{"product_id":"lustig-semmelweis","title":"Funny: Semmelweis","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\n\n    \n    \u003cp\u003e\n        Composer Raymond Lustig has been fascinated and inspired by Dr. Semmelweis for many years. He was the Hungarian physician who traced the frequent occurrence of childbed fever back to a lack of hygiene, but was unable to reform the medical profession and ultimately died alone in an asylum. In 2007, Lustig first had the idea for a stage work about the doctor’s story. At the time, he was still a music student, but had already worked in biomedical research for several years. After many iterations, \"Semmelweis\" was fully staged in 2018 in collaboration with writer Matthew Doherty and Hungarian director Martin Boross and premiered by the Budapest Operetta Theatre and the Bartók Plusz Opera Festival. The song cycle recorded here is taken from that production. \"Our goal was to make a true studio album, not just a recording of the stage work,\" says Lustig. \"I knew I wanted to work with Charlotte Mundy, whose voice was always the ideal one for this piece to me. We then decided that instead of trying to assemble a choir of matching female voices, we would only use Charlotte’s voice, multiplying itself and spreading across the stereo field—a single voice surrounding and overwhelming everything. These female voices often represent a choir of ghosts of the mothers he could not save, or ‘mother ghosts,’ as we call them, that haunt Dr. Semmelweis.\" The entire plot of \"Semmelweis\" can be seen as a reflection—a fever dream or death dream—of the inner psyche of Ignaz Semmelweis at the end of his life. Dr. Semmelweis relives events from his life, perhaps in a changed order, distorted or unreliable, as if through the lens of a troubled mind. In addition to Charlotte Mundy, the string quartet The Rhythm Method, violinist Leah Asher, cellist Meaghan Burke, double bassist Ranjit Prasad, bass clarinetist Chrystof Knoche, and Ray Lustig himself also perform.\n    \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n    \n\n\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\n    \u003ctable\u003e\n\n    \u003cthead\u003e\n\n        \u003ctr\u003e\n\n        \u003cth\u003eNumber\u003c\/th\u003e\n\n        \u003cth\u003eTitle\u003c\/th\u003e\n\n        \u003cth\u003eDuration\u003c\/th\u003e\n\n        \u003cth\u003e\u003c\/th\u003e\n\n        \u003c\/tr\u003e\n\n    \u003c\/thead\u003e\n\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n\n        \n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\n    \u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58352891232588,"sku":"SLE70046","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1067\/4759\/3036\/files\/0053479704603-Lustig--Semmelweis-cover.webp?v=1792189097","url":"https:\/\/shop.naxos.de\/en\/products\/lustig-semmelweis","provider":"Naxos Deutschland Webshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}