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Title: Self-Conscious, Contrived, Annoying Opera
Review: The orchestra is fine, the arrangements of operatic music for instruments, without voices, are fine. But the conductor (Andre Kostelanetz) tries to make the non-vocal music sound even more melodramatic than when sung. The result is very self-consciously contrived, as though a person who views the music with no heart and no soul tries to make the music sound as though it has heart and soul. The dynamics (volume changes) and tempos are so tortuously stretched that they become almost unlistenably annoying, at least to me.I have several other recordings of non-vocal arrangements and transcriptions of operatic music that I like (one of my favorites is "Aria," operatic arrangements for clarinet played by Richard Stoltzman) but this audio disk goes to the bottom of the pile, to sell to a used CD buyer/reseller.
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