Reply With QuoteI'm back on the Verdi trail after my Viaggio a Lyon.
The Divina label releases as shown above include a huge media file with rare performance photos and any existing video clips, also copies of opera reviews and printed opera program if available.... a huge bonus feature!Originally Posted by Clayton
Cannae visit Donizetti witha seein tha Lammermuir...
Attachment 4429
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.
Pristine XR remaster (Andrew Rose) choose the 1953 EMI studio Callas with Stefano & Gobbi (conducted by Serafin) which would have to me my overall reference Lucia.....
I'm back on the Verdi trail after my Viaggio a Lyon.
"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 love Verdi's Lombardi, such great music and arias especially "qual prodigio"
Donizetti: Maria di Rohan
World Premiere recording of the new Critical Edition
Krassimira Stoyanova (Maria di Rohan), José Bros (Riccardo), Christopher Purves (Enrico), Brindley Sherratt, Loïc Félix (Armando di Gondì), Graeme Broadbent (Il Visconte di Suze), Christopher Turner (Aubry), Riccardo Simonetti (Un Familiare di Chevreuse); Enkelejda Shkosa (mezzo - appendix arias)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment,
Sir Mark Elder
Recorded October/November 2009, Henry Wood Hall, London
Christopher Purves is excellently cast as the Chevreuse.
One problem with this recording (Clayton not 100% happy with Opera Rara?!), is the sound is a bit wobbly. We lose a bit of Chevreuse (sounds muffled) in a couple of (crucial) passages, scene 4 of Act 2 and the final (aaaargh!) scene of the opera wher he spits
La vita coll'infamia
A te, donna infedel!
Life with infamy
To you, faithless woman!
Maria (Eugenia Tadolini), Chalais (Carlo Guasco) and Chevreuse (Giorgio Ronconi) in the final scene of the opera
The Opera Rara CDs normally come with a very good booklet with essay, synopsis, libretto in original language and translation (also for appendices of any variations if included on CD), other pieces of information like past performers or performances and lots of good pictures (like the one above).
CD cover (and printed on CD faces) is the Portait of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Madame de Sévigné (1626-96) by Claude Lefebve, Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France/Giraudon (The Bridgeman Art library).
Though I am actually not aware of the relationship with this opera. I have read the essay but I am not that a good reader and sometimes the words are just jumping all over the page.
Renata Scotto sings Gilda - I am too familiar with her tendency to scream, and tend to forget that she had a long career for a reason - she sings a terrific Gilda and DFD and Bergonzi also also terrific.
I love this recording with Fritz Wunderlich - I don't even mind that it is sung in German!
All fine singers here, particularly Lezhneva as Rossana, but I find that the two lead countertenors (Cencic, Sabata) challenge my ear to become used to a sound that is too close to falsetto in my perception. That's just me. Cencic, however, does deliver a good thrilling and dramatic assumption of the role. I've only listened to the first act yet, but I have no worries about the rest of the recording: Petrou does a great job here, impressive really, as he did in my previous recording of Tamerlano. I think I've found yet another Handelian masterpiece in a close to ideal recording.
Never try to teach a pig to sing. You will waste your time and you will annoy the pig.
Rimsky Korsakov: Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden)
Valentina Sokolik (Snow Maiden), Irina Arkhipova (Spring), Anton Grigoriev (Tsar Berendey), Anatoly Moksayakov (Mizgir), Lidya Sakharenko (Kupava), Alexander Vedernikov (King Frost), Vladimir Matorin (Bermyata) & Ivan Budrin (Carnival)
Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio,
Vladimir Fedoseyev
Recorded 1975
My second favourite Rimsky-Korsakov opera.
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila
Placido Domingo (Samson), Waltraud Meier (Dalila), Alain Fondary (High Priest of Dagon), Jean-Philippe Courtis (Abimelech), Samuel Ramey (An Old Hebrew)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Opera Bastille, Myung-Whun Chung
Recorded in 1991
Saint-Saëns, Samson, Saint-Saëns, Samson tee hee hee
S&D is not one of my favorites, but with a cast like that, would have to give it another chance!Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila
Placido Domingo (Samson), Waltraud Meier (Dalila), Alain Fondary (High Priest of Dagon), Jean-Philippe Courtis (Abimelech), Samuel Ramey (An Old Hebrew)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Opera Bastille, Myung-Whun Chung
Recorded in 1991
Saint-Saëns, Samson, Saint-Saëns, Samson tee hee hee
A new purchase:
I was disappointed with this recording - music is not as interesting as I remembered and, despite great cast, performances are not memorable. It might well be one of those operas that needs to be watched instead of listened to. Also, MP3 download from Archivmusic seems to include numerous and very annoying hesitations.
I was walking along listening to Tancredi, thinking that it's reputation as at the top of the less well-known Rossini operas was undeserved, when it really took off. First 1/3 or so of the opera is ho hum, but lots of really lovely arias, duets, etc. and great performances here.
Act two, great.
Act three; Hoffmann "meh!" category. probably.
But great > meh for me.
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post #3110
Very colourful cover but what is fox doing? yoga? flamenco?
I'm not sure: either the tango or ate something that disagreed with it, or maybe just, well, being 'cunning'?
Venturing into borderline obscure territory: listening to my "Haydn: The Operas" set by Dorati. La Fedelta Premiata. Nothing special, but still darn pleasing music to listen to
This:A new purchase:
I was disappointed with this recording - music is not as interesting as I remembered and, despite great cast, performances are not memorable. It might well be one of those operas that needs to be watched instead of listened to. Also, MP3 download from Archivmusic seems to include numerous and very annoying hesitations.
Natalie
A new acquisition:
and then, this from the Opera Baroque box:
This is gorgeous, simply gorgeous.
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