What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Dark_Angel]

My God! Macbeth! Tosca! The thought will keep me awake all night! I have to admit, though, that I think the La Sonnambula on Naxos is surprisingly good for a 1957 recording:

Attachment 4319

I have no need for further recordings of these two operas. I can't imagine they can be done any better than this.

You may want to consider the famous 1955 La Scala Sonnambula with Bernstein, Callas is more animated and daring here with extra vocal ornaments from 1:48 -> 3:00, crowd is whipped into such a frenzy that giant climax at 3:24 is almost drowned out, Brava Maria!

This is definitely one for Pristine XR remaster to consider issuing.......

[Clayton]

Pergolesi: L'Olimpiade
Raffaella Milanesi (Aristea), Ann-Beth Solvang (Argene), Olga Pasichnyk (Megacle), Jennifer Rivera (Licida), Martin Oro (Alcandro), Jeffrey Francis (Clistene), Markus Brutscher (Aminta)
Academia Montis Regalis,
Alessandro de Marchi
Recorded live Innsbruck Festival, Tiroler Landestheater, Aug 6-12, 2010



Wonderful.


Pictures in same order as cast list above)

[Revenant]

This one just popped to the top of my to-listen pile today. So I listened. Beautiful recording. It had me at the melancholy heartbeats of Scherza Infida. Again, in yet another of his major operas: characterization, depth, dramatic coherence (it features another of his father-daughter-in-trouble angst exchanges - shades of Verdi?). After Monteverdi and now Handel, I'll never think of Baroque music the same way again.

[messadivoce]

I love the 1930 Columbia recording of Rigoletto with Riccardo Stracciari, Mercedes Capsir and Dino Borgioli.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Really very good interesting production of Guillaume Tell from de Nederlandse Opera, directed by Pierre Audi. John Osborn and Marina Rebeka excellent.

[Revenant]

Really very good interesting production of Guillaume Tell from de Nederlandse Opera, directed by Pierre Audi. John Osborn and Marina Rebeka excellent.

Excellent. I have a blu-ray of the Audi/Nederlandse O's L'Orfeo and it was very good also. I love Guillaume Tell, so I'll give this one a look. Thanks for sharing this Natalie.

[Clayton]

The number of times Norma has been mentioned recently has reached critical threshold and so I follow Hoffmann to here:



A few good partners to this record:

1.



Sennheiser 598 for intravenous feed

2.



failing that (if it is too much), a sound proof room to make sure you catch every last drop without &%$$£$@ off the wife/neighbours/any-other-I-don't-want-your-opera-in-my-face-persons

3.



for medicinal purposes only, you understand

4.



a nice walk afterwards to refresh yourself/remind yourself there is life outside of opera

[Hoffmann]

The number of times Norma has been mentioned recently has reached critical threshold and so I follow Hoffmann to here:



A few good partners to this record:

1.



Sennheiser 598 for intravenous feed

2.



failing that (if it is too much), a sound proof room to make sure you catch every last drop without &%$$£$@ off the wife/neighbours/any-other-I-don't-want-your-opera-in-my-face-persons

3.



for medicinal purposes only, you understand

4.



a nice walk afterwards to refresh yourself/remind yourself there is life outside of opera

I may be needing the drawings for #2, the rubber room, above. The new neighbors moved in next door over the weekend, so no more indulging self with full throttle Norma

Question is: How long can I go before I'm driven to necessity of #1, above?

Re: #3, Above




Re: #4, Above.

I always thought that the refreshing walk outside was to make sure the trusty old iPod was still in top notch working condition and to take all my favorite characters for a good airing out!

[Dark_Angel]

Question is: How long can I go before I'm driven to necessity of #1, above?

There is no better audio investment you can make dollar for dollar than a good set of headphones, the Sennheiser 500 series are just killer with very good rich detailed sound and high efficiency so you play directly from headphone output of CD player or even portable device......you must own these, I use mine every day




Next model down is Senn 558 new price Amazon USA is $122

[Clayton]

There is no better audio investment you can make dollar for dollar than a good set of headphones, the Sennheiser 500 series are just killer with very good rich detailed sound and high efficiency so you play directly from headphone output of CD player or even portable device......you must own these, I use mine every day

I use mine everyday.

[Hoffmann]

There is no better audio investment you can make dollar for dollar than a good set of headphones, the Sennheiser 500 series are just killer with very good rich detailed sound and high efficiency so you play directly from headphone output of CD player or even portable device......you must own these, I use mine every day




Next model down is Senn 558 new price Amazon USA is $122

I'm sure I would appreciate their superb sound, but am not so crazy about the tethered thing required of non-bluetooth headphones. However, I've run into a rather unfortunate tax situation, so my immediate buying anything short of beanie-weenies is curtailed while I figure things out.

[Clayton]

Only one Roger Groult distributor in England on the other side of London.

[Hoffmann]

Only one Roger Groult distributor in England on the other side of London.

I've never seen them in the U.S. - I've always stocked up when in Paris (though, it's been such a long time since my last visit there, I've been reduced to pleading with friends: "Oh, you simply must see Place Madeleine...", etc.).

I did just check their website, and see there are east coast distributors listed as Groult importers. I'm on it - well, after the tax thing, anyway...

[Hoffmann]

This is magic. A fabulous recording with some really heartbreaking singing with the leads all at their peak: Elena Suliotis, Mario del Monaco and Fiorenza Cossotto. Considerably better than the live recording (Tokyo, 1971; Myto) I bought a month ago, which features Suliotis clearly past her prime, but still singing Norma way better than some sopranos today.

I don't understand why this recording is out of print.

It brings to mind an old Neil Young quotation: "It's better to burn out than to fade away".

Brava, Elena!

[Clayton]

My goodness, we must have the highest concentration of Suliotis Norma recordings in any community.

Quick, alert the Suliotis fan club.

Oh no. That would be us.

Gotta restore some balance.

Shall we go back to the Kaufmann?

No that one's been overdone as well with the lapdancing scenario...

How about René Jacobs?



Yes let's talk about him. I spent the afternoon with Jacobs. Wonderful deliberation with Handel. In some parts preferable to Curtis.

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Jennifer Larmore (Giulio Cesare); Barbara Schlick (Cleopatra); Bernarda Fink (Cornelia); Marianne Rørholm (Sesto); Derek Lee Ragin (Tolomeo); Furio Zanasi (Achilla); Dominique Visse (Nireno) & Olivier Lallouette (Curio)
Concerto Köln,
René Jacobs
Recorded July 1991 Grand Studio de la DeutschlandFunk, Köln