Orchestral Music - Herbert, V. / Sullivan, A. / Offenbach, J. / Kalman, E. / Friml, R. (Overtures and Entr'Actes)

Chronique

The Ohio Light Opera at the College of Wooster's commitment to quality revivals of operetta has propelled it through nearly 30 seasons of productions and slightly more than that number in recordings. A theater orchestra is a slightly different animal than a regular symphony orchestra, being smaller and having a very different tonal balance owing to the smaller number of strings, more prominent winds, and percussion. The pit orchestra at Ohio Light Opera is one of the best of its kind, albeit among a rather small number of active ensembles of its type; nevertheless, Albany Records' The Ohio Light Opera Orchestra: Overtures and Entr'actes is a great idea, combining some of the stronger orchestral performances of revivals held between 2001-2006 into a single disc.
Three leaders -- Steven Byess, J. Lynn Thompson, and Jason Altieri -- are heard in overtures and juicy orchestral chunks drawn from Victor Herbert's The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta, Offenbach's The Brigands, and works of Arthur Sullivan, Rudolf Friml, and Emmerich Kalmán. All of the orchestral playing is consistently good -- lively, motivated in up-tempo numbers, and suitably relaxed and patiently flowing forward in ones that are more lyrical. The recordings, as is common with the house sound in Wooster, are a little dry and constricted, but the stereo imaging is excellent and you get a realistic sense of how the orchestra is laid out in front of you when you take in the Ohio Light Opera. Albany Records' The Ohio Light Opera Orchestra: Overtures and Entr'actes is a fun and highly enjoyable disc; it may even stimulate interest in other entries from this ever expanding series.

© TiVo