A report on Richard Bonynge and Esclarmonde

Tenor Colin Lee, soprano Pretty Yende, Bonynge, mezzo-soprano Violina Anguelov and baritone George Stevens at a concert performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Cape Town in April 2013
Original poster for the premiere

The opera has been revived sporadically in the modern era, most notably during the 1970s with Joan Sutherland, conducted by Massenet champion Richard Bonynge.

- Esclarmonde

By doing some research and reading up on Massenet and Italian bel canto composers, Bonynge discovered Massenet's own statement about his opera Esclarmonde being his "best achievement."

- Richard Bonynge
Tenor Colin Lee, soprano Pretty Yende, Bonynge, mezzo-soprano Violina Anguelov and baritone George Stevens at a concert performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Cape Town in April 2013

2 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Sutherland in 1975

Joan Sutherland

1 links

Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Sutherland in 1975
Sutherland in 1962
Joan Sutherland in 1990

Sutherland married Australian conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge on 16 October 1954.

She continued to add dramatic bel canto roles to her repertoire, such as Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucrezia Borgia, as well as Massenet's Esclarmonde.

Massenet photographed by Pierre Petit, 1880

Jules Massenet

1 links

French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty.

French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty.

Massenet photographed by Pierre Petit, 1880
Massenet's birthplace in Montaud, photographed c. 1908
Massenet in the early 1860s
Auditorium of the Opéra-Comique
Poster for the première of Don César de Bazan by Célestin Nanteuil
Design by Philippe Chaperon for Le roi de Lahore, 1877
"M. Massenet's bland pâtisserie and Mlle. Sanderson's sugar-candy notes" baked in "the National Musical Oven". Caricature from La Silhouette, March 1894.
Poster for the first French production of Werther.
Mary Garden in the title role of Chérubin, 1905
Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for the 1912 Paris première of Roma.
Poster by Jean de Paleologu for ''Sapho, 1897
Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for Don Quichotte, 1910
Among Massenet's interpreters, clockwise from top left: Pierre Monteux, Renée Fleming, Roberto Alagna and Victoria de los Ángeles
Massenet in his later years

For her, the composer revised Manon and wrote Esclarmonde (1889).

Conductors on these discs include Sir Thomas Beecham, Richard Bonynge, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Patrick Fournillier, Sir Charles Mackerras, Pierre Monteux, Sir Antonio Pappano and Michel Plasson.