What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

...is this new area for Sospiro?

Clayton still with Anna.

Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Beverly Sills (Anna), Paul Plishka (Enrico), Shirley Verrett (Giovanna), Robert Lloyd (Rochefort), Stuart Burrows (Percy), Patricia Kern (Smeton), Robert Tear (Hervey)
John Alldis Choir & London Symphony Orchestra,
Julius Rudel

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

...is this new area for Sospiro?

Yep

[Clayton]

Yep

Go Lohengrin! Go Lohengrin! This is so so pretty. It's a romantic opera and I don't know what technical 'fach' it is but I'm sure you'll like the Lohengrin role. I'll even up my stake to two pints/a jar of Wendy's jam (my neighbour who makes the worlds greatest jam).

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Go Lohengrin! Go Lohengrin! This is so so pretty. It's a romantic opera and I don't know what technical 'fach' it is but I'm sure you'll like the Lohengrin role. I'll even up my stake to two pints/a jar of Wendy's jam (my neighbour who makes the worlds greatest jam).

I agree with Clayton. I liked Lohengrin for a whole 20 years before I got into anything else by Wagner.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Falstaff from the Met - Ambrogio Maestri in the role he was born to play. I liked the production, and the other singers were fine, but I though that the ensembles were a bit ragged (although they got it together for the final fugue) and there were moments of poor Italian pronunciation from the others - which in such a word-driven opera is disappointing.



Part 2

Part 3


Another very cool Giulio Cesare:

[Hoffmann]

[Revenant]

I agree with Clayton. I liked Lohengrin for a whole 20 years before I got into anything else by Wagner.

Don't feel bad about it. For me it was 35 years or so. Better late than never. Perhaps had I come to Wagner earlier I would not have appreciated him as much then as I do now.

[Clayton]

Another very cool Giulio Cesare:

Oh so tempting.

tempting.

tempting.

left kidney or giulio.

tempting.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

No opera in the car?

Wouldn't Margaret Juntwait (Met Live/Sirius XM) worry about me?

Of course, if I did stop listening, I wouldn't have to worry about those situations like when I was listening to Die Walküre on Sirius last winter and had to stop for gas during the vital 3rd Act. I put all the windows down and cranked the volume while I re-fueled, and was stared at like I was a crazy person by everyone else re-fueling at the station (well, what else could I do?)

I'm known for listening to a 3-hour opera while driving *and reading the libretto*.
I know, rather unsafe but I've done it multiple times.
I used to drive from home to my son's college for the football matches and it is a 3h15' drive, then I'd pop an opera (or more than one) on the CD player, hold the libretto on top of the wheel and peek at it in alternation with peeking at the road.
There was more than one occasion when I almost got in trouble.
OK, since my son has graduated already - and his next school will be out of reach by car; I'll have to fly there - my untimely and premature death caused by opera is not going to happen.

Now, Met Opera Radio on Sirius XM is almost always on for me when I drive anywhere, from a 15' drive in town to any road travel, except that I also listen to news on NPR.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Don't feel bad about it. For me it was 35 years or so. Better late than never. Perhaps had I come to Wagner earlier I would not have appreciated him as much then as I do now.

Well, for me it was love at first sight (literally, because my first Wagner opera was on DVD).

[Dark_Angel]

moved

[Clayton]

mmm... many good reasons to get a DVD/blueray combo player. This Fiorenza Cedolins Norma now sounds like one of them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna led me to Maria today.

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
Joan Sutherland (Maria Stuarda), Huguette Tourangeau (Elisabetta), Luciano Pavarotti (Leicester), Roger Soyer (Talbot), James Morris (Cecil), Margreta Elkins (Anna)
Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra,
Richard Bonynge
Recorded September 1974 & July 1975 Teatro Comunale, Bologna



I love it.

[Clayton]

Did someone mention Belisario?

Only yourself

Oh rats! I'm talking to myself again

Nicola Alaimo (Belisario), Joyce El-Khoury (Antonina), Camilla Roberts (Irene), Alastair Miles (Giustiniano), Peter Hoare (Eutropio), Russell Thomas (Alamiro), Julia Sporsén (Eudora), Darren Jeffery (Centurion), Edward Price (Eusebio), Michael Bundy (Ottario),
BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Sir Mark Elder
Recorded October 2012 at BBC Studios Maida Vale, London



I got stuck in the Donizetti drawer.


- - - Updated - - -

The front cover is "The Death of Belisario's Wife" by François-Joseph Kinson, and is displayed at the Groeninge Museum, Bruges.

Nice idea to hop on the train and go see it, of course followed by some beer and chips.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Nice idea to hop on the train and go see it, of course followed by some beer and chips.

Frite and mayonnaise

[Clayton]

Cannae visit Donizetti witha seein tha Lammermuir...



The cast of Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Rolando Panerai and Nicola Zaccaria are all in their early thirties. Oh the power of youth! Karajan is a Maestro to control...
Pristine remaster coupled with Sennheisers allow all the riches to mined from this treasure trove.