Zarzuela

Think back for a moment and remember what you’ve experienced in Spain on your holidays. You can’t exactly expect to find Black Forest cherry gateaux on the menu while relaxing in the shade of the Alhambra in Granada. And, along the Costa del Sol, you would never cure mouth-watering Spanish Jàmon Serrano ham with air imported from the Black Forest either. Unthinkable! So it was only natural that at some point in the nineteenth century people were longing for their own music for the stage, when audiences in Madrid and Alicante were no longer thrilled by Verdi’s consumptive heroines or Rossini’s conventional vocal pirouettes. The upshot was a completely new form of operetta, the zarzuela, with a good dose of humor, fiery rhythms and soaked in simple—Spanish!—melodies.
GENUIN, Noëmi Nadelmann and the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen are serving us a extra-large paella skillet brimming with delicacies—a wide-ranging selection covering all stylistic varieties and periods. The Barber of Seville is shortened and exquisite French wine poured out onto the stage, coloraturas come to a prickly head and clicking castanets outdo themselves. Drop by your favorite classical music dealer and get your copy—the price was never better for the rich allure of Spain!

"Great satisfaction is to be had from the orchestral items, and the recording itself which is full and revealing. Herzog’s rhythms are sprung and natural in the three orchestral items, tempi and rubato well-judged throughout. The horns bray dangerously in La pícara molinera’s Intermedio, the trumpets sound distant magic to usher in the Preludio from La patria chica: it’s good to have these great showpieces so well performed in outstanding modern sound. Even more valuable is the world premiere recording of the composer’s own concert version of the Preludio from La torre del oro, which contains two short but significant additions to the familiar theatre score, notably a delicate woodwind interlude in zapateado rhythm." (Review on Zarzuela.net)