Carl Orff felt an immediate affinity for the operas of Claudio Monteverdi when he discovered them early in his career, and he made modern realizations of several scores throughout his life. He created three adaptations of l'Orfeo (1923, 1929-1930, and 1940) using a German translation of the text and this is a recording of his final version. Orff radically restructured the opera, eliminating more than half of the solo roles, reducing the number of acts from five to three, shuffling the order of the music, entirely re-writing ...
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Carl Orff felt an immediate affinity for the operas of Claudio Monteverdi when he discovered them early in his career, and he made modern realizations of several scores throughout his life. He created three adaptations of l'Orfeo (1923, 1929-1930, and 1940) using a German translation of the text and this is a recording of his final version. Orff radically restructured the opera, eliminating more than half of the solo roles, reducing the number of acts from five to three, shuffling the order of the music, entirely re-writing some of it, and cutting more than half of it. As such, the piece should be evaluated as a work of Orff's rather than as a representation of Monteverdi's intentions. Orff's adaptation works on its own terms. His emphasis is on the first half of the opera and it has a reasonable dramatic arc; the scenes in the underworld are passed over briefly and the elimination of the fifth act apotheosis leaves the opera ending with the tragic final separation of the lovers. Ulf Schirmer leads a...
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