Saint of Bleecker Street [LIVE]

Menotti (Artist), Melinek (Artist), Richards (Artist), Steven (Artist), Hickox (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 23, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000063BI9
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #229,733 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Superficially, the overt theatricality of showpiece arias, ensembles, and choral sections in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street could easily be construed as ersatz Puccini but with an updated harmonic language. Immerse yourself in the work from beginning to end, however, and you'll come away with a grand opera experience that's got everything: a compelling story line, three-dimensional characters from ordinary life, richly idiomatic vocal writing, perfect pacing, and sumptuous but never cloying orchestrations.

A contemporary CD edition of this masterpiece has long been overdue, and Chandos's engineers reproduce the vibrancy and spirit of the 2001 Spoleto Festival production in a recording that captures a palpable synergy between pit and stage. The cast is first rate. Julia Melinek shines in the title role, heroically rising to the big Act One aria's formidable demands (notwithstanding wobbly, sustained high notes). As her brother Michele, Timothy Richards's colorful tenor voice takes the role's rangy compass in stride, and resists showboating in his harrowing, confessional Act Two aria so that we can hear Menotti's words. Playing Don Marco, John Marcus Bindel's sonorous bass-baritone rivets one's attention, as does the characterful Carmela of soprano Sandra Seltzer. The Spoleto Festival Orchestra give their all for conductor Richard Hickox, and the extensive, complex choral writing has obviously been prepared with a fine-tooth comb. No fan of American opera should miss this important release. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At last a new recording, April 24, 2002

By	richard j. wagner (san francisco, ca United States) - See all my reviews

If you are a Menotti basher no need to read further.
Menotti's grandest opera not to be missed. 2 hours of rich arias and scoring. Moving story that holds up with time.
Awarded the Pulitzer Price for music, it was first performed in Dec. 1954.
The cast of this recording is mostly outstanding but some cast members of the original 1955 recording (RCA no longer available)
seem better. (David Poleri as Michele and Leon Lishner as Don Marco for ex.)
The Orchestra for this new recording is as good as the one lead by Thomas Schippers for the earlier recording but the sound of the new recording is much better.

If you like The Counsel and Amahl and the Night Visitors give this work a try. In my belief this is Menotti's best opera
Richard Wagner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unmissable 20th Century Masterpiece, February 5, 2003

By A Customer

Menotti never bowed to the pressure of the atonal conventions that surrounded his composing life because in doing so he would have been untrue to his own melodic voice, and never has that choice been more glorious vindicated than here. Long regarded by the composer as his masterpiece, this opera is an intensely moving and often painful expression of his own struggle to come to terms with the tensions of his Catholic faith. In the unfettered voice of a Latin composer he gives voice to his profoundest feelings, drawing from a rich operatic tradition that includes not only Puccini but even Prokofiev, Gershwin and Bernstein (he spent a great deal of his early life in America), whilst remaining unquestionably himself. The singing and conducting are all one could hope for, with Hickox unerring in the pit, Julia Melinek in the title role soaring movingly and effortlessly over the rich orchestration, Timothy Richards successfully bringing out the pathos and aggresion of her alter ego brother, Pamela Helen Stephen ideal in her vignette role, and the chorus magnificent throughout.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the wait - almost, June 8, 2002

By	Susan Lerner (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Lovers of Menotti's stunning opera have been waiting for years for a modern recording, since the original Broadway cast LP seems to have vanished with no hope of re-issue. This new version from the Spoleto Festival of 2001 is welcome, but disappointing.

The chorus and orchestra under Richard Hickox are first-rate and the massed choral pieces like the San Gennaro scene are beutifully done. However, the principal singers, particularly Julia Melinek in the admittedly demanding role of Annina are inadequate. Ms Melinek has a fearsome wobble and sings off-pitch, making her first-act aria is painful to hear. Timothy Richards as Michele over-emotes and pushes his medium-sized tenor. No David Poleri he. The rest of the cast, notably Sandra Zeltzer as Carmela and Amelia Farrugia as Maria Corona, do quite well.

Until another one comes along, this is still worth having, just to hear this ever-fascinating opera again.