Barber: Vanessa (complete opera)

"Samuel Barber's Vanessa receives an impressive update recording with fine American singers (Ellen Chickering [Vanessa], Andrea Matthews [Erika] et al.) and Gil Rose leading the Ukrainian National Symphony."
--Turok's Choice, March 2004

"This recording of Vanessa, which won Samuel Barber the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Music, far exceeds all expectations. The lush sound, sensitive conducting, and exceptional singing accord this set an honored place among the great CDs of 2003... The voices of Chickering and Matthews meld beautifully. In addition, these two seasoned sopranos deliver terrific characterizations, skillfully presenting Vanessa's and Erika's disparate ages and personalities... The Ukrainian orchestra is terrific, the acoustics are good."
-- Dalia Geffen, Audiophile Audition, March 2004

"Gil Rose leads the excellent National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine with a sure hand and an appropriately roughshod bonhomie...Ellen Chickering's powerful Vanessa is well matched by Andrea Matthews' Erika...Marion Dry's terrifying Baroness and Ray Bauwen's brash young Anatol round out a particularly well chosen cast. This recording, the first new version in almost half a century, will no doubt rekindle interest in this masterful yet somewhat shaggy opera."
-- Daniel Felsenfeld, Time Out, November 27-December 4, 2003

"If there were a classical music man of the month, November would surely belong to conductor Gil Rose... the performance is bursting with life, in large part thanks to Gil Rose's passionate leadership of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Soprano Ellen Chickering is nothing short of overwhelming in the title role and tenor Ray Bauwens and soprano Andrea Matthews as the other two points of a love triangle are first-rate. So are Marion Dry, Richard Conrad and Philip Lima, who complete the cast of locally based singers."
T.J. Medrek, The Boston Herald

"As part of its admirable, ongoing American Opera Classics series, Naxos offers the second studio recording of Samuel Barber's first commission for the Met, Vanessa....This enjoyable performance shows moving commitment and basic musical virtues...Naxos's extraordinary marketing acumen will surely give Barber's memorable opera great currency."
-- David Shengold, Opera News

"This recording is splendid... a remarkable achievement. Ellen Chickering sings Vanessa beautifully and with great feeling... Marion Dry has a true, dark sound for the Old Baroness and it's apt; her words are always understandable. Ray Bauwens has a bright, good-sized tenor, he articulates well, and he has the right swagger for Anatol. Baritone Richard Conrad (who was an exquisite, very light bel canto tenor in the '60s and recorded with Joan Sutherland) gets everything right as the Doctor--he's completely involved with this dysfunctional family. Conductor Gil Rose leads a taut performance... it presents this maybe-masterpiece handsomely, and at a bargain price."
-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

"This Naxos release is the opera's second recording, and it's a good one. The second-tier American singers, led by Ellen Chickering as Vanessa, are committed, personal and strong throated. Gil Rose sets fluid, broad tempos, and the National Symphony of the Ukraine makes a fine sound - and turns on a dime. 3 ? stars."
-- David Perkins, North Carolina News Observer

"A local cast that's practically peerless."
-- Ted Medrek, Boston Herald, Top 10 Discs of 2003

"Ellen Chickering is a commanding Vanessa, with crisp diction...Ray Bauwens as the cad Anatol, and Marion Dry as the Baroness are both fine...The sound quality is clear, the balance between voices and orchestra excellent. Anyone who is attracted to American verismo will enjoy this."
- Patrick O'Connor, Gramophone, 12/03 ¡V EDITOR'S CHOICE

"...this international cast under American conductor Gil Rose brings the requisite eloquence and intensity to Barber's setting of the love-triangle libretto provided by his friend Gian Carlo Menotti."
- Anthony Holden, The Observer, 9/11/03

"Naxos's American series continues to go from strength to strength...Perhaps Gil Rose's excellent new recording ¡V made in Kiev, of all places ¡V will introduce it to a wider audience at long last." Andrew
- Clarke, The Independent, 1/11/03

"Gil Rose leads the NSO of Ukraine with an incisive baton throughout and seems intent on calling greater attention to Barber's orchestration, an approach which at least in part accounts for the greater orchestral presence in the sound reproduction...In the end, this Naxos Vanessa must be assessed an impressive effort...This, then, especially at Naxos' budget price and because it incorporates changes made in the opera in 1964 by Barber and Menotti, is eminently recommendable."
- Robert Cummings, Classical Net

"...given the price, this is a rewarding way of getting to know one of the first American "grand operas", a genre still very much in vogue across the Atlantic."
- Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph, 18/10/03

"Naxos has assembled a very good cast, Matthews' tender portrait of the young girl so utterly poignant. The orchestral playing is splendid, the sound stage ideally balanced. At this price you simply must give it a whirl."
- David Denton, Yorkshire Post, 17/10/03