What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Talking about Alex Penda, what is the verdict on her? I've been hearing about her very often lately. She has an early Esclarmonde recording which is famous. However I was reading an old review of mine of her I due Foscari DVD and I was so negative about her, in a way that I rarely am about any singer. I said I wouldn't be watching it again because she ruined the production. I don't even recall it (and probably shouldn't try to watch it again, hehehe; maybe I should uphold my own advice), so, what do other people here think of her?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I suppose it's easier to have as a title "Vivaldi L'Oracolo in Messenia" than "a collection of arias from Vivaldi's other operas that we've fitted onto a libretto that Vivaldi once set to music but we've lost the score so we've had to scramble a bit and by the way the recits are by Giacomelli and of course we bunged in Broschi's "Son qual nave" cos after all what's the point of a Baroque opera without some insane coloratura."

That said it's a wonderful cast and very well conducted by Biondi.

[Clayton]

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Kristina Hammarström (Cesare), Emanuela Galli (Cleopatra), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Sesto), Irini Karaianni (Cornelia), Romina Basso (Tolomeo), Tassis Christoyannis (Achilla), Petros Magoulas (Curio), Nikos Spanatis (Nireno)
Orchestra of the Patras
George Petrou
Recorded July 2006, Patras Greece



Petrou is exaggerated fiery fast in places and gentle, gentle in others, I like the accents. Kristina Hammarström's Cesare is not as punchy and powerful as Lemieux, more like a Sandhurst graduate Cesare; almost more human. Emanuela Galli is not a sexy Cleopatra but the warmth of her voice throught her range makes her a more elegant character, more like the most beautiful woman in history. Mary-Ellen Nesi sings a Sesto that is more of a young man, than boy and Romina Basso is a Tolomeo that is just angry and bad, rather than an evil brat. Irini Karaianni and Tassis Christoyannis are a very good and convincing Cornelia and Achilla.
The Orchestra of the Patras (of course on period instruments) are fantastic.
This is a very good recording that now sits next to the Curtis in the tea cabinet.

[Hoffmann]

Król Roger II - Wojtek Drabowicz
Shepherd - Piotr Beczała
Roxana - Olga Pasichnyk
Edrisi - Krzysztof Szmyt
Archbishop - Romuald Tesarowicz
Deaconess - Stefania Toczyska

Conductor - Jacek Kaspszyk

I struggled with this at first but now I'm more familiar with it, it's growing on me.

Well now, if you can see your way through Król Roger, maybe there's hope for you listening to a little Wagner down the line!

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Well now, if you can see your way through Król Roger, maybe there's hope for you listening to a little Wagner down the line!

One step at a time!

[Soave_Fanciulla]

One step at a time!

What we've got to do, is get someone like Simon Keenlyside or Lukas Jakobski into a Wagner role. Then we'll be able to entice Annie in.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

What we've got to do, is get someone like Simon Keenlyside or Lukas Jakobski into a Wagner role. Then we'll be able to entice Annie in.

If we get these two to do Wagner, it's a sealed deal.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

We are now founding the SFSKWRFAB.

It's the Society For Simon Keenlyside's Wagner Roles For Annie's Benefit.

Membership starts at 9.99 GBP per month for the Friends category.
Sponsors category goes for 49.99 GBP and Benefactors, for 99.99.

A bargain, given the importance of the cause!

You can make your contributions to this valuable society by clicking on Opera Lively's Donate button.

5% of the donated money will be used to send harassing mail to Simon's agent energetically demanding action, and to casting departments of opera companies trying to recruit for Wagner roles. Money permitting, we'll purchase a Wagner role vocal score and send it to Simon for his study and consideration.

95% of the money will be needed to meet Opera Lively's brokerage fees.

[Amfortas]

I fully support you . . . in spirit.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Oh well, the Society has just disbanded before the first donation, given that it's a moot point:

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Composer : Richard Wagner
Librettist : Richard Wagner
Venue and Dates : Staatsoper Hamburg
12, 19 June 1988
Conductor : Christof Prick
Performers :
Hans Sachs : Donald McIntyre
Beckmesser : Gottfried Hornik
Stolzing : René Kollo
Eva : Helen Donath
Pogner : Kurt Moll
David : Heinz Kruse
Magdalena : Elisabeth Steiner
Kothner : Urban Malmberg
Nachtwächter : Simon Keenlyside

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

Tristan und Isolde

Composer : Richard Wagner
Librettist : Richard Wagner, after Gottfried von Strassburg, etc.
Venue and Dates : Hamburg State Opera
13 (opening night), 17, 22 March 1988
Conductor : Zoltan Pesko
Director : Ruth Berghaus
Stage design : Hans-Dieter Schaal
Costumes : Marie-Luise Strandt
Stage design : Hans-Dieter Schaal
Costumes : Marie-Luise Strandt
Performers :
Tristan : William Johns
King Mark : Harald Stamm
Isolde : Gabriele Schnaut
Brangäne : Hanna Schwarz
Ein Steuermann : Simon Keenlyside

----------

Erm... small roles, but Wagner roles, nevertheless.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

What we've got to do, is get someone like Simon Keenlyside or Lukas Jakobski into a Wagner role. Then we'll be able to entice Annie in.

If ever that happened I'd be trampling over everyone and fighting every man & his dog for a ticket. Black Friday crowds would be like Victorian gentlewomen compared with me.

[Clayton]

Talking about Alex Penda, what is the verdict on her?...

Lovely. I like all her performances in the Jacobs' Mozart productions.

Today though, I listened to his (/her) Agrippina

Handel: Agrippina, HWV 6
Drama per musica in tre atti original version (Dec. 1709), Libretto di Vincenzo Grimani
Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Agrippina), Jennifer Rivera (Nerone), Sunhae Im (Poppea), Bejun Mehta (Ottone), Marcos Fink (Claudio), Neal Davies (Pallante), Dominique Visse (Mago Narciso) & Daniel Schmutzhard (Lesbo)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
René Jacobs
Recorded July 2010 Teldex Studios, Berlin



Maybe slightly outshone by Poppea (Sunhae Im) and Ottone (Bejun Mehta) but maybe that's the plot. Also perhaps Nerone (Jennifer Rivera) but that maybe just my attraction to her from her performance as Licida (L'Olimpiade). Either way, a yes to Penda from Clayton.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Lovely. I like all her performances in the Jacobs' Mozart productions.

Today though, I listened to his (/her) Agrippina

Handel: Agrippina, HWV 6
Drama per musica in tre atti original version (Dec. 1709), Libretto di Vincenzo Grimani
Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Agrippina), Jennifer Rivera (Nerone), Sunhae Im (Poppea), Bejun Mehta (Ottone), Marcos Fink (Claudio), Neal Davies (Pallante), Dominique Visse (Mago Narciso) & Daniel Schmutzhard (Lesbo)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
René Jacobs
Recorded July 2010 Teldex Studios, Berlin



Maybe slightly outshone by Poppea (Sunhae Im) and Ottone (Bejun Mehta) but maybe that's the plot. Also perhaps Nerone (Jennifer Rivera) but that maybe just my attraction to her from her performance as Licida (L'Olimpiade). Either way, a yes to Penda from Clayton.

Thanks, but I'm still not convinced.

Let's listen to the exact same aria, by Alex Penda, and then by Ghena Dimitrova.

What we notice in this comparison is that Penda puts a lot of effort into it, and is to be commended for being a tiny lady and producing a big sound. However Dimitrova does it much more effortlessly, with a narrower vibrato, and she keeps pitch better in the difficult passages both in the high and the low notes, not to forget that her musicality in the dynamic variations is finer - a much superior version, in my opinion.

This said, direct comparisons don't take away the merit of the former singer just because someone else does it better - if we get one specific aria to compare a singer to others, there is always someone to be found that specializes in certain areas of the repertory and can do a better job - it's just that the jury about Penda is still out, for me. I have the impression that Penda's voice is no longer 100% healthy, which is understandable for someone who sang Esclarmonde so early in her career (a dangerous thing to do), and someone who apparently sings a forceful repertory that maybe is not as good a match to her voice (while Dimitrova is completely at ease in this repertory); therefore one can expect a bit of wear and tear, after many years trying to push those notes like this.





And then, the other objection I make to Alex Penda is timbre of voice. Let's now listen to the queen of beautiful timbre; this unique voice with this aural quality that only comes once or twice in a century: of course, La Bellissima! Here I acknowledge that in terms of technique, Anna's rendition is not ideal (there is the occasional breathing problem), but the timbre... wow! Not to forget that the dramatic interpretation is also miles ahead (although of course she benefits from this being fully staged versus a concert performance - but like Soave said, Anna *is* Lady Macbeth!):

[Hoffmann]

For what it's worth, I wasn't impressed by Alex Penda's Leonore in Fidelio in Santa Fe in August. She certainly gave 100% effort, and it is a difficult role, but it seemed to me that she really had to strain both to hit some of her notes and to produce enough volume to fill Santa Fe's auditorium.

To top it all off, she is scheduled to sing Salome there next summer. I shudder to think.

[Clayton]

This is one of my favoritest of all opera recordings! How do you think it compares to your other Lohengrins?

Thrilling, brilliant and exciting to the point where it is almost exhausting to listen to it. All the way through.
Musically speaking I am not intelligent to talk about the technical merits of this recording but each of the characters (particularily Lohengrin) are nearly the exact image I had before listening to this opera for the first time (after reading the synopsis and libretto).
Great sound as well, great remastering (engineer Paul Baily). Orchestra, horns and all are thrilling.



Wagner: Lohengrin
Jess Thomas (Lohengrin), Elisabeth Grümmer (Elsa), Christa Ludwig (Ortrud), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Telramund), Gottlob Frick (Heinrich), Otto Wiener (Herald)
Wiener Philharmoniker,
Rudolf Kempe
Recorded November, December 1962 & April 1963, Theater an der Wien

Purchased on sale at PC for GBP 13.47. Unbelievable bargain.