Latest releases reviewed

GERALD BARRY
The Intelligence Park
NMC Recordings
*****
The success of Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant last year has increased interest in his earlier work. The Intelligence Park, first premiered at the Almeida Festival in 1990, was subsequently broadcast by the BBC, the source for these discs. The witty and sophisticated libretto sets the action of the opera in mid-18th century Dublin, during the era of Baroque Opera and Castrati singers. The action of the opera deals with, among other things, the age-old conflict between sense and sensibility. Of the plot the composer has admitted that "As to what The Intelligence Park is about I have no fixed ideas". The music is modern but with neo-classical overtones underneath the surface, which make it more readily accessible than his more recent work. An original and fascinating opera. www.nmcrec.co.uk
Colman Morrissey