What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

Thank you

(so English version basically where it always is)

[Floria]

Andrea Chenier

Kaufmann,Westbroek,Lucic

[Clayton]

everybody loves the Kaufmann

but we don't care for the coughing man in the audience...

Hey!

who threw that rotten egg at me?


move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on... move on...

Gluck: Il Trionfo di Clelia
Hélène Le Corre (Clelia), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Orazio), Irini Karainni (Tarquinio), Burçu Uyar (Larissa), Vassilis Kavayas (Porsenna), Florin Cezar Ouatu (Mannio)
Armonia Atenea
Giuseppe Sigismondi de Risio
Recorded 13-19 July 2011, The recording centre of Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall



No! there is no English libretto here and being a premier recording there is no alternative to find. It is a Metastasio libretto so reasonably well documented (Hasse also composed an opera) considering the Gluck version has only recently been rediscovered but I could only find literature in Italian (available for GBP 4.99 at the A site). Oh and there is the full score on sale for USD 3 billion at stores selling sheet music (eg PC) but I should think that is only for the music and probably 18C Italian text...
BUT
I would still say this is a get...
You may be flying a bit blind here (like no artificial horizon or altitude meter) but there is a synopsis and you can fill in the gaps a bit with you imagination. Wonderful.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

So more hours in the jury waiting room today:

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin


Yuri Mazurok (Eugene Onegin), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Tatyana), Nicolai Gedda (Lensky), Rossitsa Troeva-Mircheva (Olga), Nicolai Ghiuselev (Gremin), Stefka Popangelova (Larina), Margarita Lilowa (Filipyevna), Michel Lecocq (Triquet)
Sofia National Opera Chorus Sofia Festival Orchestra, Emil Tchakarov

Probably mainly worth hearing for Gedda. Not keen on the timbre of Mazurok's voice. Tomowa-Sintow most emphatically does NOT sound like a young girl in love - the review quoted by Presto calls her "matronly" and that is about right. Not sure I'd bother to listen to this again.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

So more hours in the jury waiting room today:

I've never been called so don't know the process. Is this normal?

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin


Yuri Mazurok (Eugene Onegin), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Tatyana), Nicolai Gedda (Lensky), Rossitsa Troeva-Mircheva (Olga), Nicolai Ghiuselev (Gremin), Stefka Popangelova (Larina), Margarita Lilowa (Filipyevna), Michel Lecocq (Triquet)
Sofia National Opera Chorus Sofia Festival Orchestra, Emil Tchakarov

Probably mainly worth hearing for Gedda. Not keen on the timbre of Mazurok's voice. Tomowa-Sintow most emphatically does NOT sound like a young girl in love - the review quoted by Presto calls her "matronly" and that is about right. Not sure I'd bother to listen to this again.

Shame. At least you had your headphones though!

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Prompted by a visit to this site ... I listened to this on the walk to work this morning.

[Clayton]

Prompted by a visit to this site ... I listened to this on the walk to work this morning...

nice, maybe work through the list

Wednesday walk to work, 1
thur, 2
fri, 3
mon, 4
tues, 5
wed, 6
thurs, 7
fri, 8
mon, 9

oh, better take a day off on that Monday. otherwise you will have to take the very very very long way round to work...

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I've never been called so don't know the process. Is this normal?

Yes, they get way more people in than they need for trials because of all the attrition and the challenges from lawyers when you ARE selected.

It did mean I had time for a good long walk and time to listen.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

nice, maybe work through the list

Wednesday walk to work, 1
thur, 2
fri, 3
mon, 4
tues, 5
wed, 6
thurs, 7
fri, 8
mon, 9

oh, better take a day off on that Monday. otherwise you will have to take the very very very long way round to work...

but but but ... 9 is Wagner

[Clayton]

Handel: Faramondo
Max Emanuel Cencic (Faramondo), Philippe Jaroussky (Adolfo), Sophie Karthäuser (Clotilde), Marina de Liso (Rosimonda), Xavier Sabata (Gernando), Terry Wey (Childerico), In-Sung Sin (Gustavo), Fulvio Bettini (Teobaldo)
Choeur de la Radio Suisse, Lugano & I Barocchisti
Diego Fasolis
Recorded 19-24 October 2008, Radio Svizzera di lingua italiana, Lugano



One of my favourite Handel recordings; the opera, the cast, the performance!

[Adrian]

Prompted by a visit to this site ... I listened to this on the walk to work this morning.

How can one not like this?

[Hoffmann]

I had never heard Callas sing Puccini - she could do everything! Her Mimi is out of this world.

[Clayton]

Gluck: Armide
Felicity Palmer (Armide), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Renaud), Raimund Herincx (Hidraot), Yaron Wind-Muller (Aronte), Adrian Thompson (Artemidore), Sally Burgess (Phenice/Lucinde)
City of London Sinfonia
Richard Hickox
Recorded June 1982 Abbey Road studios, London



3 birds with one stone

[Clayton]

Gluck: Armide
(complete opera)
Mireille Delunsch, Charles Workman, Laurent Naouri, Ewa Podles, Françoise Masset, Nicole Heaston,Yann Beuron, Brett Polegato, Vincent le Texier, Magdalena Kožená, Valérie Gabail
Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski
Recorded Nov & Dec 1996, Paris, Cité de la musique, salle des concerts




I love Gluck. Absolutely without a shadow of doubt my all time favourite composer in the entire galaxy. Well for today, that is.
Armide is one his best too. Which one? As much as I love Mireille Delunsch and Minkowski... It's the Hickox recording. It is very much the more colourful and dramatic and Felicity Palmer is Armide. Rolfe Johnson is a very romantic Renaud, good balance against Palmer.
Be warned though, no English libretto here, only french (well it does say so on the disc cover). Even then I might just say get this one for a first recording. Hickox and Palmer might just tell you more about the opera than the text...

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I'm coming round to all this operetta malarkey. Simon and Angelika do it brilliantly.



Some good "extra random portmanteau arias for singers who wanted to show off in the middle of an opera" in this collection.



And here is an opera from the Knights and fairytales collection, although quite a lot of it could belong to the "Russian rabble on the rampage" group, along with Prince Igor and Khovanshchina.

Rimsky Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia
Vladimir Galusin (Grishka Kutyer'ma), Galina Gorchakova (Fevroniya), Nikolai Putilin (Fyodor Poyarok), Nikolai Ohotnikov (Yury Vsevolodovich), Yevgeny Boitsov (Merchant I), Evgeny Fedorov (Merchant II), Nikolai Gassiev (Bear Trainer), Olga Korzhenskaya (Youth), Larissa Diadkova (Alkonost). Kirov Opera & Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev