Archive for WutheringHeights
Wuthering Heights an Opera News Top 10
Opera News released their Top 10 Opera Recordings of 2016, and coming in at #8 was the Florentine Opera and Milwaukee Symphony recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights! “It contains some beautiful music that deserves to be heard, as evidenced by this world-premiere recording.” —Rebecca Paller Florentine Opera Company Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Joseph Mechavich, conductor The Florentine Opera Company® brings American opera composer Carlisle Floyd’s operatic masterpiece, based on the classic English novel by Emily…
The Arts Desk Reviews Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights Recording
“…Cathy’s ghostly offstage voice in the Prologue soon had me hooked, Heathcliff’s passionate, florid response utterly in keeping with the novel’s spirit.… Georgia Jarman and Kelly Markgraf as the doomed couple are terrific, Markgraf’s testosterone-rich baritone a stark contrast to Vale Rideout’s insipid Edgar Linton. Chad Shelton’s Hindley is suitably brutish. Diction is clear, the English accents pretty decent. Repeated listenings reveal a myriad of instrumental details, like the rude trombone glissandi during Joseph’s tedious…
American Record Guide Reviews Florentine Opera Company’s Wuthering Heights
The Florentine Opera Company’s Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights receives a new review in the November/December 2016 issue of American Record Guide: “…there is a lot of interesting music, enough to make this an enjoyable theatrical experience…The performance is quite good. George Jarman and Kelly Markgraf make a very good Cathy and Heathcliff, Jarman with her clear, secure soprano and Markgraf with his rich, wide-ranging baritone. … The veteran Suzanne Mentzer makes a wonderful Nelly, and…
Fanfare Strongly Recommends Wuthering Heights
Fanfare Magazine’s James Altena sees Carlisle Floyd as a leading voice of American Opera and welcomes Wuthering Heights into his collection: “Here is a composer who writes in an accessible but never simplistic or retrograde tonal vocabulary; has a sound grasp of what makes operas work dramatically in terms of subject matter, plotting, and pacing; and crafts compelling music that vividly illustrates his texts (Floyd writes his own librettos) while yet placing them in expressive,…
BBC Music Magazine Gives Wuthering Heights Four Stars
The Florentine Opera Company and Milwaukee Symphony’s new recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights gets four stars from BBC Music Magazine in their October 2016 Issue: “In this studio recording following a concert performance by Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Kelly Markgraf and Georgia Jarman make a powerful impression as the ill-fated couple, and Chad Shelton’s incisive Hindley and Heather Buck’s sweet Isabella also stand out amidst a strong cast. … Under opera specialist Joseph Mechavich,…
Opera Now Gives Wuthering Heights Four Stars
The Milwaukee Symphony and Florentine Opera Company get a four-star review from Opera Now! “Carlisle Floyd, now 90 years old, is keen for his complete operatic output to be recorded in his lifetime. So Florentine Opera (Milwaukee) has done him proud with Wuthering Heights… Kelly Markgraf makes a suitably dominant Heathciff, Georgia Jarman a vibrant Cathy, Suzanne Mentzer a stalwart Nelly.” —Francis Mizzu, Opera Now See the full review in Opera Now‘s Digital Edition Reference…
Wuthering Heights is Audiophile Audition’s Multichannel Disc of the Month
Audiophile Audition names the Florentine Opera Company’s Wuthering Heights recording their Multichannel Disc of the Month in a five-star review: “Floyd, now 90 and still writing operas (!), served as artistic advisor for this Florentine Opera premiere recording, made in January 2015 at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. It is superb in every way, from Reference’s magnificent sonic capture to the excellence of all members of the cast. Florentine…
Happy 198th Birthday To Emily Brontë!
Today through the weekend we’re celebrating Emily Brontë’s 198th Birthday! You can join in the celebration by entering a Wuthering Heights giveaway hosted by Naxos of America! The giveaway runs from today through August 1 at 11:59pm CST and winners receive a copy of the recording as well as the audiobook version of Wuthering Heights courtesy of Naxos Audiobooks! Enter Today
MusicWeb International Rave for Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights!
MusicWeb International offers an in-depth rave review for the Florentine Opera Company’s recording of Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights: “Floyd’s opera is both spectral and emotionally intense; there’s nothing of the musical about it. The writing has about it a florid brilliance entirely in keeping with the themes of love in vain, betrayal and striving for the unattainable. It is by no means a chamber opera and the emotions are played out on a grand scale…
Celebrate Emily Brontë’s 198th Birthday!
Join us in celebrating Emily Brontë’s 198th birthday on July 30th by entering a Wuthering Heights giveaway hosted by Naxos of America! The giveaway runs from today through August 1 at 11:59pm CST and winners receive a copy of the recording as well as the audiobook version of Wuthering Heights courtesy of Naxos Audiobooks! Reference Recordings Amazon iTunes ArkivMusic
Wuthering Heights Is Carlisle Floyd At His Prime
Planet Hugill celebrates Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights “on disc at last.” “This new recording from Reference Recordings finally brings Carlisle Floyd’s 1958 opera Wuthering Heights to disc. … Floyd’s music is intense and dramatic, in a form of continuous arioso as the libretto is more poetic prose than poetry, with individual speeches standing out aria-like, including the one which gave rise to the piece in the first place. … The recording was made at a…
HRAudio Gives Five Stars To Wuthering Heights!
“For much of the work Floyd writes in an expressive parlando style that allows the words to be clearly heard even when the voices are competing with large orchestral forces. The dark brooding orchestral score is, even allowing for the tragic nature of the story, mellifluous and often lushly romantic in the style of Puccini and Samuel Barber as, for example, in Edgar’s aria “Then marry me Cathy and make me whole again” (Act 2…
Carlisle Floyd’s “Wuthering Heights” is Now Available!
Our First Ever Opera Release! Florentine Opera Company Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Joseph Mechavich, conductor Buy It Today! Reference Recordings Amazon iTunes ArkivMusic The Florentine Opera Company® brings American opera composer Carlisle Floyd’s operatic masterpiece, based on the classic English novel by Emily Brontë, to life. Floyd’s score takes you to the heart of Catherine and Heathcliffe’s devastating love story. Carlisle Floyd’s canon of operas is amongst the most performed by any living American opera composer,…
What Critics Have Said about Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights
A “throwback” 1993 review from a performance of Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights in The Christian Science Monitor: “American composer Carlisle Floyd has wrapped music admirably around the Bronte story. He gives the drama added intensity with a score that is timed to the characters’ moments of passion, scorn, and rage. The music is stark and brooding, but for a contemporary piece (it was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera in 1958), it is multilayered enough…
A Note from Florentine Opera Director William Florescu
William Florescu, Florentine Opera General Director This is a unique and exciting Florentine Opera recording. Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights, an unjustly neglected American gem, made its Florentine debut in this world premiere recording. This performance marked the premiere for a full-length Florentine Opera concert production on the Harris Theater Stage of the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. We had the honor of welcoming Carlisle Floyd to guide this exceptional creative team and shape…