# Which Joan of Arc Opera Do You Prefer



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

The dearth of recordings for Maid of Orleans tends to drive one to Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco. Yet on giving each one a listen, I am leaning strongly to Maid of Orleans.

Here are the full operas on You Tube:

Maid of Orleans

Giovanna d' Arco


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Verdi: Giovanna d’ Arco any day of the week .


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The Tchaikovsky.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

NickFuller said:


> The Tchaikovsky.


You will appreciate this:

Streaming links for the 1971 Moscow performance (Rozhdestvensky). Seems the same as the video but that is labeled 1969; however, looks like the same cast.

Tchaikovsky "The Maid of Orleans" (Dmitri Jurowski, 2017)


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Just to comment about another opera based on Joan of Arc, there is Walter Braunfels "Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna", with a good recording available:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

schigolch said:


> Just to comment about another opera based on Joan of Arc, there is Walter Braunfels "Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna", with a good recording available:


Sure that ain't Lady Godiva? Joan was supposed to have been modest, not to ride on a horse (or mythical beast) exposing herself. At any rate, I need to listen to this one.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Ah, the kind of music you want to hear in a silent film!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

schigolch said:


> Just to comment about another opera based on Joan of Arc, there is Walter Braunfels "Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna", with a good recording available:


There's also Honegger's oratorio _Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher_.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Tchaikovsky. the best in the lead role are Brigitte Fassbaender and Elena Obraztsova, with Helen Traubel doing a respectable job on the area (don't know if she ever sang the whole thing).


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

NickFuller said:


> There's also Honegger's oratorio _Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher_.


This is my answer. There is a compelling performance of it one can watch via Amazon Prime Video (US, at least).

I don't know the Tchaikovsky or Verdi. I also don't know the Braunfels, but would like to hear it.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Rogerx said:


> Verdi: Giovanna d' Arco any day of the week .


Yes easy choice for Joe Green, middle period work with exciting dramatic colortura passages a skilled singer can exploit, for example:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Is there no French composer who wrote an opera on Joan of Arc?

According to author and professor of English, Mary Gordon,


> There are over twenty thousand books about Joan of Arc in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.


But not one opera??????


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Honegger, though officially Swiss, was born in France, worked out of Paris for the most part of his life, and he is buried there.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

schigolch said:


> Honegger, though officially Swiss, was born in France, worked out of Paris for the most part of his life, and he is buried there.


As I recall in my multitudinous, crazed, frenzied searching around Amazon etc. for all sorts of music, that I found the Honegger set was available in a few releases and at reasonable prices, but it might take some getting used to because it was not, as I recall, musically enjoyable. But I'll definitely look again and pay more attention. Single disk set too as I muddily recall.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I see, Fritz, that you have chosen the Arkhipova. She is the best in this role.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Boston's Odyssey Opera 2017-18 season included four Joan of Arc works: by Tchaikovsky, Dello Joio, Honegger, and Verdi. The fifth opera of their season was also set in France but almost 100 years earlier, Donizetti's L'assedio di Calais (performing the complete 3-act version).

This theming is not unusual for them. The company's 2018-19 season's three remaining operas are all on Helen of Troy: by Gluck, Strauss, and Offenbach.

Their 2016-17 season focused on Oscar Wilde, with performances of Libermann's _The Picture of Dorian Gray_, Castelnuovo-Tedesco's _The Importance of Being Earnest_, and Zemlinksy's _Der Zwerg_. They also performed Gilbert & Sullivan's _Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride_, which satirizes a Wilde-like poet (not based on Wilde, but he played up the resemblance because it worked for him).


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

schigolch said:


> Just to comment about another opera based on Joan of Arc, there is Walter Braunfels "Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna", with a good recording available:


Good recording available, but not at a good price as far as I can see. Cheapest I find is 40 Euros. They go up, way up from there. If you know of a good price on this, PM me a link. I see it is available as a digital download (the better to avoid the immodest album cover) in a few countries but not the United States Amazon. I could buy it as a download from Amazon.co.uk for $16.50 USD but Amazon says,



> To purchase music from the Digital Music Store, you must have an Amazon.co.uk account, a UK billing address and a 1-Click payment method issued by a UK bank.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Here is an interesting bit of information indicating Honegger's Joan of Arc may be as much an opera as an oratorio:



> Arthur Honegger's ''Jeanne d'Arc au B^ucher'' (''Joan of Arc at the Stake''), a 1938 work that the composer called an ''oratorio dramatique'' but that can be treated as a one-act opera.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Gounod wrote music to a Joan of Arc libretto. You can page through the beautifully illustrated score here.


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## JasonHolloway (Dec 21, 2018)

If you are passionate about opera, then for sure you will enjoy the new opera done by Steven Jobe's St. joan of arc. Even if the person doesn't know anything about opera will definitely love this because of the amazing music done by Steven, the way it connects to the life of joan in the story. In this opera, the composition is more focused on modern musical theater and it nowhere remaind you the classical style of opera.


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## dismrwonderful (May 5, 2013)

How about Norman Dello Joio's *The Triumph of St. Joan*?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_St._Joan

Maybe not.

Dan


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

dismrwonderful said:


> How about Norman Dello Joio's *The Triumph of St. Joan*?
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_St._Joan
> 
> ...


Find a recording and I'll give it a try.


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