Special offer. Joplin: Treemonisha
Houston Grand Opera, Gunther Schuller
Treemonisha’s love interest, is sung by the forthright lyric tenor Curtis Rayam, the rather platitudinous Parson Alltalk by the solid bass-baritone Edward Pierson. The Broadway singer Ben Harney,...
Special offer. Joplin: Treemonisha
Houston Grand Opera, Gunther Schuller
Purchase product
Treemonisha’s love interest, is sung by the forthright lyric tenor Curtis Rayam, the rather platitudinous Parson Alltalk by the solid bass-baritone Edward Pierson. The Broadway singer Ben Harney,...
About
This release is an outstanding version of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha. Not only because this recording - which was orchestrated by the American composer and jazz musician Gunther Schuller in 1975 for the Houston Grand Opera - probably comes the closest to Joplin’s original intention, but also because the recording’s crisp and bright sound can now be cherished on 2 SACDs, complete with a full libretto in English.
Joplin’s uniquely beautiful and dearly inspiring score is a buoyant blend of ragtime, vaudeville and grand opera, with lots of dancing, a big portion for the chorus, and arias and ensembles of stunning beauty. The composition has an inherently American tone and it was definitely created by a true entertainer. It is “a landmark set”, as Christopher Cook put it in a review in BBC Music Magazine (August 2005).
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
October 2015
Treemonisha’s love interest, is sung by the forthright lyric tenor Curtis Rayam, the rather platitudinous Parson Alltalk by the solid bass-baritone Edward Pierson. The Broadway singer Ben Harney, as Zodzetrick—the principal ‘conjurer’ who preys on the community and threatens Treemonisha—has easily the clearest diction.
