What opera have you been watching lately?

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Yesterday on my digital channel :



Very Verdi this opera .
The voices are unfamiliar to me but I had a pleasant watching .

I LOVE this opera! This looks great and I really must start looking for a Tutto Verdi at a reasonable price.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Having a break from my Monteverdi homework and watched this while I did the ironing.

[Clayton]

No ironing for me

Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Anna Netrebko (Anna Bolena), Elina Garanca (Giovanna Seymour), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Enrico), Francesco Meli (Percy), Dan Paul Dumitrescu (Lord Rochefort), Elisabeth Kulman (Smeton), Peter Jelosits (Hervey)
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper & Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Evelino Pidò
April 2011



Stunning Anna and Jane, majestic performance from the Archangel, supersexy costumes (Bond Street boutiques does Tudor) and dramatic pow from Pidò and Wiener Staatsoper Orchetsra. Special mention to little Beth; very cute. Just stopped me from going overboard in the final scene.

[JohnGerald]

No ironing for me

Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Anna Netrebko (Anna Bolena), Elina Garanca (Giovanna Seymour), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Enrico), Francesco Meli (Percy), Dan Paul Dumitrescu (Lord Rochefort), Elisabeth Kulman (Smeton), Peter Jelosits (Hervey)
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper & Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Evelino Pidò
April 2011



Stunning Anna and Jane, majestic performance from the Archangel, supersexy costumes (Bond Street boutiques does Tudor) and dramatic pow from Pidò and Wiener Staatsoper Orchetsra. Special mention to little Beth; very cute. Just stopped me from going overboard in the final scene.

Clayton, I am beginning to have some hope for you.

Beginning!

This Anna is simply superb!!!

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Tannhäuser from Bayreuth 2014, from Youtube (gone now I think, but you are not missing out...). Torsten Kerl, Michelle Breedt, Camilla Nylund, Markus Eiche. Conductor Axel Kober, director some halfwit called Sebastian Baumgarten, remind me to avoid his productions like the plague.

Singing: topnotch. Torsten Kerl has never been in better voice, Camilla Nylund does her usual accomplished performance (definitely an underrated soprano, that one), and Markus Eiche is a wonderful warm-voiced Wolfram .

Production: totally bewildering, set in some kind of gas factory, blood, writhing, nudity, giant sperm that seem to have strayed in from a school play about tadpoles; the chorus are gallantly doing their best to follow direction but their acting is shamefully amateur (the singing is mercifully intact.) Definitely the sort of thing that gives Regie a bad name; lots of effects without much of a story.

[Clayton]

Clayton, I am beginning to have some hope for you...

I'd hate to disappoint dad but

Hope springs eternal in the human breast...

...This Anna is simply superb!!!

Sooooo good. So where to now? Is the San Francisco I capuleti e i Montecchi as good? Which is THE best Bellini? Which other Donizetti? Where? Where? Where should I go?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I'd hate to disappoint dad but

Hope springs eternal in the human breast...

Sooooo good. So where to now? Is the San Francisco I capuleti e i Montecchi as good? Which is THE best Bellini? Which other Donizetti? Where? Where? Where should I go?

You want a laugh? And some wonderful singing?



or do you want to cry?

[Alan]

I second Natalie's recommendation of that Met production of Maria Stuarda. It's a great production of a great opera, showing the collision of two powerful and obstinate women - and Elizabeth's internal conflicts between mercy and compassion versus her determination to stomp on any plots or opposition.

Joyce DiDonata is excellent as Mary and she is well matched by the South African Eliza Van Den Heever as Elizabeth. She was directed to act Elizabeth as being butch or clumsy and masculine in how she stands and walks. I thought that worked well as an interesting change from how queens are usually acted - and might possibly be a good guess about the style of the actual historical Elizabeth I.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Joyce DiDonata is excellent as Mary and she is well matched by the South African Eliza Van Den Heever as Elizabeth. She was directed to act Elizabeth as being butch or clumsy and masculine in how she stands and walks. I thought that worked well as an interesting change from how queens are usually acted - and might possibly be a good guess about the style of the actual historical Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth I's Armada speech, 1588:

I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too

[Clayton]

You want a laugh? And some wonderful singing?...

or do you want to cry?...

I want both

Elizabeth I's Armada speech, 1588:

Here's a problem with learning history from Richard Curtis and Ben Elton; I know this quote as

...but I have the heart and stomach of a concrete elephant...

I think I prefer this version though

[JohnGerald]

Clayton, Ms. Natalie and Alan have given you two unbeatable suggestion. They are so superb that I am going to watch them soonest meself.

[Adrian]

On the Mezzo Channel now.
Not going to watch with any interest whatsoever.
Horrible production

[Clayton]

I LOVE this opera! This looks great and I really must start looking for a Tutto Verdi at a reasonable price.

I see A site is GBP 420...

Who has this set and is it the best thing since sliced bread?

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I see A site is GBP 420...

That's too much

Who has this set and is it the best thing since sliced bread?

Anyone?

[Clayton]

GBP 420 is a LOT of money to spend on the DVDs.

Very simply calculated, it is (420 - premium to have all the Verdi operas on DVD - a little expenditure on nice book with pictures)/26 = maybe just less than GBP 15 per opera. Which sounds good...
BUT if there are some which are not worth having then the calculation is thrown out the window (probably best place for it)

I don't think it is for me; not now.

Now a ALL HANDEL; that would be another matter

(big cheesey grin smiley)