FULL Cléopâtre (Berlioz) Rome 1972 Gwyneth Jones

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Cléopâtre or La Mort de Cléopâtre   
• Composer: Berlioz Hector  
• Libretto: Pierre-Ange Vieillard  
• Venue & Opera Company: Roma, Italy  
• Recorded: 1972
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Gwyneth Jones
• Conductor: Thomas Schippers  
• Orchestra: Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della RAI,  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: RAI  
• Date Published: 1972  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Cléopâtre, Scène Lyrique (H 36) for soprano and orchestra by Hector Berlioz, frequently but inaccurately called La Mort de Cléopâtre, was composed in July 1829, to a text by Pierre-Ange Vieillard, for the Prix de Rome. It is the third of four cantatas composed by Berlioz for the Prix de Rome. The young composer, who had won the Second Grand Prix with Herminie the previous year, delivers a score so audacious that the jury does not award any first prize for the musicians. Berlioz had to wait until the following year to win the Premier Grand Prix as he prepared to present the Symphonie Fantastique in concert, before celebrating his 27th birthday.

  Composition
  Hector Berlioz composed this cantata on the theme of Cleopatra after the battle of Actium, on a poem by Pierre-Ange Vieillard, who had already provided the text for the round of the previous year. On August 1, 1829, the cantata was performed before the jury but, the soprano being taken, she had to be replaced by her sister, who massacred the work. The jury, which had awarded Berlioz the Second Grand Prix with Herminie the previous year, “which should have ensured him victory5”, was also taken aback by the audacity of the score. It does not award any first prize for musicians. It was only published in 1903, in volume 15 of the edition of the Works of Berlioz by Charles Malherbe and Felix Weingartner.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

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