Exclusive: Alexandra Lubchansky - Mad Scenes - Constantin Trinks, Orchestre National Montpellier
Alexandra Lubchansky presents a collection of opera arias revolving around the theme of "madness". For this varied, multifaceted programme – available exclusively on IDAGIO – she is accompanied by the Orchestre National de Montpellier under Constantin Trinks.
Read more…Opera composers have always been interested in madness and how to depict it on stage. Clearly, however, representations of mental instability held a particular fascination for 19th-century audiences. The most famous example from that period is certainly Donizetti's 'Lucia di Lammermoor'; but other epochs have their fair share of protagonists who are shown succumbing to madness on the operatic stage. Usually it was Sopranos; male characters were affected far less often.
Here the Russian-born soprano Alexandra Lubchansky has taken on handful of arias that, though sharing the theme of madness, could hardly be more different, covering an entire musical spectrum. The music can be a tragic lament ('Ariodante', 1735), sometimes comic and exaggerated ('Platée', 1745), sometimes dramatic and explosive ('Idomeneo', 1781), sometimes dark and portentous ('Macbeth', 1847) and sometimes sweetly dreamy ('A Streetcar Named Desire', 1988). In each case, though, it offers a something fascinating and enthralling for today's listeners.