Written at the same time as the Eighth Symphony, Dvorak's seventh opera 'The Jakobin' was set in an environment very familiar to him; a small village in the shadow of a castle (just as in his birthplace), and featuring a schoolmaster embroiled in village politics with a daughter called Terinka (amazingly, the small town he worked in after leaving home also had a schoolmaster with a daughter of this name!). He put aside Marie Cervinkova-Riegrova's fine libretto for some time before she gently reminded him about it, then attacked it with great gusto, producing one of his best but still sadly neglected operas in 1889. Although the heavy comedy doesn't always come off on stage, musically The Jakobin is overflowing with Dvorak's best melodic inspirations and inventive orchestration.

 

The busy plot centres around two pairs of young lovers. Bohus (the "Jacobin" of the title) and Julia are home from post-Revolution Paris and hope to win favor from the Count of Harosov, Bohus's father, over the opposition of Adolf, the Count's nephew. Jiri and Terinka are in love, but Benda, her father, wants her to marry the Count's pompous steward, Filip. It all ends happily for the youngsters as their various adversaries of course get their come-uppances.

 

Productions of neglected operas is exactly what the highly-respected annual International Opera Festival at Wexford, Ireland was instituted for, and this set was recorded there over six performances in October-November 2001. Recording Engineers Hein Dekker (Phillips International B.V) & Carl Schuurbiers (Polyhymnia) used a 5 point Schoeps microphone setup for a 5.1 capture to DSD. This is an accurate and honest recording of the small Wexford theatre, relatively dry as theatres are wont to be, but with sufficient air to allow the voices and orchestra to expand reasonably well. It is an immediate recording, much more so than Supraphon's RBCD set with Pinkas and the Brno State Philharmonic (a larger-scale performance but with rather dated and distant sound). The Wexford atmosphere is very intimate, with plenty of stage business and dancing, and the knowledgeable audience is mostly cooperatively silent except for a few discreet coughs and brief applause at the end of each of the three Acts.

 

Performers were mainly from Belarus, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus conducted by Alexander Voloschuk. They were aided by local talent - the Wexford Festival Opera Chorus and The Young Wexford Singers appearing as a children's choir. The Jacobin production was hailed as the plum of the 2001 Festival, and on the evidence of this recording, the accolade was justly deserved, with a fine cast of soloists, the main principals matching if not exceeding those of the Pinkas set, and there is tremendous commitment from all concerned. Voloschuk steers a tightly-reined narrative, relaxing for the comic scenes, squeezing all the drama possible from the dramatic and romantic scenes, and encouraging the theatre-sized orchestra most effectively.

 

There is one charming feature in the First Act which I must mention. Dvorak had been studying Carmen around the time of working on The Jakobin, and was deeply impressed with Bizet's work. So much so, that early in this act, you will hear a clear parody of the Soldier's entry on the scene in Carmen Act 1, down to the march, orchestration and chorus.

 

Having heard a musically fine performance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1995, I enjoyed this set very much, given its inherent limitations of scale. There is, however, one major caveat: Fone provide no libretto, only a Synopsis. There are plenty of coloured photographs of the action, and a useful essay on the origins of The Jacobin. This 2-disc set thus has to stand alone, unless your Czech is excellent (fortunately the singers' articulation is mostly very good).

 

Well worth hearing as an introduction to The Jakobin if you can find a low cost offer on this set, but not a substitute for a full-scale studio or live production - which are as rare as hen's teeth.

 

The story of fonè

 

In the context of classical and jazz music market, fonè proposes three decades of recordings using advanced techniques, aimed at the recovery of the original musical atmospheres.

Each new recording is the result of a passionate encounter between art and the art of execution and aims to recreate and reproduce the same spirit with which the works of the past have been performed. One basic feature that makes the difference between fonè and others, is the recording of musical works in natural places and original, constant production that leads to choose from time to time historically more space? Suitable for: church, theater, villa, living room ...

 

All this is done by retrieving a simple incision that does not do violence to the music: all the equipment is in high definition. Using pairs of valves Neumann microphones in the years 1947 and 1949 (U47, U48 and M49) using techniques very natural timbre bimicrofoniche field effect. These microphones have an important story: they are the microphones used to record the Beatles at Abbey Road Studio and RCA for the "Living Stereo."

 

No use is made of electronic manipulation of the signal, nor any artificial correction that if they make a sound easier to carve, it is true that distort so unacceptable. With this method you get to transfer the music information on the standard analog for the production of virgin vinyl 180g &  200g

 

fonè uses for the standard analog Nagra 4S, Studer C37 and J37 and Ampex ATR 102, the standard for digital, in collaboration with Philips the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technology that has opened the doors to the SACD. For all subsequent stages of processing and control, in which it must be a playback of the sound reproduction systems are used very sophisticated.

 

After the pressing demands of the enthusiast market and after a long series of investigations to ensure the best possible support, the virgin vinyl 180/200 grams, fonè now makes available its most prestigious titles in the LP format. 

strong opposition to current trends in the multinational market, tending to offer a product that is increasingly homogenized and devoid of content. 

 

Implementation is of the highest quality and is dedicated to those who appreciate the pursuit of perfection in the field of sound reproduction, to collectors, to the true connoisseur and expert of things beautiful.