Search - Nicolae Bretan, Bela Hary, Elena Casian :: Nicolae Bretan: Luceafarul (The Evening Star)

An Opera from a composer who deserves much more recognition.

11/05/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the most lovely operas I have heard in a long time. Bretan had a great gift for writing beautiful melodies and in this opera told his story in simple terms using familiar plot ideas. Here Love and Betrayal mingle with Temptation. The cast sings quite well and the music recieves a first rate performance. If you enjoy opera,or are new to it, this recording is an excellent way to start. I am pleased that Nimbus Records is helping to lift the curtian of silence on Nicolae Bretan's music. The accompaning booklet contains complete texts and translations, and a brief biography of the composer are included."

A real discovery

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 11/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just when you think you've heard it all (a stupid, lazy assumption that I am sometimes guilty of making), something new hoves into view over the musical horizon and you feel like "stout Cortes" staring "with a wild surmise" at another musical discovery.



Bretan's music is a revelation; it is in some ways naive in its reliance upon pure melody and harmonic thirds but its very simplicity disarms cynicism; it has a peculiarly transcendent quality as if the composer were some kind of saint or "wise fool". It inhabits entirely its own world and speaks of a man for whom sheer beauty was all. Yet his own life was full of suffering, rejection and sorrow: he was marginalised, ignored, saw his wife's family carted off by the Nazis to the extermination camps and declared a non-person by the Romanian Communists for refusing to join the Party. An excellent singer in his youth, his music itself "sings" like a caged bird. From the moment the opening theme of the "Evening Star" caresses the ear in the orchestral Prologue, to its return in the Epilogue, you enter into a timeless, mythical world. This use of leitmotif occurs only in those two lovely orchestral interludes; otherwise Bretan crafts a new melody and sound-world for each stage of this story of the human yearning for divine love, derived from the Romanian national poet, Mihai Eminescu. I hear many echoes of Germanic predecessors, especially the angelic interludes in Humperdinck's "Haensel und Gretel", and many will doubtless dismiss this music as hopelessly retrograde, given that it was written just as twelve-tone horrors were coming into vogue - but I love it.



The singers are not world class but they give much pleasure, especially Ionel Voineal, the Evening Star (Luceafarul) himself and the mezzo who sings the lady-in-waiting - but all the cast is more than adequate. The orchestral playing and choral singing are beautifully in tune; the is direction sensitive, although clearly they are not a world class band. This is obviously a recording done "con amore" by patriots keen to re-establish this minor masterpiece - and we need to thank Nimbus, too, for bringing it to light.



For me, as an amateur linguist, there is also much pleasure in hearing Romanian sung and establishing its fascinating links with Romance languages such as Italian, with which I am familiar. A libretto in four languages is provided and the brief notes are very informative.



I am looking forward to familiarising myself with more of his music (three more operas and a lot of lieder). Meanwhile, start with this; it's a delight."

A TRUE RADIANT LIGHT

Alfredo R. Villanueva | New York, NY United States | 04/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I MUST RECOMMEND NOT ONLY THIS MAGNIFICENT PIECE OF MUSIC BUT ALL OF NICOLAE BRETAN'S OPERAS--HE WROTE ONLY FOUR. THANKS TO NIMBUS RECORDS FOR ALLOWING US TO APPRECIATE AND VALUE THIS GREAT COMPOSER, WHO SUFFERED SO MUCH AT THE HANDS OF BOTH GERMAN FASCISTS AND RUMANIAN NATIONALIST COMMUNISTS. HIS MUSIC IS SIMPLY SENSATIONAL AND SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO THE HUMAN SOUL, TRANSCENDING NATIONALITIES. AS TO THE INTERPRETERS, CONDUCTORS AND RECODING QUALITY, THERE IS SIMPLY ONE STANDARD: AWESOME! I PLACE LUCEAFARUL UP THERE WITH KING ROGER AND PARSIFAL AS MUSICAL PATHS TO TRASCENDENCE."