What opera have you been watching lately?

[Clayton]

I've only seen the Met's Wadsworth-gergiev-pape production so far ( a good only) but want to see another. I'm waiting for this one to come up in a sale at PC.

[MAuer]

Conductor: Sir Mark Elder
ROH Orchestra and Chorus
Director: Sir David McVicar
Cast: Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann, Olga Borodina, Alessandro Corbelli, David Soar, Iain Paton, Janis Kelly, Sarah Castle, Maurizio Muraro, Bonaventura Bottone

I really enjoy Sir David's productions. He obviously works closely with the singers to achieve dramatically credible portrayals with a wealth of small but telling details. Alessandro Corbelli's facial expressions say so much about Michonnet's deep, unrequited love for Adriana.

[Amfortas]

Came home from the hospital to find my cats still alive and very glad to see me. Also the Blu-ray of last season's Met Rosenkavalier with Fleming and Garanca waiting in my mailbox. Had to stay up late watching it, of course, and was generally pleased with Robert Carsen's production and the individual performances. Certainly glad to add it to my collection (it makes an interesting comparison with Carsen's earlier Salzburg version of this same production concept.)

[Clayton]

Welcome back to catland

- - - Updated - - -

and opera lively

[Soave_Fanciulla]

That's a nice welcome home surprise!

[Hoffmann]

I still miss my late Persian cat, Samson, who was my buddy and died a year or so before I moved.

I now live in a pet-free building which seems unfortunate, but I have come to enjoy being able to come and go without having to worry about finding someone to tend to an animal or, worse, an animal that is unhappy with me for being gone so often.

[Amfortas]

That's a nice welcome home surprise!

I know; I was sure they'd be dead!

Or did you mean the opera?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I know; I was sure they'd be dead!

Or did you mean the opera?

Well, both really!

[Nemorino]

All comedies and fairy tales from here until Christmas for me. This was a really enjoyable production. Once you ignore the references to the Crusades in the libretto, the WWII setting is colorful and well-designed and the comedy is really well done. Lots of delightful surprises, and every person in the crowd scenes appears to have an individual character. Obviously the singing was (mostly) first-class, but I was also struck by how good Javier Camarena's comic timing is in this. Hope I get to see him live in a comedy sometime.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

All comedies and fairy tales from here until Christmas for me. This was a really enjoyable production. Once you ignore the references to the Crusades in the libretto, the WWII setting is colorful and well-designed and the comedy is really well done. Lots of delightful surprises, and every person in the crowd scenes appears to have an individual character. Obviously the singing was (mostly) first-class, but I was also struck by how good Javier Camarena's comic timing is in this. Hope I get to see him live in a comedy sometime.

Yes, it's a charming production!

[Nemorino]

If I didn’t have so much going on, I would probably be obsessing over this opera right now. I knew what to expect musically, but had never seen it. And I had kinda heard that this was more adult than you would think, but it still bowled me over. More complicated and discomforting than I expected. There’s something about Janacek’s old-world relationship to nature that I feel like I’ve lost and am desperately missing…

This production is beautiful, and Elena Tsallagova is perfect as Vixen Sharp-Ears. She’s cute, small, energetic, expressive, clear soubrette voice, and I like that they didn’t burden her with much of a costume: everyone else in the cast is anthropomorphizing animal costumes, Tsallagova looks human but is zoomorphizing so well that you never forget she’s playing a fox (i.e. she swishes her long hair around like a tail).

[Soave_Fanciulla]

If I didn’t have so much going on, I would probably be obsessing over this opera right now. I knew what to expect musically, but had never seen it. And I had kinda heard that this was more adult than you would think, but it still bowled me over. More complicated and discomforting than I expected. There’s something about Janacek’s old-world relationship to nature that I feel like I’ve lost and am desperately missing…

This production is beautiful, and Elena Tsallagova is perfect as Vixen Sharp-Ears. She’s cute, small, energetic, expressive, clear soubrette voice, and I like that they didn’t burden her with much of a costume: everyone else in the cast is anthropomorphizing animal costumes, Tsallagova looks human but is zoomorphizing so well that you never forget she’s playing a fox (i.e. she swishes her long hair around like a tail).

It is indeed a glorious opera, Waldsamkeit by proxy.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

UN Ballo in Maschera with Dima. Felt sad again.

[SenaJurinac]

It is indeed a glorious opera, Waldsamkeit by proxy.

Try also this 2009 version from Teatro Communale in Florence:

http://klassikundopern.web.tv/video/...9__kd0zsp2qbeu

With Seiji Ozawa conducting. Singers: Quinn Kelsey, Judith Christin, Dennis Petersen.



BTW there are well over 500 full opera performances, concerts and documentaries at this channel...

http://klassikundopern.web.tv/videolist/

[Nemorino]

It's funny you mention the Laurent Pelly production, because that was originally how I was going to start my Christmas week opera "festival". But I couldn't find a cheap enough used DVD of it (no offense to your web.tv channel, I just require English subtitles for most of my viewing), so I pushed it up a week.

My theme for my Christmas festival this year is Laurent Pelly! Really it's just an excuse to watch some fairy tale operas that I hadn't gotten around to yet (most of my viewing being driven by new streams). But once I realized 2 or 3 of my targets had prominent Pelly productions on video, I made that my theme.



To start I watched this production from '97, early in his opera career. All of the things that I love about Laurent Pelly's productions can already be found here. An uncluttered stage with strong sense of color, and clever character-based sense of comedy. Mount Olympus/Heaven as "clouds" of pillows is just genius, with characters taking many an opportunity to flop into them for comic-dramatic effect.

My roommate came in during this scene, saw Naouri dressed as Jupiter and proclaimed him at once "awesome". He sat and watched a little of the opera with me, giggling at the "fly duet". (Then he dozed off, but that was because we had been up until 4am the night before seeing the new Star Wars after midnight.)