What have you been listening to, lately?

[Schigolch]

[Dark_Angel]

Suliotis...........yes yes yesssssssssssss!

In high def 24/96 format (from vinyl record I assume)
Do I really need to ask if this is a great performance?
Live or Studio?

[Almaviva]

Suliotis...........Yes yes yesssssssssssss!

In high def 24/96 format (from vinyl record I assume)
Do I really need to ask if this is a great performance? Live or Studio?

Yes, this is probably phenomenal. 1967, studio. Yes, from the 1968 vinyl, released on CD in 1995.

[Dark_Angel]

Yes, this is probably phenomenal. 1967, studio. Yes, from the 1968 vinyl, released on CD in 1995.

Alma
I don't think there is a CD version of this Suliotis Norma available.....Schigs found a website with a high def (24/96) rip from vinyl record people can download, photo is of Vinyl album artwork

What a trio: Suliotis -> Del Monaco -> Cossotto

[Schigolch]

First, about the recording:

This is a transference from the London LP London released in 1970, not the DECCA transference to CD performed in the 1980s that is no longer in catalog.

About Soulioutis, Norma was not her best role. She sang the priestess for the first time in Mexico, in September 1967. Then there is very exciting performance in the Carnegie Hall in November, because in the same performance there are some vocal problems, along with great singing. In December, she cancelled two performances of Norma, in Florence.

Soulioutis best singing years were from 1964 to 1967. She was hailed as the new Callas, but in fact the few flaws in Callas's singing, were present and very much exposed in Soulioutis: the totally different voice in the low, middle and top notes, the occasional crack,... but she didn't have other tools like a good legato, neither a decent trill and her coloratura was very irregular. Also, in some roles, like Norma, she was not really a vocal actress.

On the bright side, her voice was really unique, very personal, the middle notes were sometimes a real glory, and the quality of the low notes, when correctly emited, fantastic.

In this particular recording, from 1969, with some cuts designed to make the performance fits into only two LPs, she is not really at her top form, but it's still listenable. Del Monaco was in the decline, but Cossotto is very good.

[Schigolch]

[Schigolch]

[clavi]

Cardillac, by Hindemith.
This is the first full length opera of the 20th century I've ever watched! I really liked it, I know Hindemith's orchestral style very well and I'm no opera critic, but it really went well with the story. When Cardillac, the Jeweller was first introduced, the music was very evocative of some evil laboratory, it was very compelling. Very fine libretto coupled with VERY FINE 20th century music.

[Schigolch]

Yes, I also like this opera a lot.

In fact, it's one of the operas in the list of our "In-Depth" project.

The DVD above is very nice, this other one is even better, in my view:

[Dark_Angel]

Schigolch has me on a Tosca revival with Scotto/Domingo and Ricciarelli/Carreras

[Schigolch]

I will also listen Tosca this afternoon (Central European Time), in a historical version:

[Bardamu]

Me too, although in an not so historical version.
Tosca is starting to click with me.

[StLukesGuildOhio]

MMMmmmmm.....

[Schigolch]

[Soave_Fanciulla]

This Incoronazione has bright pools of blood and quite the most briliantly twisted, vicious, giggling, sadistic, capricious, perverted Nerone I have ever seen. Poppea's not much better, and everone else ends up in dead in the blood.



Krassimira Stoyanova is really worth hearing in this, and the production has grown on me since first it viewing free online. You actually need a good quality picture to take it all in.



Classic fly in the ointment DVD. Nearly everything is perfect, it could be the greatest Pique-Dame ever. The twisted claustrophobic set mirrors Herman's descent into madness and the direction brings out the psychological elements of this strange story; Andrew Davis' conducting is vigorous and expressive; Nancy Gustafson is a touching but unbalanced Lisa, Dimitri Kharitonov as Yeletsky is noble and dignified, Felicity Palmer a chilling countess, particularly eery in the Ghost scene, and Yuri Marusin is utterly convincing without overdoing Herman's descent into madness. BUT, and this is a big but, he can't sing. He wails, he howls, he declaims. I can hear the orchestra around him, I know how it's supposed to go, but I can't hear the music. A perfect DVD, except for this.