Bretan The Evening Star

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Nicolae Bretan

Genre:

Opera

Label: Nimbus

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 61

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: NI5463

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Evening Star Nicolae Bretan, Composer
Bálint Szabó, Michael the Archangel, Bass
Béla Hary, Conductor
Elena Casian, Lady-in-Waiting, Mezzo soprano
Elena Croitoru, King's Daughter, Soprano
Ioan Pojar, Page, Tenor
Ionel Voineag, Evening Star, Tenor
Marius Budoiu, Mariner, Tenor
Nicolae Bretan, Composer
Transylvania Philharmonic Chorus
Transylvania Philharmonic Orchestra
Very curious. Although Nicolae Bretan lived from 1887 to 1968, his music betrays no influence more recent than Rimsky-Korsakov; it is pre-twentieth century, pre-Wagnerian, an innocent (or naive?) music of gentle, solemn lyricism that can achieve a sort of chaste radiance. Bretan’s earlier career, in his native Romania and elsewhere, was as a singer, and he had a gift for gratefully singable melody; this opera is almost pure melody, with very simple harmony and little contrapuntal working. Bretan himself proudly recorded in his diary that “not since Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana has there been a one-act opera of such melodic beauty from start to finish”. Where that comparison breaks down, however, is that in its almost uninterrupted sequence of grave, sweet or lilting tunes there is not much sense in Bretan’s work of conflict or of drama, though you could argue that his curious plot hardly calls for such qualities. It is more like a ritual than an opera, and the characters are mere symbols, not human beings at all. The Evening Star desires the love of a mortal woman, although he can only obtain it by renouncing his own immortality. The King’s daughter adores the Evening Star from a distance, but settles eventually for the less rarefied love of a Page. The Evening Star regretfully returns to his place in the heavens.
I was rather baffled by the simplicity of Bretan’s language, suspecting at one stage that my leg was being pulled. I tried anagrams of the composer’s name, but no: the better reference books confirm that he did indeed exist, and apparently had such rough treatment from the authorities in Communist Romania that he ceased composing entirely after 1948 (The Evening Star dates from 1921). He was, perhaps, a ‘primitive’, with a genuine if restricted vision. His music achieves no great profundity, but its melodies have freshness, charm, occasionally even ardour. An excellent cast (a slightly shrill but useful soprano, three more than capable tenors and a decent bass) sing them with gratitude and affection. '

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