Wolf-Ferrari: Susanna's Secret - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO first collaborated with the Liverpool-based European Opera Centre on a Russian double-bill of Shostakovich’s The Gamblers and Rothschild’s Violin by Fleishman. The resulting 2-CD set on Avie garnered a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and contributed to Petrenko’s winning the Young Artist of the Year accolade at the 2007 Gramophone Awards. The team reunites for a rare, live recording of Wolf-Ferrari’s humorous one-act opera, Susanna’s Secret. Wolf-Ferrari’s neo-classical score is as seductive as the Edwardian plot in which the new wife of a jealous Count attempts to hide her smoking habit. When he catches her, their improbable reconciliation results in a rather different sort of smouldering. The young singers of the EOC throw themselves into their roles with appropriate passion. The recording is uniquely rounded out with Wolf-Ferrari’s Serenata, five songs extracted from his seldom-heard Italian Songbook.


Ermanno WOLF-FERRARI (1876 – 1948)
1. – 14. Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret) – opera in one act

Serenata – Cinque canti per Baritono
15. I. Si dà principio a questa serenata
16. II. Alza le trecce bionde e non dormire
17. III. O tu che dormi e riposata stai
18. IV. Il letto ti sia fatto di vïole
19. V. Commiato – E giacchè vedo qui l’alba apparire