Composers: Saint-Saëns
Compositions: Ascanio
Performers: Chœur et Orchestre de la Haute École de Musique de Genève/Guillaume Tourniaire
Catalogue Number: B Records LBM013 (3CD)

“I need not waste my words on the music of it. There is not an original phrase in it from beginning to end,” George Bernard Shaw was reported to have said of the premiere of Saint-Säens’ Ascanio in 1890. Poorly received, one suspects this has to do with the mutilated version that made its way to the stage. Producers baulked at the opera’s significant production demands, meaning Saint-Säens never heard the work as he intended. This recording thus...