Samson and Delilah on the PBS station. i liked it. preformed at the Met.
Finished this the other day. I like it a lot, though I think I like the Fleming/Villazon set a bit more.
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"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
Samson and Delilah on the PBS station. i liked it. preformed at the Met.
Verdi: Otello
Jonas Kaufmann (Otello), Marco Vratogna (Iago), Maria Agresta (Desdemona)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor), Keith Warner (director)
2017
Kaufmann is not the traditional Otello, nor Agresta that of Desdemona. Their singing is beautiful though and I quickly warmed to their characters. Vratogna, is not the most beautiful voice but has charismatic power by the six-pack and stands tall on the stage.
The camera work is very good but with so many close ups, it does miss some things on stage and I had to explain to the wife what was going on off camera. I'd like to have some family home unfriendly sound levels; big choruses and all seem to be on sound levels too close. Otherwise everything else is somewhere between very good and brilliant. The sets are fantastic, the colours are beautiful (it must be a ultraHD or 4k or something ready recording), lights, chorus, blocking, costumes are all yes, yes, yes!
I recommend for all Agresta fans (there should be many), JK fans, Verdi fans, Otello fans and I just may push the boat out and say any opera fans.
A storming 8.453/10
I can't comment on the DVD but I saw this in the house and agree with what you've said. However despite his six-pack power I don't like Vratogna's voice at all. I first heard him in Attila (Ezio) in Seattle and remember the then Director, Speight Jenkins, raving about him in the post-opera discussion. The discussion audience looked at each other in surprise and many shook their heads. I think he shouts.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
Just finished this. I was going to rank this below the first Gheorghiu DVD but now am not so sure. Both Fleming Traviata performances were gut wrenching in the third act. I did not get that with the Gheorghiu performance. Next up is the second Gheorghiu performance, so we'll see what happens. But right now I am thinking that Renee Fleming IS Violetta Valéry!
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"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588
Corinne Winters (Fiordiligi), Angela Brower (Dorabella), Daniel Behle (Ferrando), Alessio Arduini (Guglielmo), Martin Kränzle (Don Alfonso), Sabina Puertolas (Despina)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House
Semyon Bychkov, Jan Philipp Gloger (dir.)
Nicely done and principals are all good. Good voice and good acting. Colourful, if not a little incoherent, costumes and sets and I like them.
Quite a sincere and a little dark 7.101/10
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
Just got back from Falstaff at the Dallas Opera, and it was wonderful! By far the best production I saw in Texas all season. A hilarious production (originally by Lee Blakely for Los Angeles), a brisk but considered pace set by Riccardo Frizza, and a brilliant ensemble cast. Especially good: Mark Delavan as Falstaff, Stephanie Blythe as Quickly, Quinn Kelsey as Ford, and Andrea Silvestrelli as Pistol.
The rest of my viewing for April:
#2 – Vivaldi – Juditha Triumphans – OperaVision, Dutch Nat’l Opera
Wowzer! My first Vivaldi ‘opera’ (technically an oratorio). I hope the Vivaldi opera revival continues, because this was great. So many different interesting orchestrations: an aria accompanied by chalumeau (a proto-clarinet), another one set against only a mandolin and a plucked viola d’amore (I’m guessing). And the idea to set this in WWII worked really well, with Judith getting the idea to behead her nemesis from the famous painting which has been looted by the Nazis. Brilliant.
#3 – Mozart – Don Giovanni – Live, Houston Grand Opera
This was Kasper Holten’s production from the ROH. Really stunning visuals, another foretaste of the future of opera. I was a little disappointed that this “psychological” production didn’t delve all that deep, but it was still the best production I’ve seen. Ailyn Perez was debuting the role of Donna Anna, and she was by far the highlight in a mostly average cast – it wasn’t a finished interpretation yet, but she was already the most sympathetic Donna Anna I’ve seen (usually I find the other ladies more interesting).
#4 – David T. Little – Soldier Songs – Live, Austin Opera
A song cycle about war with staging and projections. A sequence near the middle of the 75-minute piece recreates the sounds and flashing lights of modern warfare in the theatre, and it was intense. A visceral and discomforting experience (in a good way).
#5 – Mark Grey – Frankenstein – OperaVision, La Monnaie
Although at the bottom of my list, I still really enjoyed this. This new work seems really polished, and since it was originally scheduled to premiere in 2016 it probably is. I really love the idea of this opera, but the libretto is overly didactic. Calixto Bieito’s production is well done, although I would have preferred not to see full-frontal Monster for 3 hours. If you don’t want to be forsaken by humanity, you could at least try putting on pants. I’m not even being a prude, it's just... you’re no Anthony Roth Costanzo, monster... you’re reanimated corpse parts....
2 recent Blu ray releases are interesting. Dynamic's I Lombardi, with Alex Esposito and Angel Meade is quite well done and disc quality in Blu ray continues to amaze.
Less well staged (in fact, staging is bizzare!!) is Dynamic's new Steffelio. However, the singing and musical direction made the purchase worthwhile. Again, when available, I go for the Blu ray, because even when I do not care for the staging, the sound quality is (usually) superior to CDs
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