What opera have you been watching lately?

[Floria]

Clayton
You might want stay away from the ROH Rusalka. I don't know if it is on video, but this appears to be a wacky production also. I came across these pictures while looking for reviews for the Rusalka I watched this past weekend.

[Amfortas]

Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember
A time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

[Clayton]

Okay, I'll give that one a wide berth...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

However, this one had me doing cartwheels around the dining room (only in my mind). Straight to top of the buy pile (when I actually do get the bu-ray/dvd machine).



Rameau: Les Indes galantes - Opéra national de Paris

Andrei Serban stage director
Blanca Li choreography
Marina Draghici set designer, costumes
Robert Wierzel lighting


Danielle de Niese (Hébé)
João Fernandes (Bellone )
Valérie Gabail (L’amour)
Nicolas Cavallier (Osman)
Anna Maria Panzarella (Emilie)
Paul Agnew (Valère)
Nathan Berg (Huascar )
Jael Azzaretti (Phani)
François Piolino (Don Carlos)
Richard Croft (Tacmas)
Nathan Berg (Ali)
Gaële Le Roi (Zaïre )
Malin Hartelius (Fatime)
Christoph Strehl (Damon)
Christophe Fel (Don Alvar)
Patricia Petibon (Zima)
Nicolas Rivenq (Adario)

Les Arts Florissants
William Christie musical direction

[Clayton]

Courtesy of Medici (monthly subscription)

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 1994
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset musical direction



Pierre Audi stage director
Michael Simon set designer
Emi Wada costumes
Jean Kalman lighting

Cynthia Haymon (Poppea)
Brigitte Balleys (Nerone)
Ning Liang (Ottavia)
Michael Chance (Ottone)
Harry Van Der Kamp (Seneca)
Heidi Grant Murphy (Drusilla)
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Arnalta)
Dominique Visse (Nurse)
Claron McFadden (Valletto)
Elena Vink (Fortuna)
Sandrine Piau (Amore - Damigella)
Wilke Te Brummelstroete (Virtù - Pallade)
Nathan Berg (Mercurio - Console I)
Mark Tucker (Soldato I - Lucano - Tribune I - Famigliare II)
Lynton Atkinson (Soldato II - Liberto - Tribune II)
Romain Bischoff (Littore - Famigliare III - Console II)

The first video I have watched of this opera but it is hard to ask for much more than this, except there was a little noise/sound damage. I am not sure if this is streaming service or my hardware or on the recording. If the sound was fixed...

[Floria]

I have watched this recently. I had not seen this before and really liked it.

Giuseppe Verdi : ATTILA

Attila – Giovanni Battista Parodi
Ezio – Sebastian Catana
Odabella – Susanna Branchini
Foresto – Roberto de Biasio
Aldino – Cristiano Cremonini
Leone – Zyian Atfeh

Parma Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martino Faggiani)
Andrea Battistoni, conductor

[Hoffmann]

When I had the team in to reconnect my sound system yesterday, they included the DVD machine that was in the same stack of electronics. So, despite my better judgement, I am once again able to play DVDs.

My question is, for my very first opera DVD, what is a must-have? Which ones should go on the top of the list?

[Hoffmann]

When I had the team in to reconnect my sound system yesterday, they included the DVD machine that was in the same stack of electronics. So, despite my better judgement, I am once again able to play DVDs.

My question is, for my very first opera DVD, what is a must-have? Which ones should go on the top of the list?

Never mind. I see there is an entire thread devoted to this question. I rarely followed the DVD stuff, so am just now looking through it.

[Amfortas]

Never mind. I see there is an entire thread devoted to this question. I rarely followed the DVD stuff, so am just now looking through it.

Some good recommendations there. You can't go wrong.

[MAuer]

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Monteverdi Ensemble der Zürcher Oper
Staged, directed and designed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Rachel Yakar (Poppea)
Eric Tappy (Nerone)
Trudeliese Schmidt (Ottavia)
Paul Esswood (Ottone)
Matti Salminen (Seneca)
Janet Perry (Drusilla)
Maria Minetto (Nutrice)
Alexander Oliver (Arnalta)
Philippe Huttenlocher (Lucano)
Renate Lenhart (La Fortuna)
Helrun Gardow (La Virtù)
Klaus Brettschneider (Amore)
Francisco Araiza (Littore)
Peter Keller (Valletto)
Rudolf A. Hartmann (Liberto)
Peter Straka, Fritz Peter (Two Soldiers)
Suzanne Calabro (A Lady)

This is a charming production, with beautiful voices and fabulous sets and costumes. Eric Tappy is a red-headed Nerone who's as nasty a piece of work as they come, but has a wonderful lyric tenor voice. My favorite among the ladies is actually Janet Perry's Drusilla, but Rachel Yakar's sexy, scheming Poppea and Trudeliese Schmidt's dignified Ottavia leave no cause for complaint. And then there's Matti Salminen with that big, deep bass as Seneca. The Tölz Choirboy Klaus Brettschneider's Amor is quite a cheeky little kid. These were the days before Regietheater stagings, but (as expected), Ponnelle's approach is very imaginative. In the final duet, we know Nerone is directing his endearments to Poppea, but it's never quite clear if her rapturous words are for the Emperor or the Empress' crown that she's holding. I'm accustomed to seeing the 70-something Harnoncourt on the video of the Zürich Fidelio, so at first I was a bit astonished at the sight of the young guy on the podium here. But it's a reminder that he was one of the pioneers in the revival of the Baroque repertoire.

[Clayton]

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo



Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala 21st & 23rd December 2009
Georg Nigl (Orfeo), Roberta Invernizzi (Euridice), Sara Mingardo (Messaggera), Sara Mingardo (Speranza), Luigi De Donato (Caronte), Raffaella Milanesi (Proserpina), Giovanni Battista Parodi (Plutone), Roberta Invernezzi (Eco), Furio Zanasi (Apollo) & Nicola Strada (Solo Dancer)
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala & Concerto Italiano (Basso continuo), Rinaldo Alessandrini (conductor) & Robert Wilson (director)

Slightly dodgy camera work (la Scala? really?) but excellent performance by Nigl.

[Hoffmann]

I finally got around to unpacking my boxes of CDs, which included 9 opera DVDs I had totally forgotten about. I had bought a couple of them, but the others have been on (extended) loan from TyronesL.

My first viewing, this morning, was Macbeth:

Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Macbeth: Simon Keenlyside (I know, I know)
Lady Macbeth: Liudmyla Monastyrska



I love this opera, but the staging here didn't really impress me, which strikes me as generally due to the opera's weak dramatic structure (the opera's structure, mind you, not the play) which may help explain why this wonderful opera doesn't seem to be particularly well known or very often performed.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I finally got around to unpacking my boxes of CDs, which included 9 opera DVDs I had totally forgotten about. I had bought a couple of them, but the others have been on (extended) loan from TyronesL.

My first viewing, this morning, was Macbeth:

Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Macbeth: Simon Keenlyside (I know, I know)
Lady Macbeth: Liudmyla Monastyrska



I love this opera, but the staging here didn't really impress me, which strikes me as generally due to the opera's weak dramatic structure (the opera's structure, mind you, not the play) which may help explain why this wonderful opera doesn't seem to be particularly well known or very often performed.

Wait till you see Alma's Anna in it. She will scare your pants off.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Wait till you see Alma's Anna in it. She will scare your pants off.

Truly her best work to date. It's phenomenal, historical. We're in the presence of greatness.

[JohnGerald]

Wait till you see Alma's Anna in it. She will scare your pants off.

Most women do that ma'am ...

[JohnGerald]

Last night we watched Anna and Rolando in the 2005 La Traviata. I believe it to be the best sung of the many recordings we have, even if Anna eschews the E flat at the end of Sempre libera. Acting is first rate, especially Hampson's Georgio Germont. But my dislike of Decker;s staging intensifies with every viewing; it's more 1930s German cabaret than it is Verdi. "Sterile" and "vulgar" were used last night.