What opera have you been watching lately?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Just watched the Jenůfa Natalie mentioned a couple of posts above and, man, it screams for a blu-ray issue! Even the second act, which is kind of meant to be ugly, is gorgeous. Those old, worn out walls are so beautifully done they deserve close-ups.

Even the lighting is amazing!

[Festat]

Yesterday I watched the Monnaie Jenůfa again with my grandmother, and then the Gheorghiu–Kaufmann–Terfel Tosca from the ROH. An emotionally exhausting afternoon (you see, I'm a bit less than the average viewer )

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I just finished watching the Tarragate Rosenkavalier from Glyndebourne. All I can say is that the critics are idiots for not seeing that Erraught was an outstanding Octavian - young, a bit gauche, impetuous, full of ardour. Wonderful singing too. I liked the production, it made me giggle.

[Alan]

For a change from passionate Italian operas, I enjoyed the more conversational pace of Richard Strauss's Capriccio (Met 2011, available on Blu-ray and their online Opera on Demand) starring Renee Fleming. This opera really suits her bright personality.

I'm not sure I would buy the disc though. The first time seeing it is best. It's more interesting if you don't read a synopsis first, so the plot and the conversations gradually unfold and you wonder how it will end.

An opera about operas, it starts by portraying the usual tensions between librettist and composer, but I won't spoil it by telling you how it develops from that, in case you haven't seen Capriccio before.

It's good when you're in the mood for something interesting and amusing, rather than deeply moving.

[Amfortas]

It's good when you're in the mood for something interesting and amusing, rather than deeply moving.

For me, it becomes more moving with the awareness that this was Strauss's final opera, in many ways his loving farewell to the art form. Surrounded late in life by the barbarism of Nazi Germany, Strauss nostalgically returned to that ultra-refined eighteenth-century world he had evoked in Der Rosenkavalier some thiry years earlier.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

AlexanderTsymbalyuk - what an amazing voice. My new favourite bass.

Also notable because directed by Calixto Bieito and THERE IS NO FULL FRONTAL NUDITY (a lot of people die though!)

[Festat]

THERE IS NO FULL FRONTAL NUDITY

Boo.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Werther from the Met, with Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch. I really noticed the orchestral conducting and playing this time, which I thought was just perfect. I still prefer the other DVD version, appallingly capricious video direction or not.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Also notable because directed by Calixto Bieito and THERE IS NO FULL FRONTAL NUDITY

Bummer, no assets? What good is a Calixto Bieito production without cough cough assets cough cough?

[MAuer]

Bummer, no assets? What good is a Calixto Bieito production without cough cough assets cough cough?

He does seem to have been mellowing a little bit of late.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

[Soave_Fanciulla]

John Blow's Venus and Adonis - this is another one of those "authentic" performances with Jacobean costumes, candle lighting and so on, and is stunningly beautiful. I enjoyed it all except for the fact that they have employed what they presumably have researched as "contemporary" pronunciation which makes everyone sound like a cross between a Cockney cleaning lady and René from 'Allo allo". I suppose I could get used to it but it was unnecessarily distracting. Alma, the singer playing Venus isn't wearing an awful lot.



Salome - very powerful rendition, best and creepiest Herod I have ever seen, Salome very lithe and athletic and I loved her sulkiness and anger after the dance when she keeps insisting on getting what she wants. Alma, the singer playing Salome gets naked and she's pretty.

[Hoffmann]

Ok, I'm curious about something. If singers tend to sign contracts some years in advance of a performance - in some cases, before a director has been hired, what do they do when their given director tells them they have to get naked on stage? It seems to me that would not be many singers' preference.

[Amfortas]

Alma, the singer playing Venus isn't wearing an awful lot.

Alma, the singer playing Salome gets naked and she's pretty.

This Alma lady has quite a varied repertoire! And if she's that pretty, I'll have to check her out.