What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Adrian]

Checking out this Carmen



What do people think of this one? There seems to be divided opinion on Jessye Norman in the title role, I don't really know much about that but I like this recording.

To me it is such a typical thing Philips did because they had Norman and no DDD Carmen in their catalogue.
Calling on Freni to do Michaëla (4th time I guess)
It is more prestige than art.
For me Troyanos on Decca any day or Price under Karajan.

[Hoffmann]

To me it is such a typical thing Philips did because they had Norman and no DDD Carmen in their catalogue.
Calling on Freni to do Michaëla (4th time I guess)
It is more prestige than art.
For me Troyanos on Decca any day or Price under Karajan.

Part of the problem, I suppose, is envisioning Jessye Norman singing the role on stage - and Norman, while a terrifically gifted singer, doesn't capture my imagination as Carmen.

On the other hand, I saw her sing Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder at the Kennedy Center in the 1980s and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in London (Barbican Center) around the same time, and was totally blown away. Grace, style, effortless - you name it, the whole package.

[Hoffmann]

Conductor: Vittorio Gui
with Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice di Venizia

Beatrice: Leyla Gencer
Orombello: Juan Oncina
Filippo: Mario Zanasi
Agese: Antigone Sgourda
et al.

(1964)

Nice recording and nice for a change of pace, but Gencer, while very good, really is no where near as compelling as Sutherland's Beatrice.

[Clayton]

Checking out this Carmen

...
What do people think of this one? There seems to be divided opinion on Jessye Norman in the title role, I don't really know much about that but I like this recording.

I was mainly disappointed with the opera as there was no cars or any engines in it as the title suggested to me. However the recording I do have and like is with Teresa Berganza, absolutely lovely.

Bizet: Carmen
Teresa Berganza (Carmen), Plácido Domingo (Don Jose), Sherrill Milnes (Escamillo), Ileana Cotrubas (Micaela), Yvonne Kenny (Frasquita), Alicia Nafé (Mercédès), Gordon Sandison (Le Dancaïre), Geoffrey Pogson (Le Remendado), Robert Lloyd (Zuniga), Stuart Harling (Moralès)
Ambrosian Singers, George Watson`s College Boys` Chorus & London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, Claudio Abbado
Studio recording, 1977



Dodgy cover design but good content.

[Clayton]

This morning I was in the garden (as usual).

Anfossi: La finta giardiniera
Nuria Rial (Sandrina), Krystian Adam (Belfiore), Maria Espada (Ramiro), Katja Stuber (Arminda), Miljenko Turk (Podestà), Florian Götz (Nardo) & Monika Reinhard (Serpetta)
L'Arte del Mondo
Werner Ehrhardt
Recorded November 2-5 at das Erholungshaus, Kulturhaus der Bayer AG

[Clayton]

Then, predictably, I go visit the pretty daughter of Frost and Spring.

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

[Adrian]

I had to listen to this again, that glorious Decca sound and a special soprano.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I love the sea interludes as much as the singing itself

[Clayton]

As I have not listened to it for a few weeks...

and because I have the Sennheisers, at a volume that shook my bones back two millennia...

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Naples manuscript version
Emanuela Galli (Poppea), Roberta Mameli (Nerone), Josè Maria Lo Monaco (Ottone), Xenia Meijer (Ottavia), Ian Honeyman (Arnalta) & Raffaele Costantini (Seneca)
La Venexiana
Claudio Cavina
Recorded in the Church of San Carlo, Modena, Italy September 2009



Clayton's current top six favourite opera recordings

[Hoffmann]

Let's see...

Oh yes.



and, on my way to oral surgery (dental implant) this afternoon, something to calm me down (a little):



The dentist wouldn't even let me listen to my iPod while he was at work! What's up with that?

[Adrian]

Miss Fleming always steals the show for me, particularity in this wonderful production.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Miss Fleming always steals the show for me, particularity in this wonderful production.

Keith Miller stole it off her, methinks. And Lawrence Brownlee. And the cupid girl. But then I am not a soprano fan.

[Clayton]

...
and, on my way to oral surgery (dental implant) this afternoon, something to calm me down (a little):
...
The dentist wouldn't even let me listen to my iPod while he was at work! What's up with that?

Ouch and evil.

Call him Abramane.

I have an appointment late morning with the nice hygenist Jane. She is more like Amélite.


This morning, I was listening to Rameau.

Rameau: Zoroastre
Mark Padmore (Zoroastre), Gaelle Mechaly (Amelite), Matthieu Lecroart (Zopire, La Vengeance), Eric Martin Bonnet (Oromases, Ariman), Nathan Berg (Abramane), Anna-Maria Panzarella (Erinice), Francois Bazola (Narbanor) & Stephanie Revidat (Cephie)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie
Recorded 28 August-10 September 2001, Théâtre de Poissy, France

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Keith Miller stole it off her, methinks. And Lawrence Brownlee. And the cupid girl. But then I am not a soprano fan.

I hear you, and those were great, but I do think Ms. Fleming was phenomenal in this one, especially regarding acting range. This is a role that goes in all directions, from cunning woman to powerful woman to terrifying witch to evil revengeful woman to scorned, desperate and despondent, and Renee passed it all with flying colors (nice singing, too!).

[Clayton]

I have just realized the book version of this recording is still available. I am considering the purchase to fit in to my burial plans (buy a spare copy to be buried with).

In the meantime, I go to another Emanuela Galli, Glossa, Cavina, Monteverdi recording. Obviously another Clayton favourite.

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
Emanuela Galli (La Musica/Eurydice), Mirko Guadagnini (Orfeo), Marina De Liso (Messaggiera), Cristina Calzolari (Proserpina), Matteo Bellotto (Plutone), Josè Lo Monaco (Speranza), Salvo Vitale (Caronte), Vincenzo Di Donato (Apollo), Francesca Cassinari (Ninfa), Giovanni Caccamo (Pastore I), Makoto Sakurada (Pastore II/Spirito I), Claudio Cavina (Pastore III), Tony Corradini (Pastore IV/Spirito II)
La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina
Recorded at the Church of San Carlo, Modena (Italy) in February 2006



I love the pretty voice of Galli but she does not perform or record as much as I would like to hear her. Perhaps her voice is better recorded than it is heard live (?)