Composer of the Week - Cecile Chaminade and Augusta Holmes - Dramatic Ambitions

Donald Macleod considers the events and music which inspired Holmes to write four operas, culminating in the mounting of La Montagne Noire at the Paris Opera. In contrast, after writing a successful ballet early in her career and despite two attempts at writing an opera, Chaminade never completed a work in either genre thereafter. With Marcia Citron, Lovett Distinguished Service Professor of Musicology at Rice University, and Karen Henson, Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Chaminade: Callirhoe Peter Jacobs (piano) Chaminade: l'Ete; Sombrero Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Bengt Forsberg (piano) Holmes: Ouverture pour une comedie Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic Samuel Friedman (conductor) Chaminade: Nice-la-Belle Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Bengt Forsberg (piano) Chaminade: Valse carnavalesque, Op 73 Bengt Forsberg, Peter Jablonski (pianos) Chaminade: Ma premiere lettre Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Bengt Forsberg (piano) Chaminade: Lettres d'amour (text Emma di Rienzi) Heidrun Blase (mezzo-soprano) Ulrich Bremsteller (harmonium) Holmes: Andromede Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic Samuel Friedman (conductor) Chaminade: Automne (No 2 - Etudes de concert, Op 35) John Ogdon (piano).