Reply With QuoteI understand.Originally Posted by sospiro
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I mean this is utterly attractive.
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Bellissima!
This recording was responsible for my deep and abiding love for this opera. When I first got it I played it over and over and over again.
"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
I understand.
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I mean this is utterly attractive.
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Bellissima!
"Looking" being the operative word for the thread I had in mind.
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A great recording. Rest in peace, Maestro.
Yesterday afternoon - I had forgotten what a wonderful opera this is:
Today, I started with an old favorite - I also had forgotten why it is a favorite:
and then, this afternoon, this really wonderful recording (and, I have to admit, I love Anja Silja as Senta):
I have builders next door. I promise, this is not me following Hoffmann's example this time; I have no control over this matter.
Fortunately the houses are not connected so the noise is not too disturbing. However, today they are on the roof and I can hear their conversations.
Almost one in four words is a swear word. It's so ridiculous, it's almost impressive how they can construct sentences so.
Now some people complain how builders talk too much on their employer's time. If they were to stop swearing, I think immediately their conversation would be reduced by 25%. Furthermore they must be constructing their sentences to accomodate such swear words, so perhaps it would be reduced more.
Anyway, an appointment with other evil forces today.
Boito: Mefistofele
(Mefistofele) Nicolai Ghiaurov, (Faust) Luciano Pavarotti, (Margherita) Mirella Freni, (Elena) Montserrat Caballé, (Marta) Nucci Condò & (Wagner) Piero de Palma
London Opera Chorus/Trinity Boys’ Choir & National Philharmonic Orchestra,
Oliviero de Fabritiis
Recorded: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, August 1980 & January 1982
Walthamstow was a really happening place back in the late 70's/early 80's.
That has to be a great recording, Clayton, but I think Samuel Ramey owns this role (tho' some would say it truly belongs to Norman Treigle...), courtesy of the late, great New York City Opera and the Tito Capobianco production of Mefistofele that was my third opera (ca. 1978, when NYCO was still touring to DC).
That is a GREAT cover (if I saw this in a record shop I would buy it immediately) and EVIL looking stage production. You showed us a picture of the costume from this production before and I had to drink heavily for a week to get over it.
The way NYCO did the prelude was (at least for me), jaw-dropping: The Kennedy Center Opera House auditorium went totally dark - the only thing lit was the tip of Julius Rudel's baton; the answering trumpets (horns, anyway) were placed in the balconies. Made my hair stand on end. When the curtain went up - the above photo was the staging we were greeted with.
Another great tale by Hoffmann. Thank you.
All these years later; where is it in your ranking of favourites I wonder...
I also wonder if NYCO will be resurrected soon. If only they could make a deal with a big bank...
I admit that I don't listen to Mefistofele very often any more. It seems to me to be a little too heavy-handed. I nearly put it on my recommended list in one of the 61 -70 slots, but it kind of got overtaken by the competition. If anything on my list makes it this time, I probably will list Mefistofele going into the next round.
Alas, I'm afraid NYCO has totally imploded - the unfortunate victim of unbridled incompetent management.
It's really a shame, as NYCO featured both a more adventurous repertory and production design. One of the NYCO operas I saw in the late 70s was Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or - from the President's Box at the Kennedy Center (sans President, naturally). A friend of mine worked for the White House in the Carter Administration, which had a policy of making tickets to the Box available to staff when it wasn't otherwise being used. Unfortunately, we ate and drank, um, too much before the performance, so I don't recall much about the opera....
As usual with Parsifal I have no idea what is going on. I think this production would work better in the house with the lights down so you could get into a suitably Zen-like trance, although then I might have seen more of the female genitals in Act 2 and less of the albino boa constrictor ( I like snakes better than genitals). I'm going to have to watch it again after re-reading Andrew Richards' blog. Musically it was lovely, Andrew Richards did a good job and the orchestra gave a wonderful rich sound.
Natalie
Jules Massenet
Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame
Miracle en Trois Actes
Poème de Maurice Léna
Roberto Alagna, Stefano Antonucci & Francesco Ellero d’Artegna
Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon,
Enrique Diemecke
Live recording 4th February 2007
"J'écris une pièce, une légende, un conte en musique, appelez-le
comme vous voudrez, où il n'y a pas un seul rôle de femme!
Pas un, entendez-vous, pas le plus petit rôle de femme...
J'approche de la fin, et depuis quelques jours, je sens, je sais
à comp sûr que Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame sera mon chef-d'œvre"
A very beautiful opera. I am having a VERY good run on new opera experiences. This IS my favourite Massenet piece. It is very short though. I had to do a time check. It is 1 hour 38 minutes. But it felt like forty-odd minutes.
peut-être...
maybe I just got lost in the monastry, in the hospitality of the monks, the painter, the poet, the musician, the sculptor and Boniface's wonderful, wonderful cooking.
Ahh! I could die here.
Alagna is at home here. Antonucci cooks a great turkey. d'Artegna runs a divine monastry. The rest of the cast are all good too.
Oh, and this has GOT to be an under rated/performed opera.
9.3827/10
A stone statue in Iceland could shed a tear listening to this...
(I'm talking about the opera, not my post.)
Yikes.As usual with Parsifal I have no idea what is going on. I think this production would work better in the house with the lights down so you could get into a suitably Zen-like trance, although then I might have seen more of the female genitals in Act 2 and less of the albino boa constrictor ( I like snakes better than genitals). I'm going to have to watch it again after re-reading Andrew Richards' blog. Musically it was lovely, Andrew Richards did a good job and the orchestra gave a wonderful rich sound.
Not sure what tripped this trigger,
h
Verdi: Nabucco
Elena Souliotis (Abigaille), Tito Gobbi (Nabucco), Carlo Cava (Zaccaria), Bruno Prevedi (Ismaele), Dora Carral (Fenena), Giovanni Foiani (Gran Sacerdote), Walter Kräutler (Abdallo), Anna d'Auria (Anna)
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Opernorchester,
Lamberto Gardelli
but continue to be greatly excited listening to it.
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