suavely elaborate music with which Rossini characterises the lascivious and venal Mayor. With sympathetic, well-sung performances from Nerys Jones and Russell Smythe, and Barry Banks bringing passion and style to Giannnetto, this is as good a cast of principals as we have yet had on record.'

Opera News, The Met

'Parry leads a marvelously taut but never hurried performance, and the Philharmonia forces, spectacular throughout, are breathtaking in the finale to Act II, Scene I, where terrifying rapid piccolo figures express the cataclysmic effect of the unjust verdict about to be enacted.'

 

 

 

 

Gramophone

'Majella Cullagh is outstanding as Ninetta, the guileless peasant girl... Such is her empathy with the role, the elaborately ornamented version of the cavatina (based on variants Rossini himself wrote for the soprano Giuseppina Vitali in 1866) succeeds in underlining her spirit and resolve without compromising the sense we have of goodness without blemish. Christopher Purves gives an equally masterly account of the suavely elaborate

CHAN 3097

31 July 2010

The Peter Moores Foundation supports projects which come to the attention of its Patron, or Trustees, through their interests and special knowledge. General applications for grants are not encouraged and are unlikely to succeed.

Melodrama in two acts
Libretto by Giovanni Gherardini
after La Pie vouleuse by J.M.T. Badouin &
Louis-Charles Caigniez
English translation by Jeremy Sams

The Cast

Jeremy White, bass - Fabrizio Vingradito
Susan Bickley, mezzo-soprano - Lucia
Barry Banks, tenor (PMF Scholar) - Giannetto
Majella Cullagh, soprano - Ninetta
Russell Smythe, baritone - Fernando Villabella
Christopher Purves, baritone - Gottardo
Nerys Jones, mezzo-soprano - Pippo
John Graham-Hall, tenor - Isacco
Stuart Kale, tenor - Antonio
Toby Stafford-Allen, baritone (PMF Scholar) - Giorgio
Nicholas Garrett, bass - Ernesto
Darren Jeffery, baritone (PMF Scholar) - Judge
Philip Tebb, bass - Judge
Daniel Slater - Clerk
Prunella Scales - Magpie
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir

Registered charity number: 258224

The Thieving Magpie

© Peter Moores Foundation 2004

 

 

 

Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by David Parry

Recorded in Blackheath Halls, London - 21-23 & 27-28 September 2002
Producer - Brian Couzens, Sound engineer - Ralph Couzens, Assistant engineer - Matthew Walker