My attempt at garnering some attention for forgotten and ignored Czech operas hasn’t exactly been a success. Poor Martinu: both his The Greek Passion and The Miracles of Mary (four short operas, one of which is all of 15 minutes) did rather poorly in terms of “listens.” Hopefully, you will indulge me in one more: Zdenek Fibich’s Nevesta messinská (The Bride of Messina). 

A few months ago I received an e-mail from my friend Vasek, who travels extensively to hear opera all over Central Europe, proclaiming that he just heard Fibich’s opera in Magdeburg and pronounced it the discovery of the year. It is, indeed, an exciting listen. Unlike the more nationalist works of Dvorák and Smetana, it is clearly more influenced by Wagner. There is some seriously great music going on here. The plot is rather simple and with the opera running only two hours, please consider giving it a chance, at least for the first 14 minutes.

It’s all explained by the good folks at Wikipedia, where you can also find out more about Fibich.

Zden?k Fibich (1850-1900): Nevesta messinská

Theater Magdeburg
Kimbo Ishii, conductor
14 March 2015

In-house recording (amazing sound!)

Donna Isabella – Lucia Cervoni
Don Manuel – Thomas Florio
Don César – Richard Samek
Diego – Johannes Stermann
Béatrice – Noa Danon
Cayetan – Martin-Jan Nijhof
Bohemund – Manfred Wulfert
Panos – Hale Soner