Barber: Vanessa

It was only his first foray into the genre, but Samuel Barber's Vanessa won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958, the year of its world premiere in New York. The great English conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent once declared it "the most 'operatic' opera ever written by an American". Without a doubt one of 20th-century opera's most appealing scores, Vanessa abounds in lyricism as the libretto (by fellow opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti) explores a heartbreaking, tangled story of loves past and present. In this warmly received 2018 production directed by Keith Warner for Glyndebourne, the cast is led by soprano Emma Bell in the title role and Jakub Hrůša conducts a gripping performance from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.