Reply With QuoteI think I'll just move to Paris. Can you guys send me donations to help me pay for my modest three-story apartment in the 16ème and my modest meals at La Tour d'Argent?Originally Posted by Soave_Fanciulla
3 compelling reasons to invest in a subscription to a proxy VPN, so so can get round the "only in France" restrictions:
A "traditional" Entführung aus dem Serail with: Jürgen Maurer - Selim / Erin Morley - Konstanze / Anna Prohaska - Blonde / Bernard Richter - Belmonte / Paul Schweinester - Pedrillo / Lars Woldt - Osmin. A very good ensemble cast ad a beautiful production.
An extremely affecting Dialogues des carmélites directed by Mireille Delunsch. Anne-Sophie Gillet is the best and most convincing Blanche I have ever seen. Great final scene as a guillotine is wheeled across the stage and placed in the wings, and the nuns walk one by one up the steps into the darkness as the guillotine swishes through the orchestra.
A fantastic Barbiere Di Siviglia with a wonderful multi-story apartment set and Karine Deshayes as a bored teenage Rosina. Carlo Lepore is a wonderfully creepy-pervy-gropy Don Bartolo.
Open to all countries, and also worth catching, are Chabrier's L'Etoile with Stéphanie d’Oustrac in wonderfully light-hearted mode, Ariodante with Sarah Connolly, Patricia Petibon and Sonia Prina (I mentioned it on another thread, Castor et Pollux with Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Marianna Pizzolato's Cenerentola, and Luisa Miller with Patrizia Ciofi.
I still have a few more on my list to see, but I am really enjoying all these free offerings from Culture box.
Natalie
I think I'll just move to Paris. Can you guys send me donations to help me pay for my modest three-story apartment in the 16ème and my modest meals at La Tour d'Argent?
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Alas, because the Christmas bonus never arrived, I can't help much. Maybe a lovely French Phrase Book will get you started?
Look! This one even has dancing girls on the cover!
I already speak fluent French, but I do like the girls!Alas, because the Christmas bonus never arrived, I can't help much. Maybe a lovely French Phrase Book will get you started?
Look! This one even has dancing girls on the cover!
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
How predictable!
Oh. Well. Good thing I didn't put it in the mail yet! Back to Amazon, I guess.
Don't put it in the mail. As you know, Christmas bonuses and gifts from one staffer to another *always* get lost in the mail. I think the competitors have infiltrated the USPS. It's the *only* explanation!
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Companies are getting wise to the vpn circumvention
Netflix news
"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
Last night, we watched Gounod's Mireille. It's a first rate Blu ray disc as far as picture and sound is concerned, but I rate it a step down from Faust and Romeo.
I actually prefer it. And that is one lovely production.
Natalie
Last night it was Rossini's Moise et Pharaon from La Scala. Abdrazakov, Frittoli, Ganassi, Schrott and Filianoti make a superb cast under Riccardo Muti.
That's certainly a top notch cast. I found the live Mose (1950s) CD tedious (Mose apparently is the Italian translation of Moise et Pharaon that was composed for Paris). Maybe with a good cast and good sound, the opera is more lively.
Verdi Otello from Orange with Roberto Alagna... and surprise surprise, he was very good, moving and convincing. Perhaps not the most beautifully sung Otello, a few cracks, but then this was a very challenging environment. Catch it before it disappears on 2 Feb.
Natalie
The original was Mose in Egitto, an opera seria composed for Naples during Lent, when the Church proscribed "theatre" unless there was some religious theme. Mose in Egitto had that, but it also had the love interest, with a stunning, extended duet for soprano and tenor. In his Paris years, Rossini enlarged Mose, adding music, including the required ballet (the music of which is lovely) and more choral music. Critics tend to favor the original, but being an "equal opportunity" kind of guy, I go either way (musically, that is!).
Last night it was that exquisite Romeo et Juilette with Machaidze and Villazon. Talk about passion!! And passionate singing!!!
Tonight, because of some discussions here about I Puritani, we are going to watch Bellini's last. I need to clear my mind of that Wagnerian heavyweight over-orchestrated stuff that is so lacking in delicacy and melody.
(To self: watch for the torches; angry villagers are on the horizon ...
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