Ravel: L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges

Label: Polygram Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 028942371828
EAN: 0028942371828
ASIN: B000001G9U

Release Date: 1990-10-25

Related Categories:

Ravel, Maurice

Maazel, Lorin

General

| Classical | Styles | Music

General

| Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

French

| Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Opera as Emotional Release: Cathartic Closing Scenes II (20th Century)
Respectable Collection of Opera Sets.

Tracks:

'I don't want to learn my lesson' - Francoise Og
'Has mother's boy been good?' - Jeanine Collard
'I don't care!' - Francoise Og
'Your humble servant, Berg!' - Heinz Rehfuss/Jane Berbirancoise Og
'Ding, ding, ding, ding' - Camille Maurane/Francoise Og
'How's Your Mug?' - Michel Senechal/Jeanine Collard
'What the hell, Mah-jong' - Jeanine Collard/Michel Senechal
'Oh! My lovely China cup!' - Francoise Ogeas
'Away! I warm the good but burn the bad! - Sylvaine Gilma/Francois Ogeas
'Farewell, Shepherdesses!' - Chor of Maitrise R.T.F./Rene alix/Jane Berbie
'Ah! 'tis she! 'tis she!' - Francoise Ogeas/Sylvaine Gilma
'You, the heart of the rose' - Francoise Ogeas
'Two taps run into a tank!' - Michel Senechal/Francoise Ogeas/Chor of Maitrise R.T.F./Rene alix
'Oh! My head!' - Francoise Ogeas
Cat's Duet - Camille Maurane/Jane Berbie
The Music of insects, frogs & toads, the laughter of screech-owls, a murmur of breeze & nightingales - Orch Nat R.T.F./Lorin Maazel
'Ah! What happiness to find you again, Garden!' - Francoise Ogeas/Chor of Maitrise at LA R.T.F./Rene alix
'Where are you?' - Jeanine Collard/Sylvaine Gilma/Francoise Ogeas
Round Dance of the bats: 'Give her back to me...tsk, tsk...' - Colette Herzog/Francoise Ogeas
Dance of the frogs - Orch Nat R.T.F./Lorin Maazel
'Save yourself, silly! And the cage? The cage?' - Jane Berbie/Michel Senechal
'The cage, it was to see better how nimble you were' - Francoise Ogeas/Jane Berbie
'Ah! It's the Child with the knife!' - Chor of Maitrise R.T.F./Rene alix
'He has dressed the wound...' - Chor of Maitrise R.T.F./Rene alix
'He is good, the Child, he is wise' - Chor of Maitrise R.T.F./Rene alix/Francoise Ogeas

Customer Reviews:

A MORALITY PLAY.......2006-05-02

As morality plays go, this must be one of the very best. The libretto is by none other than Mme Colette, and the story concerns the fairy-tale adventures of a spoiled but basically good-hearted child and how he learns the worth of what he finds around him. He learns, for instance, not to pin the living beauty of a dragonfly to the wall just as a trophy. He learns not to inflict casual damage on a tree. He learns, even, not to be destructive and wasteful of the simple everyday environment of his home, and he learns the value of learning itself. There is no heavy moralising in this story, no sanctimoniousness and no punishment, and even the little animals, which start fighting among themselves under the influence of his petulance, stop fighting when his own comportment changes for the better - this is a lovely touch.

Ravel was no musical revolutionary, but he was even less of a traditionalist. His search was always for freshness (rather than novelty as such) in musical ideas, and he had no interest in opera as that was practised by Meyerbeer, Wagner and Gounod. This beautiful and touching little tale brings out the best and most characteristic in him. The influence of American music is there as usual, but I don't hear much or any Spanish or Basque idiom this time. The orchestral scoring has all his typical lightness and vividness, the little harlequinade of characters has variety and wit in the music to correspond with the text, and it is all just the right length for what it is, fitting comfortably and conveniently on to a single cd.

The recording was originally done in 1960 or 1961, and it won a Gramophone prize in the remastered category in 1989. In 2006 I find that it still sounds well, although not quite the kind of marvel of sound-engineering that we have got used to these days. When I wondered briefly whether I could really give it 5 stars for sound, I reflected that to make any complaint under the circumstances would be to behave rather like the child in his unreconstructed days, so 5 stars it is. The performance is really very good indeed, with the right prominence for the solo voices as well. The singers capture the humour and tenderness of this little masterpiece, and their work is excellent technically - I was particularly thrilled by a really superb long trill on `Aa!...' from Sylvaine Gilma in one of her roles as the Nightingale. The translation is adequate, but the liner-note and the synopsis are really very good, and what a pleasure it is to be able to say that for a change.

The disc seems to be out of production, so if it appeals to you I should get hold of an available copy without delay. I hope you like it, because if you don't the teapot, the tree, the bat, the owl, the grandfather clock, the dragonfly, the frog and the squirrel will be sad again, and old Mr Arithmetic himself may start getting his sums wrong.

An astonishing triumph all around.......2005-09-18

Snap up used copies of this cherished recording while you can--it isn't in print so far as I know. (Note: Not long after writing this review I noticed to my delight that both of Mazzel's classic recordings of Ravel operas, this one and the equally delightful L'heure espagnol, have been reissued as a 2-CD set in DG's Originals series.) Maazel recorded Ravel's enchanting chamber opera with all-French forces in 1960, and everything works magically. The sonics are perfectly bright and detailed, the singing is dramatic and committed, the pacing is perfect.

It's hard to believe that Mazzel could produce such witty yet touching conducting. We are ever so delicately poised in Ravel's shadings of childhood melancholy, adult sophistication, comic pantomime and solemn whimsy. If you have heard other versions of Ravel's little masterpiece, you may dismiss it as slsightly twee and precious, but here the travails and come-uppance of a spoiled brat are treated with seriousness and empathy, not preciousness. This performance is very touching and lovely to listen to at every moment.

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