Lennox Berkeley's Ruth, along with Britten's Gloriana and Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage, make up the first postwar peak of English opera. In scale, Ruth is a chamber opera set in three scenes for five soloists, small mixed choir, and a reduced orchestra of two flutes, horn, percussion, piano, and 11 strings. In effect, Ruth is an intimate opera depicting the story of Ruth and Boaz from the Old Testament Book of Ruth. In this recording, Ruth is exquisitely wrought, marvelously beautiful, intensely lyrical, and deeply ...
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Lennox Berkeley's Ruth, along with Britten's Gloriana and Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage, make up the first postwar peak of English opera. In scale, Ruth is a chamber opera set in three scenes for five soloists, small mixed choir, and a reduced orchestra of two flutes, horn, percussion, piano, and 11 strings. In effect, Ruth is an intimate opera depicting the story of Ruth and Boaz from the Old Testament Book of Ruth. In this recording, Ruth is exquisitely wrought, marvelously beautiful, intensely lyrical, and deeply moving. Mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby is completely convincing in the title role, a young woman who in loyalty to her mother-in-law moves to a foreign country where she is treated with suspicion and disdain as an outsider. Tenor Mark Tucker is wholly persuasive in the role of Boaz, a rich widower who comes to love the lonely Ruth. Soprano Yvonne Kenny is utterly compelling as Naomi, a woman who has lost her husband and her sons and who returns to her homeland bereft of everything except the...
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