Est 1923

Menotti Martin's Lie & Songs

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Gian Carlo Menotti

Genre:

Opera

Label: Chandos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 72

Catalogue Number: CHAN9605

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Martin's Lie Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Alan Opie, Stranger, Baritone
Connor Burrowes, Martin, Treble/boy soprano
Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Matthew Best, Sheriff, Bass
Northern Sinfonia
Pamela Helen Stephen, Naninga, Mezzo soprano
Richard Hickox, Conductor
Robin Leggate, Father Cornelius, Tenor
Tees Valley Boys' Choir
(5) English songs Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Birgit Nilsson, Elektra, Soprano
Birgit Nilsson, Elektra, Soprano
Birgit Nilsson, Elektra, Soprano
Gerhard Stolze, Aegisthus, Tenor
Gerhard Stolze, Aegisthus, Tenor
Gerhard Stolze, Aegisthus, Tenor
Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano
Marie Collier, Chrysothemis, Soprano
Regina Resnik, Klytemnestra, Mezzo soprano
Robin Leggate, Tenor
Tom Krause, Orestes, Baritone
Tom Krause, Orestes, Baritone
Tom Krause, Orestes, Baritone
Canti della lontananza Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Alois Pernerstorfer, Alberich, Baritone
Alois Pernerstorfer, Alberich, Baritone
Alois Pernerstorfer, Alberich, Baritone
Elisabeth Höngen, Waltraute, Mezzo soprano
Elisabeth Höngen, Waltraute, Soprano
Elisabeth Höngen, Waltraute, Soprano
Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer
Hilde Konetzni, Third Norn, Soprano
Judith Howarth, Soprano
Malcolm Martineau, Piano
Peter Markwort, Mime, Tenor
Walburga Wegner, Freia, Soprano
Martin’s Lie is a short (44-minute) opera for performance in churches. It is set in the fourteenth century and much of its music seems, although I suspect is not literally, rooted in plainchant. It is set in an orphanage housed in a former monastery. A fugitive arrives, a heretic fleeing from torture and the stake, and Martin, one of the orphans, is easily persuaded that the man is his long-lost father who vanished before he was born. Martin hides him, and when the King’s Sheriff arrives denies in the teeth of the evidence that he has seen him. Threatened with blinding with a red-hot iron he dies, perhaps of terror, calling on his father to save him. As he does so a monk tells him that the stranger was his father, retorting to the Sheriff, “A lie is a little thing, my lord. I have learned that love is stronger than any sin.”
A ‘parable for church for performance’, then, and Martin’s Lie is bound to be compared to Britten’s church parables, and no less bound to suffer by the comparison: the Britten pieces are far richer, far more complex and resonant. But to conclude from that that Menotti’s opera is like watered-down Britten would be to miss its point and its own qualities. There is a gravity to its simplicity that at times recalls Virgil Thomson (from some that would be at best a double-edged tribute; I mean it as a compliment). Its use of recurring, unifying motifs is skilful. And in almost every phrase of the work, even the briefest, scene-setting exchanges, the language is always gratefully melodious.
Menotti’s best works are cruelly let down by the sort of homespun, semi-amateur performance that their simplicity seems to invite. Strong casting, as here, demonstrates that his characterization is as shrewd as his gift for atmosphere (the notably atmospheric recording is a great help). All the singers are first-class, and the treble Connor Burrowes acts very affectingly. Richard Hickox’s affectionate respect for the piece is everywhere apparent.
As in the opera Menotti is his own poet for the two groups of songs. The five in English, intelligently sung by Robin Leggate, indeed sound rather English, and the best of them would not fade in the company of Ireland or Warlock. The Italian cycle is more operatic, and although at times the melodic language is not quite as distinguished as the texts’ big gestures seem to demand, the best are lyrically expressive; Judith Howarth sings them eloquently.'

Menotti Martin's Lie & Songs

Martin's Lie

(5) English songs

Canti della lontananza

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