Love and Death
Donald Macleod focuses on the climax and conclusion of Granados's career - the opera Goyescas.
Granados' opera Goyescas, based closely on the piano cycle, was premiered in New York in 1916, and won him a warm reception there. The closing scene of the opera was inspired by Goya's Capricho El amor y la muerte, Love and Death, depicting a woman holding a dying man in her arms, which proved to be a premonition of his own death: as Granados and his wife made the journey home by sea, their ship, the Sussex, was torpedoed in the English Channel. A friend witnessed their tragic deaths: 'He embraced his wife, and they disappeared forever beneath the waves. In the panic and confusion, no one thought to or was able to help them.' Donald Macleod explores the genesis of Granados' opera, which proved to be both the climax and the conclusion of his career.
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Music Played
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Granados
El majo timido
Performer: Jill Gomez (soprano)/ John Constable (piano)
- SAGA SCD 9007.
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Granados
Goyescas: III - El fandango de candil; IV - Quejas o la maja y el ruisenor
Performer: Alicia de Larrocha (piano)
- Decca 411 958-2.
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Granados
Goyescas (opera): Extract: Tableau 1
Performer: Maria Bayo (Rosario)/ Ramon Vargas (Fernando)/ Enrique Baquerizo (Paquiro)/ Lola Casariego (Pepa)/ Orfeon Donostiarra (chorus)/ Antoni Ros Marba (cond)
- Auvidis Valois V4791.
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Granados
Goyescas (opera): Extract Tableau 3
Performer: Maria Bayo (Rosario)/ Ramon Vargas (Fernando)/ Enrique Baquerizo (Paquiro)/ Lola Casariego (Pepa)/ Orfeon Donostiarra (chorus)/ Antoni Ros Marba (cond)
- Auvidis Valois V4791.
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Granados
Reverie (Traumerei)
Performer: Enrique Granados (piano roll)
- Bellaphon 690-07-016.
Broadcasts
- Thu 14 Apr 201112:00BBC Radio 3
- Thu 14 Apr 201122:00BBC Radio 3
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