Maw: Sophie's Choice (Rattle)

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Maw: Sophie's Choice (Rattle)
Review added by
Alan Titherington

As broadcast from the Royal Opera House in 2002
Certificate: N/A
Running Time: 223 mins
Retail Price: £29.99
Release Date: 01/02/2010
Content Type: Musical Recording

Synopsis:
In 2002, Nicholas Maw's opera Sophie's Choice, based on the novel by William Styron, was given its premiere at the Royal Opera House. The subject had struck Maw when he had first watched the film several years previously, and he immediately felt it would be 'the most extraordinary basis for an opera'. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House and BBC Radio 3, Maw embarked on an adaptation of Styron's book, which took six years to complete. Conducted by Simon Rattle, a long-term enthusiast of Nicholas Maw's music, and with a wonderful cast led by Angelika Kirchschlager, Rod Gilfry, Dale Duesing and Gordon Gietz, the work won international acclaim and was later restaged in Washington, Berlin and Vienna. The Royal Opera House celebrates the work of this British composer, who died in 2009, with the release on DVD of the BBC transmission, as broadcast live in December 2002.

Narrator: Dale Duesing
Stingo: Gordon Gietz
Sophie: Angelika Kirchschlager
Nathan: Rod Gilfry
Librarian: Adrian Clarke
Yetta Zimmerman: Frances McCafferty
Zbigniew Bieganski: Stafford Dean
Wanda: Stephanie Friede
Eva: Abigail Browne
Jan: Billy Clerkin
Old woman on train: Gillian Knight
Young man on train: Neil Gillespie
Rudolph Franz Höss: Jorma Silvasti
Doctor: Alan Opie
Bartender: Darren Jeffery
Larry Landau: Quentin Hayes

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Simon Rattle
Stage Director: Trevor Nunn

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21st December 2002.