大象传媒

As part of Wagner 200 celebrations, Martin Handley introduces Wagner's rarely heard Opera Die Feen in a recording conducted by Sir Edward Downes, featuring John Mitchinson and April Cantelo.

Arindal ... John Mitchinson (Tenor)
Ada ... April Cantelo (Soprano)
Lora ... Lorna Haywood (Soprano)
Morald ... Tom McDonnell (Baritone)
Gunther ... Richard Greager (Tenor)
Gernot ... Paul Hudson (Bass)
Drolla ... Teresa Cahill (Soprano)
Zermina ... Elizabeth Gale (Soprano)
Farzana ... Della Jones (Mezzo-soprano)
Harald/ Groma/Fairy King ... Don Garrard (Bass)
Messenger ... Jolyon Dodgson (Baritone)
大象传媒 Northern Singers
大象传媒 Northern Orchestra
Edward Downes (Conductor)

Die Feen was Wagner's first completed opera, a 3-act Romantic opera written when Wagner was 20 to his own libretto. The work received its first performance five years after Wagner's death, and wasn't staged in Britain until 1969. The models for Wagner's work were Weber and Marschner with whose work he had become familiar working as chorus master at Wurzburg. The plot involves Ada, half fairy, half mortal, who has fallen in love with Arindal, King of Tramond, and she agrees to marry him on the one condition that he does not ask her identity. Their union is blissfully happy until of course curiosity gets the better of Arindal and he asks who she is, resulting of course in Ada's disappearance. Ada reappears in Act 2 and sets Arindal various tasks, all of which he fails, and he is driven insane. The fairy tale does have a happy ending though, as the Fairy King grants Arindal immortality so he and Ada can live together in fairyland. Martin Handley introduces a recording of the opera from 1974 starring John Mitchinson as Arindal and April Cantelo as Ada, conducted by Sir Edward Downes.