Miguel Harth-Bedoya Archive

JENNIFER HIGDON: Cold Mountain (comp. opera) – Soloists /Santa Fe Opera Orch. & The Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers/ Miguel Harth-Bedoya – Pentatone (2 SACDs)

by Audiophile Audition | Aug 25, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

The birth of a truly distinguished American opera. JENNIFER HIGDON: Cold Mountain (comp. opera) – Jay Hunter Morris (Teague)/ Robert Pomakov (Owens)/ Adrian Kramer (Owens’ Son)/ Nathan Gunn (W.P. Inman)/ Kevin Burdette (A Blind Man)/ Isabel Leonard (Ada Monroe)/ Emily Fons (Ruby Thewes) The Santa Fe Opera Orch. & Members of The Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers/ Miguel Harth-Bedoya – Pentatone multichannel SACD PTC5186583 (2 discs), TT: 145:40 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: Like most novels of sufficient length and depth, it is virtually impossible to react while maintaining the consistency and formative narrative that makes the work succeed—or not. But when doing so for an opera, one does at least have a chance providing the music is up to the task. Opera, after all, is able to amplify and illumine specific static moments of a work in a way that even the most verbose text is unable to accomplish, emotionally speaking. This stylized formula, tried and true after so many years, and when in the hands of a genius composer, is often able to give birth to new and varied aspects of characterizations and hidden layers of meaning not present even in the original. No one, for example, […]