La somnambule

01/07/2005
Anthony Clarke
ClassicsToday.com (USA) (Internet)

The very first Super Audio Compact Disc produced in Australia is a real rarity – the score for perhaps the world's first full-blown Romantic ballet, Ferdinand Hérold's 'La somnambule', written in 1827 and not heard in public for almost 150 years. This ballet music precedes Bellini's famous opera 'La Sonnambula' by four years, and its neglect is surprising, given that Richard Bonynge's deft handling of the score reveals a work which is both charming and sweetly lyrical. This hybrid disc can be heard in either super-audio Surround format or in regular CD-style, so it can be played on any music set-up. It is a rarity which well deserved Richard Bonynge's rescue from musical oblivion, and the recording quality is super-audio indeed.