Der Schlimm Heilige Vitalis

Der schlimm-heilige Vitalis (which can be translated roughly as 'Lustful Brother Vitalis') was the last of the four operas by the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896-1967). It was premiered in 1963, the year after it's completion and then remained unheard until this recording. The plot, based on a novella by Flury's fellow Swiss, Gottfried Keller, sets jolly village life against religious intolerance and sexual politics in an unsettling blend of the sentimental and the cynical - although love, of course, triumphs in the end. Flury's late-Romantic music redeems the libretto with a steady flow of memorable melodies, engaging solo and choral numbers, and colorful orchestration - and with a sense of fun never far from the surface.