FANTASIO – WINNER – International Opera Awards
OFFENBACH: FANTASIO
WINS 2015 INTERNATIONAL OPERA AWARD
FOR CD (COMPLETE OPERA)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Opera Rara’s recording of Offenbach’sFantasio (ORC51) was last night announced as the winner of the CD (Complete Opera) category at this year’s International Opera Awards, often described as “the Oscars of the opera world”. Released in October 2014,Fantasio is considered one of the composer’s most beautiful and refined works. A heady cocktail of charm, gracefulness and gentle melancholy, of bad-tempered jokes and poetry, the opera marks the crucial step in Offenbach’s path towards Les contes d’Hoffmann.
Conducted by Sir Mark Elder, Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, the cast for the recording includes Sarah Connolly (Fantasio), Brenda Rae (Elsbeth), Russell Braun (Le Prince), Brindley Sheratt (Le Roi) and Neal Davies (Sparck). As The Daily Telegraph commented, “British label Opera Rara has been recording neglected Offenbach pieces intermittently since the Seventies, but recent years have seen a closer engagement with the composer… Thanks to the Offenbach scholar Jean-Christophe Keck, that lack of an edition has now been rectified.”
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