An Echo Award, Germany's top classical music prize, has been awarded to Decca's release of Halévy's little known opera Clari . It was named “Opera DVD of the Year”.
The DVD is a recording of the Zurich Opera production with Cecilia Bartoli and John Osborn. Bartoli recreates the 1828 triumph of the legendary Maria Malibran – original star and dedicatee of Halévy's “tragi-comedy”, Clari, and this is the first time that the opera has been filmed. It features many spectacular arias (created for Maria Malibran), and Bartoli, maintaining the diva tradition, adds Rossini's “Willow Song” from Otello and a previously unknown showpiece from Halévy's other Italian opera The Tempest.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
