The thirteenth child : an opera in two acts

"It's very rare for a new opera to make it on to disc before it is seen in public. But Poul Ruders' fifth stage work, due to receive its world premiere at Santa Fe Opera next week, is an exception ... Even with two acts compressed into less than 80 minutes, there is plenty of space for lyrical solo numbers in Ruders' score, which veers between mid-Atlantic neoromanticism and something edgier and more expressionist in the orchestral interludes ... It's particularly Sarah Shafer in the role of Lyra who makes the most of his smoothly contoured vocal writing".

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"For his fifth opera, Danish composer Poul Ruders has turned to the Grimms' lesser-known fairytale, 'The Twelve Princes' ... Musically and dramatically it's an idiosyncratic piece ... Vocal and orchestral leitmotifs help to pinpoint action and contrasting mood, yet the characters sing throughout in similarly paced arioso lines, which are not always helpfully prominent above the orchestra. However, the cast is uniformly strong and the Bridge Academy Singers and Odense Symphony Orchestra impressively committed ... Much of the orchestral writing is striking".