Boulanger: La Ville Morte album review The celebrated teacher's early opera is brought back to life

"Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is best remembered now as a hugely influential teacher, who spread the gospel of neoclassicism through several generations of composers on both sides of the Atlantic. She was also a conductor and organist, and at the beginning of her career, at least, had ambitions as a composer in her own right, which she largely abandoned in the early 1920s some years after the deaths of both her enormously talented younger sister Lili, and her mentor, the pianist and composer Raoul Pugno."

"It was in collaboration with Pugno that Boulanger composed La Ville Morte, a four-act opera based upon a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio; it was scheduled to be premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1914, but cancelled after the outbreak of the first world war. The opera only survives in a vocal score, and for this first ever recording, taken from performances in New York last year, it has been minimally orchestrated for an ensemble of 11 players."

"The dead city of the title of La Ville Morte is Mycenae, and the tangled story of love, lust and ambition among a quartet of archaeologists takes place among the city's ruins. Musically it references Wagner, Faure and most of all early Debussy, but the work never quite convinces in any of those modes, and runs out of dramatic steam well before the short final act, despite the best efforts of conductor Neal Goren and his hard-working cast of four."

Nadia Boulanger pursued composition early in her career but largely abandoned it in the early 1920s after the deaths of her sister Lili and mentor Raoul Pugno. In collaboration with Pugno she composed La Ville Morte, a four-act opera based on a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio that was scheduled for the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1914 but cancelled by the outbreak of the first world war. Only a vocal score survives. A first-ever recording was taken from recent New York performances and was minimally orchestrated for an ensemble of 11 players. The opera is set in Mycenae and follows archaeologists entangled by love, lust and ambition. The score references Wagner, Faure and early Debussy but fails to sustain convincing dramatic momentum before the short final act despite conductor Neal Goren and a hardworking quartet of performers.

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