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The Lyric Stage September 5 - An English Cavalleria Rusticana

This week we have a recording of Cavaleria Rusticana from the 1920's, in a superior performance with excellent sound for such distant technology. If you have never been a fan of opera in English, this recording may change your mind.  

It does have abrupt cuts that we would never hear today, cuts made to accommodate the nineteen fragile twelve inch 78 rpm discs needed to hold what was an effort to give as complete a performance of the opera as possible. The sheer poundage is intimidating.

The performance is by the soloists, chorus and orchestra of the British National Opera Company, a company active from 1920 until 1929, which had a strong commitment to opera in English just as its spiritual successor, the English National Opera does today.

Heddle Nash sings Turridu. Nash made his name in oratorio as well as opera in the first half of the 20th century. He had a repertoire of twenty-four operas, and sang fluently in English, French, German and Italian. His sound and musicianship rank him as one of the finest tenors of his era.