Raising a Smile
GREAT OVERTURES of Comic Operas
8.573418
NBD0043
the Overture to Ferdinand Hérold’s Zampa
The Barber of Baghdad • Donna Diana
Fra Diavolo • Martha • Il matriomonio segreto • The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mignon • Si j’étais roi • Susanna’s Secret • Zampa • Zar und Zimmermann
Royal Scottish National Orchestra • Lance Friedel
The flourishing genre of the comic opera had its roots in eighteenth-century Italian opera buffa, whose irrepressible brio was soon taken up outside the country’s borders. In France it produced opéra comique and operetta, and in German-speaking countries Spieloper and Viennese operetta. Some of the world’s most popular comic opera overtures, filled with gorgeous tunes, brilliant orchestration and race-to-the-finish endings, are presented here. They include staples of the concert repertoire such as Hérold’s dramatic Zampa, the textual delicacy of Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and the vivid colour of Lortzing’s Zar und Zimmermann.
About Lance Friedel
Conductor Lance Friedel has served as Music Director of the Providence Chamber Orchestra in Rhode Island and Assistant Conductor of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Maryland, and has also directed numerous orchestras throughout the world. He was awarded first prize at the 2001 Mario Gusella International Conductors competition in Pescara, Italy, and has been invited to conduct orchestras throughout Eastern Europe, including the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev. He has conducted new productions of Aida and Le nozze di Figaro in Slovakia, as well as world première performances of several new American symphonic works in Bulgaria. Lance Friedel has attended master classes under such esteemed conductors as Leonard Slatkin, André Previn, and Lorin Maazel, and has attended numerous workshops and seminars, including the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, the Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood. His conducting teachers have included Gustav Meier, Michael Charry, and Georg Tintner. A graduate of Boston University, he has also studied at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, and the Mannes College of Music in New York.
About the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Throughout its history the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has played an integral part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish parliament building in 2004. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, including George Szell, Sir John Barbirolli, Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Neeme Jarvi, Walter Weller, Alexander Lazarev and Stephane Deneve. The RSNO has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving two Diapasons d’Or de l’annee awards for Symphonic Music (Deneve/Roussel 2007; Deneve/Debussy 2012) and eight GRAMMY® Awards nominations over the last decade. Over 200 releases are available, including the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Gibson), Prokofiev (Jarvi), Glazunov (Serebrier), Nielsen and Martinů (Thomson), Roussel (Deneve) and the major orchestral works of Debussy (Deneve). The RSNO is one of Scotland’s National Performing Companies, supported by the Scottish government.
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