7:30am | The Long Beach Symphony Orchestra (LBSO) Music Director Enrique Arturo Diemecke was awarded the 2010 Orpheus Prize for his recording of Jules Massenet’s opera, “The Juggler of Notre Dame,” starring Italian tenor Roberto Alagna, the LBSO announced late last week.
“This prize is a very special thing; a commendation that opera and lyric experts give to the year’s most outstanding recordings, and to be a nominee or to win it means a great deal to me,” says Maestro Diemecke.
“The Juggler of Notre Dame,” interpreted by the National Orchestra of Montpellier, was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. According to Maestro Diemecke, Alagna was scheduled to give a recital in Montpellier, “and all of a sudden they got the idea to do an opera, and he chose ‘The Juggler’ in which the main character is a tenor,” explains Maestro Diemecke. “They called me to conduct the orchestra, it was recorded live, and the CD was the result.”
The award comes at the conclusion of the 75th anniversary season of the LBSO. This fall Diemecke launches his 10th season with LBSO, titled “From Russia With Love.”
“Long Beach Symphony Orchestra’s 75th Season was very memorable for me, because we performed every one of Beethoven’s symphonies and we had some remarkable guest artists. I hope our audiences enjoyed it as much as the musicians and I did,” says Diemecke. “I’m looking forward to beginning my 10th season with LBSO this October.”
Click here for more information on the next season.
Disclosure: lbpost.com publisher Shaun Lumachi is a member of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra board of directors.