Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini had a difficult genesis. Although it's a comedy, it was produced in 1838 at the Paris Opéra rather than at l'Opéra Comique, which would have been a more suitable venue had its directors not rejected the piece. It was greeted with hostility by both its performers and the audience and was quickly dropped. Liszt offered the composer the opportunity for a production at Weimar and Berlioz revised the work after that production, reducing the four acts to three, which is the version recorded here.
The opera is so attractive that it's difficult to understand the furor and resistance that the work aroused at its premiere, as well as its relative obscurity today. The plot, which strays far afield from the facts of Cellini's life, is no more far-fetched than that of many nineteenth century operas, and the characters are disarmingly personable, due largely to Berlioz's skill at musical characterization. He also reveals himself to be the rare composer with the ability to write comedy; the opera is humorous not because of an especially witty libretto, but because the music is subversively, slyly funny. Berlioz's fertile imagination keeps the music consistently intriguing, surprising, and compellingly lyrical.
The opera receives a lively and propulsive performance from Roger Norrington, who conducts the SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, and an excellent team of soloists. Tenor Bruce Ford as Cellini, soprano Laura Claycomb as Teresa, bass Franz Hawlata as Balducci, mezzo Monica Groop as Ascanio, and baritone Christopher Maltman are standouts as singing actors who put the story forward with conviction and humor. The sound of the live recording is bright and clean.
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