THOMAS AUGUSTINE ARNE/ Nicholas McGegan/ Philarmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale/ Jennifer Smith/
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Medieval
Renaissance
Baroque
Clasicism
Opera

 5 STARS
Alfred
**
ALFRED
Alfred

THOMAS AUGUSTINE ARNE

Nicholas McGegan

Philarmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale

Jennifer Smith, Christine Brandes

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 75605 513142
1999 - 76:10 min.
Although known to nearly every Englishman practically from birth, it's a fair bet that few of them know the source of Rule Britannia. Here's an opportunity for them and (one hopes!) others to find out. Designated as a masque, Thomas Arne's Alfred is in fact a play with music first given in 1740 as part of a lavish entertainment at Cliveden, the country seat of the Prince of Wales. Five years later Arne expanded the original eight vocal numbers into an English opera which received its premiere at Drury Lane Theatre on 20 March 1745. It is the latter that forms the basis of this first near-complete recording of the musical numbers.

The plot, a mixture of pastoralism and fashionable patriotic sentiment, concerns the Saxon king Alfred's resistance against invading Danes during the 9th century. The two strands allowed Arne to produce a well-varied score ranging from popular strophic airs for the shepherds Emma and Corin to bravura da capo arias for the noble characters, Alfred, his wife Eltruda and son Prince Edward. The performance is very good, with particularly outstanding contributions from Daniels (Prince Edward) and Christine Brandes (Emma/Spirit). Jennifer Smith's Eltruda fails to match that of Catherine Pierard on a disc of "extended highlights" put out as a cover-disc by BBC Music Magazine some years ago. Directed by Nicholas Kraemer that disc included one of three numbers missing here, while Kraemer also brought a touch more swagger to Rule Britannia, which forms the finale of the opera. Nevertheless, you get a lot more of Arne's tuneful score here and the disc can be confidently recommended. BRIAN ROBINS

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