Jose Melis At The Opera

Meditation

Jose Melis At The Opera
Mercury Records SR 60709
1962

This release received a brief listing in Billboard's September 15, 1962 issue as having "Moderate Sales Potential".

As it turns out, out of all the Melis albums I've collected, I find this set to be one of his best and a fine blend of "serious music" and space age pop. Inventive, lively arrangements and sparkling keyboard work by Melis are present.

From the back cover: The Melis interest in serious music is no passing fancy. From the age of six, when he first entered the Havana Music Conservatory, right on through studies in Paris, Boston, and the famed Juilliard School in New York, and on through his years on the Jack Parr TV Show's musical Rock of Gibraltar, Jose has been a passionate purveyor of classical music. Piano artist Melis possesses the happy faculty of being able to combine his interest in music's more serious side with a unique ability, via the keyboard, to translate it into the popular idiom.

Dance Of The Hours (La Gioconda)
Meditation (Thais)
Evening Star (Tannhauser)
Il Mio Tesoro Intanto (Don Giovanni)
One Fine Day (Madame Butterfly)
Carmen Cha Cha (Carmen)
Sextette (Lucia)
Berceuse (Jocelyn)
La Donna Mobile (Riggoletto)
Figaro (Barber Of Seville)
O Lola Bianca (Cavalleria Rusticana)
Che Gelida Manina (La Boheme)