What have you been listening to, lately?

[desiree]

Is there going to be an In-depth: Les Troyens?

...because I saw your listening record and:

Almaviva: 59 times
Sospiro: lots of times
Soave Fanciulla: 4 + 2 times
and...

Me: 0

So if there's going to be a project, I'm going to wait for it so that I can enjoy a truly educational experience and I won't be like this here:

[sospiro]

Is there going to be an In-depth: Les Troyens?

...because I saw your listening record and:

Almaviva: 59 times
Sospiro: lots of times
Soave Fanciulla: 4 + 2 times
and...

Me: 0

So if there's going to be a project, I'm going to wait for it so that I can enjoy a truly educational experience and I won't be like this here:

I think if Alma's got anything to do with it, there may well be a post or two about our Les Troyens Experience.

And desiree you're not a dunce!!! A year ago I hadn't even heard of this opera & when I listened to it I didn't like it & had to force myself. I absolutely love it now but it was a struggle at first.

[Almaviva]

We had planned for the Les Troyens in-depth ever since the TC times. We never got to it because of our partnerships, since we've been doing in-depths as a priority for the operas that our partners are staging. Opera Carolina has scheduled Die Zauberflöte, Tosca, and Les Pêcheurs de Perles, so necessarily we'll have to do in-depths for those, sooner rather than later. We're starting the first stages of pursuing two other partnerships, one with a company that stages 4 operas per year, and another one with one that stages six per year. With the 3 from Opera Carolina, that's an average of one per month (or a little less, with overlaps - for example, one of them is also producing Les Pêcheurs de Perles next year). Assuming that we'll be able to establish these partnerships (it's very preliminary so far), one in-depth per month is kind of a lot. So unless we get more people to author those (so far it's been practically only Schigolch, Amfortas, and Almaviva), it will be hard to tackle Les Troyens which is a huge opera, we'd have *a lot* to say about it so it will be a long in-depth. But nothing should stop others from starting to write about it. Eventually we'll have its in-depth (it is one of my favorites and I fully intend to have it done at some point).

[Schigolch]

[Anne of Green Gables]

Today's stuff:

[Dark_Angel]

Today's stuff:

Such a great virtuosso collection......if only those lazy EMI folks would fill out the CD with 2-3 more mad scences! The program is the same as when originally issued on LP record which could only hold 45-50 minutes of music

[Amfortas]

Such a great virtuosso collection......if only those lazy EMI folks would fill out the CD with 2-3 more mad scenes! The program is the same as when originally issued on LP record which could only hold 45-50 minutes of music

It's enough to drive you crazy.

[Schigolch]

[Aksel]

A delicious pile of nonsense, and a lot of good fun.

[Dark_Angel]

How legends are made.......
Callas & Del Monaco 1951 Aida live (Mexico City), the shattering climax 2:29




This is from BJR vinyl record (master tapes now owned by Divina Records) but CD versions are easy to find:




There is also a latter EMI studio recording with Tucker replacing Del Monaco:

[Soave_Fanciulla]

This is not really Britten's Gloriana as there are cuts, and it's not really a film of the opera North stage production, as some of the action takes place backstage, but amazingly enough it works, making pertinent parallels between the life of Elizabeth in her incarnation as the Vrigin queen, torn between private wants and public duties, and the life of Josephine Barstow, diva reaching the end of her career. And Tom Randle was delicious.



My goodness this was harrowing, No holds barred:



Back to a more romantic age. Loved the singing of the two principals in this:



and the staging and acting in this:

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Two words: Nicolai Ghiaurov


I love listening to French people singing French


Great listening to this in the car, the lovely narrator tells you what's going on, it's in English, and of course there is Jonas Kaufmann to dream of (must pay attention to traffic)

[Elektra]

[MAuer]

Most people celebrate wedding anniversaries. I celebrate opera anniversaries.

Thirty-one years ago today, I was down in New Orleans for their opera company's performance of Fidelio. (Well, of course!) Siegfried Jerusalem, at the time my favorite tenor, was singing Florestan, and I wasn't about to miss that. It was an unforgettable event, and I was thrilled when Eurodisc issued a complete recording of the opera with him about a year later.

So today, I'm listening to this:


Not only do I still have the program Herr J. autographed for me all those years ago, but also the pen with which he signed it (and the pen still writes!).

[StLukesGuildOhio]

Finally got around to watching this... fabulous!!!



Recently, I've been in the mood for some Viennese bon-bons and so I picked up this disc of Richard Tauber singing Lehar selections.



This one was a real eye-opener. I've been listening to a number of Gluck's operas, and I've been impressed by their classical simplicity and beauty that clearly presages Mozart... but this is something altogether different. This is an explosively dynamic musical drama more suggestive of Don Giovanni or even Beethoven. I can clearly see now why Wagner would have cited Gluck as an influence. Great cast: Nicolai Gedda, Hermann Prey, Hilde Zadek... with Joseph Keilberth conducting. Brilliant sound. I am glad I decided to jump on these operas and pick up the entire series while they were ridiculously under-priced.