrection--Complete Opera

Tod Machover (Composer), Joyce DiDonato (Performer), Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Performer), Scott Hendricks (Performer), Patrick Summers (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Joyce DiDonato, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Scott Hendricks, Patrick Summers
• Composer: Tod Machover
• Audio CD (February 26, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Albany Records
• ASIN: B000060ON5
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,083 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Overture

2. Trial 1

3. Flashback 1: For a Day and a Night (Chorus)

4. Is This a Dream?

5. Trial 2

6. Flashback 2

7. Trial 3

8. Guilty

9. At Last

10. Korchagin Dinner

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. March-Opening

2. March-Continue

3. Simonson's Entrance

4. Lullaby

5. March-Continue

6. Awakening

7. Musical Interlude

8. Siberian Prison Camp

9. Flogging

10. Prisoners As Long As I Live

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a Musical Disgrace, September 26, 2004

By 

John (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resurrection--Complete Opera (Audio CD)

I heard this opera live in Boston. The composer may well be a computer genius, but as a composer he lacks the most basic skills. I suggest he studies counterpoint, harmony, and real orchestration (not fixing up afterwards with computers) from scratch. After the exhaustingly unimaginative pseudo-barroque, nuddle-soup-as-counterpoint openning, in some sort of a D minor, I was already ready to leave the theater. Also as a person with a Russian background I was seriously offended to see Russian peasants singing and dancing to a Celtic-Elizabethan gigue. The opera abounds with mispronounced Russian names (Ignorance begets ignorance!), the vocal writing is awefully boring and cliche at the same time being bland and unmemorable. A singer friend of mine who was one of the soloists complained how poorly the vocal lines were written. If you think Andrew Lloyd Weber is great then you may like this guy too. I think they are both pretty aweful.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, January 23, 2003

By 

Roger Townsend (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Resurrection--Complete Opera (Audio CD)

I was fortunate enough to see this opera live at the Houston Grand Opera, so I waited patiently for it to be released on compact disc. It is a marvelous new opera. For a "modern" opera, the effect on the listener must be akin to what audience members would have felt when hearing the premiere of a new work by Verdi in the 19th Century. The "modern" touches are subtle; the music is hummable. The plot and libretto, based on Tolstoy, are excellent. The recording quality is superb, as is the singing and playing. An all-around first-class experience. Warning---if you like John Adams, you probably won't like this opera. If you like Verdi, Puccini, or Britten, you'll love it.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disturbingly simplistic, January 2, 2012

By 

mrreader "mrreader" (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resurrection--Complete Opera (Audio CD)

I bought this for $9.99. I remember reading about T.M. at IRCAM in the 80s and his electronic instruments. I was expecting 21st aesthetics and sophistication. But OMG! This is like music written in the shadow of Samuel Barber or something. Sing-songy 6/8 rhythms, very static and simplistic tonality. I don't mind new tonal music at all - how can you avoid it in the age of post minimalism. But good tonal music is actually quite hard to write. Just like good atonal music is hard to write.

I guess M. Boulez never heard this opera.