The Cast
OROSMANE
- Alastair Miles
ZAIRA - Majella Cullagh
NERESTANO - Bruce Ford
LUSIGNANO
- Garry Magee
CORASMINO - Colin Lee
FATIMA - Claire Wild
(PMF Scholar)
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Philharmonia Orchestra
CONDUCTOR
- David Parry
American Record Guide
'Conductor Parry, so often involved in these revivals of forgotten operas, finds a good balance between sensitivity and precision. Orchestra and chorus perform exceedingly well... 'Majella Cullagh would be difficult to improve on. The coloratura complexities hold neither fear nor difficulty for her. She brilliantly attacks the vocal heights then plunges down to the vocal depths. Hers is a lovely soprano voice, warm and confident, very rewarding to the listener.'
BBC Music Magazine
'Majella Cullagh flaunting a to-die-for top register, provides accomplished and expressive singing throughout the title role'
Gramophone'This is very well worth hearing, but also far from complete... Opera Rara has again performed a service that deserves all gratitude. For most who take an interest in such things, the name of Mercadante will have passed in the last decade or so from reference-book status to reality. At the same time admiration will have grown, and with it, interest...
Outstanding among the singers is Alastair Miles in the role of the enlightened Muslim king, in love with Zaira. The writing is for a high lyric bass with the skills of a thorough virtuoso. Miles is exemplary in the evenness and fluency of his scales and gruppetti, and the tessitura suits him admirably. Majella Cullagh rewards the confidence placed in her, and the well-known gifts of Bruce Ford and Gary Magee are also well employed.'
