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Italian Opera Meets Jazz

Mike del Ferro / Claron McFadden / Metropole Orkest

Italian Opera Meets Jazz

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917342826
Catnr: CR 73428
Release date: 06 May 2016
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Label
Challenge Records
UPC
0608917342826
Catalogue number
CR 73428
Release date
06 May 2016

"Mike del Ferro toured South-Africa 40 times and Japan 12 times."

Gooi en Eemlander, 19-10-2016
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

This release is the fourth album in the ten-part series “Songs inspired by wandering the globe,” a series based on Mike del Ferro’s worldwide travels. Neapolitan songs, particularly arias by Puccini and Verdi are meshed together with jazz, blues, and Afro-Cuban rhythms to create a truly unique soundscape. Pianist Mike del Ferro is an internationally renowned artist. He has appeared in 116 countries across the globe, with performances varying from solo recitals to contemporary crossovers. Ferro is joined here by guest singer, US born Claron McFadden. Her highly distinctive voice allows her to flow effortlessly between classical and jazz, opera and concert, and traditional and modern repertoire.
Das Metropole Orkest – das mehrfach Grammy-ausgezeichnete Jazz-, Symphonie- und Poporchester aus den Niederlanden – präsentiert ein Programm, in dem das allseits beliebte Belcanto Repertoire der Italienischen Oper auf Jazz trifft, ein Album mit Neapolitanischen Liedern und berühmten Arien. Der Fokus liegt auf italienischen Komponisten wie Verdi und Puccini, die vor eine zeitgenössische Kulisse transportiert werden, indem sie von acht internationalen Arrangeuren in eine völlig neuartige Form gegossen werden.

Die Stücke werden Metropole Orkest zusammen mit dem Jazzpianisten Mike del Ferro und dem Sänger Claron McFadden aufgeführt. Für del Ferro sind Oper und klassische Musik seit seiner frühesten Kindheit vertraut. Er begann früh mir klassischem Klavierunterricht, bis er auf den Jazz stieß und beschloss, damit seinen künstlerischen Weg fortzusetzen. Seine immense Liebe für Oper und klassische Musik hat er dennoch nie verloren. Vor einiger Zeit dann kam ihm die Idee, Opernrepertoire für sein eigenens Trio zu arrangieren. Nach Gesprächen mit dem Metropole Orkest nahm daraufhin der Plan Gestalt an, ein ganzes Album mit dem Ensemble aufzunehmen.

Artist(s)

Mike del Ferro (piano)

Dutch pianist Mike del Ferro is a highly sought-after composer, pianist and arranger who writes and performs in an impressive array of musical genres. He has travelled the world extensively (more then 90 countries), searching for collaborations with musicians from cultures quite different to his own, and the musical results have been eye-opening, building musical bridges between cultures not normally within reach of each other. He has managed to combine elements of the revered canons of Western music interspersed with the audacity of jazz improvisation, and paying tribute to the ancient structures of Asian, South American and African traditional music. He has recently signed a contract with Challenge records for a series of  10 CD's, collaborations with musicians from all over...
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Dutch pianist Mike del Ferro is a highly sought-after composer, pianist and arranger who writes and performs in an impressive array of musical genres. He has travelled the world extensively (more then 90 countries), searching for collaborations with musicians from cultures quite different to his own, and the musical results have been eye-opening, building musical bridges between cultures not normally within reach of each other. He has managed to combine elements of the revered canons of Western music interspersed with the audacity of jazz improvisation, and paying tribute to the ancient structures of Asian, South American and African traditional music. He has recently signed a contract with Challenge records for a series of 10 CD's, collaborations with musicians from all over the world, based on his travels.The first trio CD will be released worldwide in the fall of 2011, and the second production in the spring of 2012, with guest artists from Brazil. Mike's father was opera singer Leonard del Ferro (1921-1992), who sang and recorded with Maria Callas, and his childhood was thus filled with music of the highest order.A native of Amsterdam, he started his career studying classical piano at the age of nine and, after falling in love with jazz, he focused his studies on jazz and received a Masters of Music in Contemporary Music from the Amsterdam Conservatory. In 1989 he won First Prize at the Rotterdam Jazz Piano Competition, the Soloist Prize at the Europe Jazz Contest in Brussels, and First Prize at the Karlovy Vary Jazz contest and from 1993-1996 studied composition and arranging with Bob Brookmeyer at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany. In 1995 Mike was appointed to the faculty of the Royal Conservatory in Gent, Belgium where he taught jazz piano until 1997. His reputation as a soloist, accompanist, composer and arranger has led to worldwide performances, recordings and tours with musicians such as Toots Thielemans, Jack DeJohnette, Oscar Castro Neves, Deborah Brown, Erik Truffaz, Jorge Rossy, Sibongile Khumalo, Carl Allen, Scott Hamilton, Richard Galliano, Thijs van Leer (Focus), Harold Land, Jan Akkerman, Norma Winstone, Benny Bailey, Candy Dulfer, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Badi Assad, Fernanda Porto, Madou Diabate and Maria Pia deVito. He has also recorded dozens of albums in many different genres from Dixieland to Salsa and has arranged music for animation for Danish animator and Oscar winner, Börge Ring. Mike del Ferro goes by Mark Twain's dictum - "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime" - and his music reflects the array of influences that he has picked up in some of the most exotic places in the world.

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Claron McFadden (vocals)

Claron McFadden studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Her celebrated opera roles are numerous and varied, including the title role of Lulu conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and The controller in Jonathan Dove's Flight, both performed at Glyndebourne; Zerbinetta in Graham Vick's production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Netherlands Opera, where she has also performed many times; and numerous projects she has toured throughout Europe, including Dido and Aeneas and Les Indes Galantes, which she also performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She sings many of the major oratorio works, but is also in demand for her interpretation of modern and contemporary music, in particular the music of Wolfgang Rihm and Harrison Birtwistle. She performed in...
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Claron McFadden studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Her celebrated opera roles are numerous and varied, including the title role of Lulu conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and The controller in Jonathan Dove's Flight, both performed at Glyndebourne; Zerbinetta in Graham Vick's production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Netherlands Opera, where she has also performed many times; and numerous projects she has toured throughout Europe, including Dido and Aeneas and Les Indes Galantes, which she also performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
She sings many of the major oratorio works, but is also in demand for her interpretation of modern and contemporary music, in particular the music of Wolfgang Rihm and Harrison Birtwistle. She performed in the world premier of Birtwistle's The Woman and the Hare at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and in August 2009 at the BBC Proms with the Nash Ensemble.
Her many recordings include Birtwistle's Paul Celan Songs, Haydn's Orfeo and Gluck's Paride ed Elena with La Stagione Frankfurt and as Aspasia in Händel's Alexander Balus with the King's Consort for Hyperion Records.
She has also made many television appearances, including Channel 4's My Night with Händel, performance documentary of contemporary settings of Händel operatic arias, available on video and DVD.
In August 2007 Claron McFadden was awarded with the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts, winning praise for her brilliant coloratura, her wide repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Bernstein and contemporary composers, and her vivid stage personality.

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Jules Buckley (conductor)

Composer(s)

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi is viewed as one of the most important, and most popular, opera composers of Italy. Few composers knew how to balance artistic ideals and commericial interersts like him. He was a composer of 'hits', like his 'La donna è mobile' from his opera Rigoletto and his 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from his opera Nabucco, and he was careful not to have his audience feel bored at any moment. Especially his early works are characterised by strongly propelling, rhytmic power. A common example is his Il Trovatore.  Yet, Verdi was also a composer with ideals. If he would get intrigued by a character, it became his mission to portray to persona as best as he could in the music. This sometimes meant he was forced...
more

Giuseppe Verdi is viewed as one of the most important, and most popular, opera composers of Italy. Few composers knew how to balance artistic ideals and commericial interersts like him. He was a composer of 'hits', like his "La donna è mobile" from his opera Rigoletto and his "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" from his opera Nabucco, and he was careful not to have his audience feel bored at any moment. Especially his early works are characterised by strongly propelling, rhytmic power. A common example is his Il Trovatore. Yet, Verdi was also a composer with ideals. If he would get intrigued by a character, it became his mission to portray to persona as best as he could in the music. This sometimes meant he was forced to alter or neglect traditional opera forms, like he did in Rigoletto. He was not afraid to touch on socially sensitive matters, which at times led to issues with the establishment. For instance, his opera La traviata turned out to be a controversial one, due to its courtesan heroine. Verdi never engaged in the intellectual discussions on music of his time. He pretended to be a simple man who felt most at home in the countryside. Nonetheless, with the masterful fugal ending of his last opera Falstaff he undoubtedly showed his intellectual level of composing.


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Giacomo Puccini

The Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini is viewed as the most important succesor of Giuseppe Verdi. Puccini was a true theatre man, who knew how to combine words, gesture and music seamlessly to emotionally touch the audience. Puccini's creative process was a tormented him. Often, librettists had to swallow a lot before he was satisfied with the text. Because of this, he only composed relatively few operas, but among those are some real masterworks. In his opera Tosca, Puccini knows how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and in his operas La Bohème and Madame Butterfly, it is hard not to weep in the end. Moreover, Puccini was able to compose arias which Verdi would have called 'something for the organ...
more
The Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini is viewed as the most important succesor of Giuseppe Verdi. Puccini was a true theatre man, who knew how to combine words, gesture and music seamlessly to emotionally touch the audience. Puccini's creative process was a tormented him. Often, librettists had to swallow a lot before he was satisfied with the text. Because of this, he only composed relatively few operas, but among those are some real masterworks. In his opera Tosca, Puccini knows how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and in his operas La Bohème and Madame Butterfly, it is hard not to weep in the end.
Moreover, Puccini was able to compose arias which Verdi would have called "something for the organ grinder": melodies which linger in your head and people sing in the streets. This was proven once again by his famous "Nessun Dorma", which was used for the world championship football, and his "O Mio Babbino Caro" which was used in a well-known commercial. Due to his popularity and commercial success, critics did not acknowledge his talents for a long time. They accused him of a sensationalist approach. His reputation as a lover of women and fast cars certainly didn't help with his image either!
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Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet was a French composer of the romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his...
more
Georges Bizet was a French composer of the romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.
During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned. Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful.
After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during which Bizet served in the National Guard, he had little success with his one-act opera Djamileh, though an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne was instantly popular. The production of Bizet's final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure; he died of a heart attack three months later, unaware that it would prove a spectacular and enduring success.

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Press

Mike del Ferro toured South-Africa 40 times and Japan 12 times.
Gooi en Eemlander, 19-10-2016

"But Del Ferro found that he could make a nice samba from it."
Jazzism, 14-9-2016

"Del Ferro made a samba from it."
Jazz Bulletin, 01-9-2016

" [...] This album is, despite the couple of missteps, that are pretty normal with an experiment, definetly worth to listen to. [...] "
Jazzenzo, 14-7-2016

Italian Opera Meets Jazz is what the title says: A crossover with Jazz, luckily for jazzpianist Del Ferro there is enough space to improvise.
Piano wereld, 01-7-2016

"[...] Claron McFadden proved once again that her musical hero Sarah Vaughn is deep in her heart and her voice. [...]" "[...] McFadden took the star role, beautiful harmonies were heard from the piano of Mike del Ferro and again there were those strings, wherefor my superlatives amply inadequate [...]"
Place de l'Opera, 09-5-2016

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Often bought together with..

Bluebeard
Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet
Sergei Prokofiev, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton
Violin Concerto No. 1 | Viola Concerto | The Lark Ascending
Isabelle van Keulen | NDR Radiophilharmonie
GOLDBRUN
Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet
Various composers
Roaring Twenties
Calefax / Cora Burggraaf

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