Liszt: Sardanapalo & Mazeppa

Featuring

Kirill Karabits
Joyce El-Khoury
Airam Hernández
Oleksandr Pushniak
Staatskapelle Weimar
Weimar Deutsches Nationaltheater Opera Chorus

Franz Liszt

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Historical Context

Lord Byron's Sardanapalus, the source for Liszt's opera, inspired Eugène Delacroix's colossal oil painting 'La mort de Sardanapale' and Hector Berlioz's cantata 'La dernière nuit de Sardanapale'.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt believed that both symphonic poetry and a declamatory, modern opera style were "imperative necessities" for the future of music, reflecting societal and ethical changes.

Composition History

Liszt's opera Sardanapalo, based on Lord Byron's tragedy, is the only mature opera for which Liszt composed significant music, though he abandoned it after Act 1.

Recording & Production

The surviving manuscript of Liszt's Sardanapalo was not performable as is; it was deciphered, edited, and orchestrated by David Trippett, a University Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Cambridge, for this recording.

Composer Biography

Before composing his famous symphonic poems, Franz Liszt, the composer, aimed to become a successful opera composer, alongside figures like Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Wagner.

Compositional Technique

Sardanapalo showcases a blend of musical influences, including Verdian choruses, proto-Wagnerian harmonies, Bellinian melodies, and Berlioz-like sonorities.

Composition History

Liszt abandoned Sardanapalo partly because he never received a revised libretto for Acts 2 and 3, and felt he couldn't rely on his librettist, an unknown Italian poet.