プッチーニ没後100年!カルロ・リッツィによる
「蝶々夫人」や「トスカ」の交響的組曲!

ミラノ・スカラ座のコレペティートルを務めた経歴を持ち、日本においても新国立劇場に登場し絶賛されるなどオペラハウスとコンサートホールの両方で世界的に高い評価を重ねるイタリアの指揮者、カルロ・リッツィがプッチーニの名作オペラ「蝶々夫人」と「トスカ」を交響的組曲へと生まれ変わらせました!リッツィが通算10年以上にわたって音楽監督として国際的な水準に育て上げ、現在は桂冠指揮者として良好な関係を継続するウェールズ・ナショナル・オペラを起用し、プッチーニの没後100年となる2024年に大注目の1枚を送り出します。

声楽パートをカバーするために必要以上に手を加えることをせず、オリジナルのオーケストレーションを最大限に保ちながら管弦楽のみで作品の魅力を最大限に引き出すというプッチーニを知り尽くすリッツィならではの秀逸な再創造&アレンジは必聴。また、プッチーニが遺した数少ない管弦楽作品である「交響的前奏曲」(大幅なカットがされる前のオリジナル版も含む2種収録!)と、よりドラマチックでスケールの大きな「交響的奇想曲」(いずれもカルロ・リッツィによる新校訂版)というカップリングも魅力的です。リッツィはプッチーニのオペラを愛する人はもちろん、普段はオペラハウスよりもコンサートホールに惹かれることが多い人たちともプッチーニの魅力を分かち合い、アニバーサリー・イヤーを祝いたいと語っています。
東京エムプラス

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2023/12/25）

It may have been a surprise to see this album vault onto classical best-seller charts in early 2024. The project of transferring Puccinis music to a purely orchestral medium is something of an odd one, for the action of his operas is continuous, not falling into neat musical units, and he was a vocal composer par excellence. Moreover, less than half of this release by conductor Carlo Rizzi and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra is given over to the Symphonic Suites, which were made by Rizzi himself. The rest is devoted to early orchestral pieces Puccini wrote as a conservatory student in Milan; these are not exactly common, but they have been recorded often enough. The attraction to audiences, however, is that Rizzi has done an impressive job with his arrangements. He notes that the COVID-19 pandemic gave him time to work these out, and they are good enough that one wishes for more, perhaps one of La boheme. As it is, Rizzi offers Symphonic Suites "inspired by" Madama Butterfly and Tosca. They are far enough from the originals that the qualifier is needed; Rizzi puts things together that are not together in the original scores. Annotator Roger Parker notes that "[i]n the case of the Tosca suite, the kinship between Angelottis music and that accompanying the torture of Cavaradossi is made musically manifest." The two suites flow musically in ways natural enough that one might think they had been done by Puccini or one of his associates a century ago. Some big tunes are there, but much of the emphasis is placed on Puccinis orchestration, which is thrown into relief, so to speak, in this context. The two orchestral works, performed in new editions by Rizzi, are of interest as well. There are two versions of the Preludio Sinfonico of 1882, of which Puccini thought enough to revise it later, and Puccinis graduation piece, the Capriccio Sinfonico, with its striking anticipation of La boheme, is worth fresh performances. The Welsh National Opera Orchestra is inspired to deliver very fine string playing here, whether by Rizzi, the importance of the project, or, most likely, both. An essential find for Puccini lovers. ~ James Manheim

Rovi