Thanks for posting your review, operacat. Glad you enjoyed it too.
A few words about the auto-da-fe scene - you will have noticed that thereis an extra character, the "Priest Inquisitor", who harangues the victimsas they are led to the stake, listing the various heresies for which theyhave been condemmed (e.g. they think that 'bread is only bread' they don'tbelieve in the Doctrine of Transubstatiation, apparently....). There is noprecedent for this in Verdi's score, of course, and most of us found itrather - well, puzzling, if not downright annoying. The only explanationwe could think of was that it was supposed to represent the 'authenticity'of an actual auto-da-fe - that is, most members of the crowd wouldn't havebeen able to read, so they needed to be told what the heretics were beingcondemned for.(They refused to repent, by the way). It did seem anunnecessary intrusion into the scene, though.
This was a surprise, but I rather liked it; the ranting of the Priest Inquisitor heightened the religious fervour of the occasion. In fact, I thought the whole scene, with the burning of the heretics at the end behind the drapes painted with the bloodied face of Christ wearing the crown of thorns, came off really well.
Has anyone any thoughts about the R3 broadcast last Saturday?
