One of a series of Russian operas marking the centenary of Mussorgsky's death. In 1862. Flaubert published the novel Salammbo, a tale of perverse love and violent death in fabled Carthage. A year later the 24-year-old Mussorgsky decided it was the operatic subject of his dreams and started to compose both music and words together; but three years and six scenes on, he abandoned it incomplete, though he salvaged the music for many other uses.
This first performance of the six scones was mounted by Italian
Radio last year.
Zoltan Pcsko was conductor and editor and orchestrated three of the scenes.
MILAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS OF RAI chorus-master
MlNO BORDIGNON conducted by ZOLTAN PESKO (Italian Radio recording) Part 1