PIERRE-ALEXANDER MONSIGNY (1729-1817): Le Roi et le Fermier.

Description: You know you have an important opera on hand when it gets its own article in Opera Grove. "The King and the Farmer", from 1762, is among the first operas to mix serious and comic scenes as it deals in social commentary in its story of the king (unrecognized by a gamekeeper) seeing for the first time the conditions in which his subjects live. Complex narrative arias and rich characterization are among Monsigny's innovations which foreshadow Romanticism. Complete on one disc at 72 minutes because all of the dialogue is deleted (but is available with the libretto online). Libretto and translation available online. Thomas Michael Allen (tenor), William Sharp (baritone), Dominique Labelle (soprano), Delores Ziegler (mezzo), Opera Lafayette; Ryan Brown.