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Il Sogno | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 21 September 2004 | |||
Recorded | April 2002 | |||
Studio | Abbey Road (London, UK) | |||
Genre | Classical | |||
Label | Deutsche Grammophon | |||
Elvis Costello chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Pitchfork Media | (5.5/10) [1] |
Il Sogno is the 20th studio album by Elvis Costello, released in 2004 by Deutsche Grammophon. It is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Music albums chart.
It is a ballet score for orchestra commissioned by the Aterballetto Dance Company of Reggio Emilia in 2000. [2] The ballet itself used A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare for its subject material. The premiere performance took place on 31 October 2000, at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. [3]
An initial recording of the work was made by the house orchestra at the Teatro Comunale to accommodate venues that had no orchestra to present the score live. The present recording was taped over four days in April 2002, with the composer in attendance. [4] It was released the same day as The Delivery Man .
An abridged version of this album was included as a bonus disc with the initial release of Costello's 2005 album My Flame Burns Blue . This abridged version omits tracks 5, 6, 7, 11, 21 and 22.
Act One
Act Two
Act Three
Chart (2004) | Peak position |
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US Billboard Top Classical Albums | 1 |
Declan Patrick MacManus, known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television presenter. According to Rolling Stone, Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles." His first album, My Aim Is True (1977), is widely regarded as one of the best debuts in popular music history. It spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad "Alison". Costello's next two albums, This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 until early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, "Oliver's Army" (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. He has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise. From 1977 until the early 2000s, Costello's albums regularly ranked high on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, with This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom (1982) voted the best album of their respective years. His biggest US hit single, "Veronica" (1989), reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus (1972) are part of the organization. Michael Tilson Thomas became the orchestra's music director in 1995, and concluded his tenure in 2020 when Esa-Pekka Salonen took over the position.
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My Flame Burns Blue is the twenty-second album by Elvis Costello, released on Deutsche Grammophon. It consists of recordings from the North Sea Jazz Festival in July 2004, made with Steve Nieve and The Metropole Orkest conducted by Vince Mendoza. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Jazz albums chart and at No. 188 on the Billboard 200.
The discography of the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello includes 33 studio albums, 6 live albums, 17 compilation albums, 6 tribute albums, 2 extended plays, 62 singles and 4 box sets. This page distinguishes between United States and United Kingdom release dates and record labels. Of note are the reissue series, Costello's back catalogue having undergone reissue three times by three different companies.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1935 American film adaptation of the Shakespearean play of the same name. It is directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Warner Bros., and stars James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Jean Muir, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Victor Jory and Ian Hunter. The screenplay, written by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr., is adapted from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the play from the previous year.
"Almost Blue" is a song recorded by English group Elvis Costello and the Attractions from their sixth studio album, Imperial Bedroom (1982). Written by Costello and produced by Geoff Emerick, the track shares the name of the group's previous 1981 studio album. It was released on 2 July 1982 along with the rest of Imperial Bedroom, and would later be included on side two of The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1985). A traditional pop song, "Almost Blue" contains lyrics that compare a former relationship to a present one.
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On the Town is a 74-minute live album of Leonard Bernstein's musical, performed by Tyne Daly, Meriel Dickinson, David Garrison, Thomas Hampson, Cleo Laine, Evelyn Lear, Marie McLaughlin, Kurt Ollmann, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade, London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. It was released in 1993.
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