Cherry Ripe

25/01/2009
Howard Smith
Music and Vision Daily (UK)

...The CD offers rare Italian, French and English opera arias, many receiving world première recordings for the Richard Bonynge Archive. Here's a diverse mix of composers from late eighteenth century masters such as Domenico Cimarosa to little known songwriters,  Girolamo Crescentini, Nicolas Dalayrac and Charles Edward Horn...

With this romantic/relational repertory Riedel appears very much at home; indeed her vibrant tonal clarity, dynamic nuances, and unaffected lyrical enunciation are a delight across all three languages...

Operatic orchestral music of the period presents little in the way of technical hurdles. Instead it requires interpretive cognizance and empathy with the singer. The 26-member Arcadia Lane Orchestra is perfectly suited to music lapping at either side of 1800 and fine first desk instrumentalists abound, notably the lead violin and principal horn.

Explanatory notes, colorful artwork/lithographs (from the Bonynge Archive), and full texts with translations are a 'given' when Australia's nonpareil label releases new work.

In short Melba's 'Richard Bonynge Edition' is distinguished by its incomparable production values. With this enterprising 2008 digital programme, Deborah Riedel reveals a bounteous seam of unfamiliar, wholly blissful vocal gems: a glistening treasury of song.