The huge repertoire of English opera from the Victorian and Edwardian eras has virtually vanished from public view, but not from the public ear, thanks to top recordings such as this one. Michael Balfe, the composer of Satanella, was prolific, writing some 30 operas for both British and European opera houses. However, his most famous piece, The Bohemian Girl, hasn’t been seen on its feet for decades.
Satanella opened at Covent Garden in 1862 and held the stage for 60 years, including a visit to Sydney in 1962. It is a sturdy work, a mix of opera, operetta and ballad opera. I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the music as it is very professionally written with a reasonable balance between arias, choruses and ensembles. However it lacks true inspiration and there is little that grabs the ear. To put it crudely, it has no memorable tunes, and as with fellow works in the genre, makes us realise how brilliant Gilbert and Sullivan were and why they are the great survivors from that period. Bonynge has edited the work and the recording is happily without dialogue, always a weakness in this repertoire.
As it is unlikely that any of these works will take the stage again, recordings such as this are important, as they preserve the best part of these operas, the music. Performed to the high standard it is here, and under the direction of a master of the genre, Richard Bonynge, this is how Balfe’s interesting supernatural opera will be remembered.
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