Snatched from the Jaws of Oblivion

On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That’s
certainly  true  for  a  number  of  operas  that,  while  popular  and
highly lucrative during their composers’ lifetimes, soon followed
their  creators  into  the  shadowy  realm  of  oblivion.  Operas,  for
example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some
much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni
(Discs 1 & 2) – premiered half a year before Mozart’s masterpiece –  
is  such  an  example,  as  is  Ruggero  Leoncavallo’s  La  Bohème
(Discs  9  &  10)  and  George  Bizet’s  Djamileh  (Disc  3),  widely
considered  the  predecessor  of  Carmen.  Other  operas  simply
fail to achieve the same profile as other works by a composer –  
Jules Massenet’s operas, for example, are hardly a footnote of
music history, but his opera Thérèse (Disc 8) remains a forgotten
work.  Two  examples  of  works  that  are  scarcely  performed  or
even  known  outside  of  what  is  now  the  Czech  Republic  are
also  included  in  this  collection  of  Opera  Rarities  on  ORFEO:  
Dvo ák’s  last  opera  Armida  (Discs  4  &  5)  and  Zden k  Fibich’s
Šárka (Discs 6 & 7).