So the last two were romantic and dramatic but this one is pure sexiness. It is so saucy, that the Cordon Bleu school of cooking would have to open a new department just for this recording.
The last two are very good but this is absolute excellence.
If you only buy one recording, I would recommend this one.
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), Makoto Sakurada (Nurse to Octavia)
La Venexiana,
Claudio Cavina
Recorded in the Church of San Carlo, Modena, Italy September 2009
Emanuela Galli, Roberta Mameli, Josè Maria Lo Monaco, Xenia Meijer
Ian Honeyman, Raffaele Costantini, Makoto Sakurada
It is absolutely my most treasured opera recording. The greatest production of the greatest opera. So good, I have two copies. (Okay, so that last point may be more a measure of my insanity rather than the quality of the recording but just imagine that it is the recording that drove me potty in the first place)
Cavalli: La Rosinda
Emanuela Galli (Nerea), Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (Rosinda), Makoto Sakurada (Clitofonte), Nicola Ebau (Thisandro / Pluto / Meandro), Fulvio Bettini (Rudione), Silvia Vajente (Proserpina / Aurilla), Milena Storti (Cilena) & Roberto Romagnino (Vafrillo)
Ensemble La Sfera Armoniosa
Mike Fentross
Recorded live at the Vantaa Baroque Week 13-16 August 2008, St. Martinus Concert Hall, Vantaa (Finland)
Some very beautiful music, quite a lot of recitativo accompagnato which can make the music a little fractured and difficult to follow (lumpy?) at times but there are rewards. Great story with love, sorcery, magic potions, magical island, the underworld... and of course there is Emanuela Galli which makes it all so worthwhile.
Great book case with essays, full libretto and some great pictures.
Nice interview with René Barbera
began an urge to listen to
Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment
Edita Gruberova, Deon van der Walt, Rosa Laghezza, Philippe Fourcade, Francois Castel, Heidi Steinhaus, Andra Rascher, Hans-Werner Bunz
Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Marcello Panni
Recorded live 10 & 12 March 1995 Herkulessaal der Münchner Residenz
![]()
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Maria Callas (Amelia), Giuseppe Di Stefano (Riccardo), Tito Gobbi (Renato), Fedora Barbieri (Ulrica), Eugenia Ratti (Oscar), Ezio Giordano (Silvano), Silvio Maionica (Samuel), Nicola Zaccaria (Tom) & Renato Ercolani (Un Giudice/Un Servo)
Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano & Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Antonino Votto
Recorded: 4.–9.IX.1956, Teatro alla Scala, Milano
My broken parrott (cross between a broken record and a parrott) impression again; I am so happy I purchased this Callas remastered collection box
Late yesterday:
Beautiful recording so much better than the live Opera D'Oro set I already had with lousy sound; Ramey, Horne and Battle are awesome.
This morning, I hadn't listened to this wonderful opera beautifully recorded by Washington's own Opera Lafayette in a while:
Playing now, one of the most irresistible recordings from the remastered Callas box set:
Gives me chills.
The record companies like Opera D'Oro and Myto hold valuable catalogues but I have learned through experience that we need to be careful we know exactly what we are buying (best listen to samples or hear from fellow forum member) with regard to sound quality.
About a year ago I purchased Kleiber's I Vespri siciliani on the Myto label which boasted "complete version from a new discovered source", without thinking too much about sound quality. I really didn't know records that bad were sold.
They may have discovered a new source but I think the point is what is then done with the recording. In this case, it was no a lot. I was not too unhappy; all part of learning to buy good records and it was not that expensive. Now I know.
![]()
something wrong with me...
You only just found out? all forum readers ask in unison
Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean more than normal.
oh Lord help us
I can't help welling up every time I listen to this opera recently...
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
Grace Bumbry, (Orfeo), Anneliese Rothenberger (Euridice), Ruth-Margret Pütz (Amor)
Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig
Václav Neumann
Recorded Heilandkskirche Leipzig October 1966
![]()
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
1762 Viennese version in Italian, recorded 2001
Bernarda Fink (Orfeo), Veronica Cangemi (Euridice) & Maria Cristina Kiehr (Amor)
Freiburger Barockorchester, Rias Kammerchor
René Jacobs
Recorded January 2001 Teldec Studios, Berlin
I like Bernarda Fink but Neumann gives more punch and so that recording just edges it.
Nice day yesterday, so was able to get outside for a long walk. I thought I would catch up by listening to the Böhm Die Walküre, but had not loaded it into my iPod, so went with the Solti:
My opera recordings collection is still modest and not yet making my tea cabinet groan (too loudly), but has increased to the point that I need to add another iPod so that I don't have to keep loading and reloading my existing iPods every time I want to listen to something I just bought.
Note: I'm talking about the much smaller capacity iPod Nano, rather than the 'real' iPod.
I have a recording of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette on the Opera d'Oro label with José Carreras and Teresa Stratas in the leads. The singing is wonderful, but there are audible traces of someone talking in the background -- enough that I'd like to turn around and give the culprit a dirty look, were it possible to do so. Nonetheless, the performance itself is of a quality to make me willing to put up with this annoyance. Fortunately, the other recordings on this label that I've purchased have not contained such flaws.
Vinci, Leonardo: Artaserse
Philippe Jaroussky (Artaserse), Max Emanuel Cencic (Mandane), Franco Fagioli (Arbace), Valer Barna-Sabadus (Semira), Yuriy Mynenko (Megabise), Daniel Behle (Artabano)
Concerto Köln & Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano
Diego Fasolis
Recorded 21-28 September 2011Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Köln
![]()
Bookmarks