What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

Massenet: Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame
Roberto Alagna, Stefano Antonucci & Francesco Ellero d’Artegna
Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon,
Enrique Diemecke
Recorded 2007 at Montpellier

[Hoffmann]

I just ordered this one, along with Ercole sul Termodonte (thanks to all of you who have recommended it). Let us know how you like this pastiche. Handel's Tamerlano, based on the same original libretto (iirc) is a favorite.

P.S. - Did you get the set that includes a bonus dvd?

This was the first time I'd listened to Bajazet since I bought it some months ago, but really like it - it has a great cast. Since I don't know my Vivaldi operas at all well (Bajazet is the only one I own so far), so I had no idea that it is a pastiche. I guess I have some catching up to do.

I had to go back and look at the Bajazet set to answer your second question (after I buy a CD/CD set, I download it - losslessly - into iTunes for easier playing and management so rarely look at the CDs again after that), and yes, the set does include the DVD. I didn't realize it because, for now, I only listen to CDs and don't watch DVDs (which I have had trouble setting up since buying my sound system last year, but plan to rectify at some point). I do other things while listening - read, mostly, so haven't really wanted to devote the time and attention required to sit and watch DVDs. I have to work on that.

[Clayton]

Humperdinck: Königskinder
Jonas Kaufmann, Ofelia Sala, Detlef Roth & Nora Gubisch
Orchestra National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon,
Armin Jordan

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Finally a Sonnambula that is meaty dramatically. Good singing too.




As I feared, Theorin is not a particularly felicitous substitute for Stemme, although she WAS impressive in the last scene, dignified and forceful. I liked Gerd Grochowski's weak and confused Gunther and Miakhail Petrenko's sulky sinister Hagen; but I never want to hear Lance Ryan sing another note.




The combination of Flicka and Carreras in this is hard to beat, and Isobel Buchanan and Thomas Allen provide very good support as Albert and Sophie. I do love this opera, although I suspect that if I met Werther in person I'd be tempted to slap him a little.




Nice mix of slow and bravado pieces in this recital:

[Hoffmann]

Finally a Sonnambula that is meaty dramatically. Good singing too.




As I feared, Theorin is not a particularly felicitous substitute for Stemme, although she WAS impressive in the last scene, dignified and forceful. I liked Gerd Grochowski's weak and confused Gunther and Miakhail Petrenko's sulky sinister Hagen; but I never want to hear Lance Ryan sing another note.




The combination of Flicka and Carreras in this is hard to beat, and Isobel Buchanan and Thomas Allen provide very good support as Albert and Sophie. I do love this opera, although I suspect that if I met Werther in person I'd be tempted to slap him a little.




Nice mix of slow and bravado pieces in this recital:

I haven't heard Lance Ryan's Götterdämmerung Siegfried, but I found him compelling (in person) in Siegfried Siegfried. It may be that he has good nights and not so good nights. He had a terrible review (and showed up late) for his first Berlin performance of Siegfried, but he was very good the night I saw him.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I haven't heard Lance Ryan's Götterdämmerung Siegfried, but I found him compelling (in person) in Siegfried Siegfried. It may be that he has good nights and not so good nights. He had a terrible review (and showed up late) for his first Berlin performance of Siegfried, but he was very good the night I saw him.

It's not that he is a bad singer technically, he has excellent stamina, and he certainly acts and looks the part convincingly. But his voice has this awful wide vibrato that I find unendurably ugly.

[Clayton]

Verdi: Attila
Samuel Ramey (Attila), Cheryl Studer (Odabella), Giorgio Zancanaro (Ezio), Neil Shicoff (Foresto), Ernesto Gavazzi (Uldino), Giorgio Surian (Leone)
Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano & Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano,
Riccardo Muti
Recorded 1989

[Clayton]

the four and a half hour opera...

Well it says three hours and forty-one minutes on the CD case but every time I play it, it is over four and a half hours later that I return the CD to the shelf...

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Giulio Cesare), Karina Gauvin (Cleopatra), Romina Basso (Cornelia), Emoke Barath (Sesto), Filippo Mineccia (Tolomeo), Johannes Weisser (Achilla), Milena Storti (Nireno), Gianluca Buratto (Curio)
Il Complesso Barocco,
Alan Curtis



This is an opera recording that is a serious head turner. It changed the whole way I listened to opera. I think if Elvis sailed into Sydney Harbour on the Titanic and this was playing, everyone would be listening to this.

Err... okay, maybe that one was a bit much.

But it is very good.

[Hoffmann]

The best I can do today is to report on what I heard on Met Live while driving:

Marriage of Figaro with Cesare Siepi as Figaro, Lisa Della Casa as the Countess and Elisabeth Soderstom as Susanna was quite wonderful.

Followed by (after a bunch of filler material, of course) La Forza del Destino with Leontyne Price as Leonora, Leo Nucci as Don Carlos and Giuseppe Giacomini as Don Alvaro. Leontyne Price sang a dreamy Leonora - to the point that I was sad to turn off the car when I arrived at my sister's house.

[Revenant]

This was the first time I'd listened to Bajazet since I bought it some months ago, but really like it - it has a great cast. Since I don't know my Vivaldi operas at all well (Bajazet is the only one I own so far), so I had no idea that it is a pastiche. I guess I have some catching up to do.

I had to go back and look at the Bajazet set to answer your second question (after I buy a CD/CD set, I download it - losslessly - into iTunes for easier playing and management so rarely look at the CDs again after that), and yes, the set does include the DVD. I didn't realize it because, for now, I only listen to CDs and don't watch DVDs (which I have had trouble setting up since buying my sound system last year, but plan to rectify at some point). I do other things while listening - read, mostly, so haven't really wanted to devote the time and attention required to sit and watch DVDs. I have to work on that.

Yes, a pastiche, and not only from Vivaldi's earlier works but it contains several arias with music from other composers, including Porpora. A pastiche was a fixture of late baroque, such as Handel's Giove in Argo and many others. I received both the Ercole and Bajazet yesterday. I do as you do, download the cds to my iPod losslessly (or as close to that as possible). I just watched the dvd. Very interesting and I suggest you watch it at your convenient opportunity. It's just several excerpts from the recording session, with all the principal singers featured. It shows the pyrotechnics involved in the difficult technique that HIP singing for Vivaldian opera demands. Astonishing, really. You'll get the idea when you watch and listen to the first number, with Vivica Genaux. Smart of Biondi to be able to procure not only good singers for this recording, but also mostly young singers. The focus, stamina and energy needed - not to mention the training and talent - are over the top.

[Revenant]

the four and a half hour opera...

Well it says three hours and forty-one minutes on the CD case but every time I play it, it is over four and a half hours later that I return the CD to the shelf...

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Giulio Cesare), Karina Gauvin (Cleopatra), Romina Basso (Cornelia), Emoke Barath (Sesto), Filippo Mineccia (Tolomeo), Johannes Weisser (Achilla), Milena Storti (Nireno), Gianluca Buratto (Curio)
Il Complesso Barocco,
Alan Curtis



This is an opera recording that is a serious head turner. It changed the whole way I listened to opera. I think if Elvis sailed into Sydney Harbour on the Titanic and this was playing, everyone would be listening to this.

Err... okay, maybe that one was a bit much.

But it is very good.

I will hazard a guess that apparently you liked it.

[Revenant]

The best I can do today is to report on what I heard on Met Live while driving:

Marriage of Figaro with Cesare Siepi as Figaro, Lisa Della Casa as the Countess and Elisabeth Soderstom as Susanna was quite wonderful.

Followed by (after a bunch of filler material, of course) La Forza del Destino with Leontyne Price as Leonora, Leo Nucci as Don Carlos and Giuseppe Giacomini as Don Alvaro. Leontyne Price sang a dreamy Leonora - to the point that I was sad to turn off the car when I arrived at my sister's house.

That was my first Figaro! Ah, Lisa Della Casa... I recall that she passed away several years ago. Swiss, not Italian by nationality, iirc.

[Clayton]

Bellini: Norma
Edita Gruberova (Norma), Elīna Garanča (Adalgisa), Aquiles Machado (Pollione), Alastair Miles (Oroveso), Judith Howarth (Clotilde)
Vocal Ensemble Rastatt, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz,
Friedrich Haider
Live performance Großes Festspielhaus Baden-Baden 24 April & 1 May, 2004



...for fans of Gruberova and Garanča...

I like it.

[Clayton]

Bellini: I Puritani
Maria Callas (Elvira), Giuseppe di Stefano (Arturo), Rolando Panerai (Riccardo), Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Giorgio), Angelo Mercuriali (Bruno), Carlo Forti (Gualtiero Valton), Aurora Cattelani (Enrichetta)
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala,
Tullio Serafin
Recorded 24-30 March 1953, Basilica di Santa Eufemia, Milano

[Soave_Fanciulla]

La Favorite (French version) from Toulouse on Culture box. Also available on YouTube in HD.

Director : Vincent Boussard
Conductor : Antonello Allemandi

Kate Aldrich - Léonor de Guzman
Yijie Shi - Fernand
Ludovic Tézier - Alphonse XI, roi de Castille
Giovanni Furlanetto - Balthazar
Alain Gabriel - Don Gaspar
Marie-Bénédicte Souquet - Inès 







Fans of excellent bel canto tenors need to watch this for the gloriousness of Yijie Shi, who I later found out stepped into this role with little time to prepare, doesn't even speak French and yet made it his own. Ludovic Tézier also sounds so good that I will forgive him his relative lack of animation. Straightforward and attractive staging (love that lighted suitcase), no mucking around or Konzept; couture fans might like costumes by Christian Lacroix.