What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Very good music, and lovely singing. Caldara was so famous in his own lifetime that at his funeral "a peal of bells rang out fron St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna that was normally only heard when princes of the realm were born or died or married.". Apparently there are lots more operas where this came from. Bring 'em on.

Caldara: La concordia de’ pianeti
Veronica Cangemi, Delphine Galou, Ruxandra Donose, Franco Fagioli, Daniel Behle, Carlos Mena, Luca Tittoto
La Cetra Barockorchester, Andrea Marcon

[Clayton]

Bellini: I Puritani
Edita Gruberova, Justin Lavender, Ettore Kim, Francesco Ellero d'Artegna, Katja Lytting, Dankwart Siegele, CarloTuand
Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Fabio Luisi
Recorded October 1993 in Herkulessaal der Münchner Residenz



Now normally I say a portrait of the (a) principal singer on the cover is just lazy and poor design work. I make an exception for Edita

[Clayton]

then one more before we watch on the picture box England make hard work of the Italy game at Twickenham. Or Italy make hard work for England. One or the other. It's definitely England playing. And Italy. And there will be hard work involved.

Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro
Carmen Giannattasio (Caterina Cornaro), Colin Lee (Gerardo), Troy Cook (Lusignano), Graeme Broadbent (Andrea Cornaro), Vuyani Mlinde (Mocenigo), Loïc Félix (Strozzi, a Knight of the King) & Sophie Bevan (Matilde)
BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Singers
David Parry
Recorded November/December 2011, BBC Maida Vale studios, London

[Hoffmann]

Yesterday morning:



Later morning:




I'm not so sure about this. Opera was composed in 1921 or 23 in the modern style. Marilyn Horne is wonderful - she really stands out in this. Nonetheless, I find modern operas a much harder listen than I do, well, 'regular' operas.

Padmavati doesn't seem to have much of a reputation, so I'm uncertain whether the libretto is dramatically strong enough to sustain interest.

[Hoffmann]

This is an excellent recording - I especially like Renato Bruson's Macbeth and Robert Lloyd's Banquo and Sinopoli's conducting. Mara Zampieri does a good job with Lady Macbeth, but her voice seems a little on the light side and not dark enough - she does, however, have a beautiful voice and sings without effort.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I think Clayton needs this just for the packaging. Gorgeous. (Singing's good too).

Steffani: Niobe Regina di Tebe
Karina Gauvin (Niobe), Philippe Jaroussky (Anfione), Amanda Forsythe (Manto), Aaron Sheehan (Clearte), Terry Wey (Creonte), Jesse Blumberg (Poliferno), Colin Balzer (Tiberino) & José Lemos (Nerea)
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs (musical directors)

[Clayton]

I think Clayton needs this just for the packaging. Gorgeous. (Singing's good too).

Steffani: Niobe Regina di Tebe
Karina Gauvin (Niobe), Philippe Jaroussky (Anfione), Amanda Forsythe (Manto), Aaron Sheehan (Clearte), Terry Wey (Creonte), Jesse Blumberg (Poliferno), Colin Balzer (Tiberino) & José Lemos (Nerea)
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs (musical directors)

I did try this on Spotty tie and it did not go too well. I haven't got the paid subscription service (yet) and I mainly go foraging at night (so with the headphones) and sometimes the random advertisement at 15-20 min intervals (adverts at increased volume) can ruin the mood, music and opera.

Though if Soave_Fanciulla says Clayton needs this...

[Clayton]

Handel: Deidamia
Simone Kermes (Deidamia), Dominique Labelle (Nerea), Anna Maria Panzarella (Achille), Anna Bonitatibus (Ulisse), Furio Zanasi (Fenice) & Antonio Abete (Licomede)
Il Complesso Barocco
Alan Curtis
Recorded July 2002, Teatro dei Rozzi, Siena

[Hoffmann]

Playing right now:




Great dynamic recording conducted by Colin Davis, dating to 1976, with a superb cast: Lucia Popp, Janet Baker, Yvonne Minton, Frederica von Stade, Stuart Burrows, et al.

[Clayton]

Donizetti: Rosmonda d'lnghilterra
Bruce Ford (Enrico II), Nelly Miricioiu (Leonora di Guienna), Renée Fleming (Rosmonda Clifford), Alastair Miles (Clifford), Diana Montague (Arturo)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
David Parry
Recorded July 1994 Henry Wood Hall, London

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I did try this on Spotty tie and it did not go too well. I haven't got the paid subscription service (yet) and I mainly go foraging at night (so with the headphones) and sometimes the random advertisement at 15-20 min intervals (adverts at increased volume) can ruin the mood, music and opera.

Though if Soave_Fanciulla says Clayton needs this...

I thought it was lovely. if perhaps not wildly memorable. And it would be a different experience taking it out of this gorgeous packaging and listening to it ad-free all through (I forked out for the ad-free experience because I could not stand the half-wit exhorting me to listen to my favourite music on Spotify every three tracks - cos that was WHAT I WAS ALREADY DOING!)

[Clayton]

I thought it was lovely. if perhaps not wildly memorable. And it would be a different experience taking it out of this gorgeous packaging and listening to it ad-free all through (I forked out for the ad-free experience because I could not stand the half-wit exhorting me to listen to my favourite music on Spotify every three tracks - cos that was WHAT I WAS ALREADY DOING!)

I am using spot the fly as a sampling resource; at the moment I am still thrashing around in all directions. There will come a point (hopefully very soon says bank manager) where I will be listening to more alternative productions rather than trying new operas, so I will not need libretto and can pay for subscription and enjoy...
(My adverts tend to be very, very loud rock music which almost always appear at the most tender of moments...)

meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile... meanwhile...


This is very memorable and supersexy.

Clayton Playlist Publications Ltd, Top Charts, Disc of the Month

yes it is still mid month but hard to imagine anything topping it...

Lully: Phaëton
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (Phaéton), Ingrid Perruche (Clymène), Isabelle Druet (Théone, Astrée), Gaëlle Arquez (Libye), Andrew Foster-Williams (Épaphus), Frédéric Caton (Mérops, Automne, Jupiter), Benoît Arnould (Protée, Saturne), Cyril Auvity (Triton, le Soleil)
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset
Live recording 25 October La Salle Pleyel, Paris



Yes, it is the joyriding Phaëton who crashes dad's chariot, mentioned at the beginning of La Calisto.

[Hoffmann]

It has been ridiculously cold out for the past couple of days (and 10" of snow tonight) with forecast showing low temps continuing through the end of the week. I loathe cold weather. Loathe. Point being: No walking in sight and plenty of time to catch up with new recordings.

I like this ok, but Bernd Weikl is not especially profound nor inspiring as Hans Sachs and, as much as I consider Cheryl Studer a terrifically competent and trustworthy singer, she doesn't hold a candle to Gundula Janowitz on the Kubelik. Sawallisch's conducting is solid and singing, aside from my complaints, is well done.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

It has been ridiculously cold out for the past couple of days (and 10" of snow tonight) with forecast showing low temps continuing through the end of the week. I loathe cold weather. Loathe. Point being: No walking in sight and plenty of time to catch up with new recordings.

I'm miserable here too. I had to stay at the hospital overnight since I'm considered part of the essential personnel who must report for duty tomorrow morning and the roads will be completely blocked with freezing rain, sleet, and snow. Fortunately I came prepared with all that I needed to spend the night, because I thought this was likely to happen. Including, a couple of opera DVDs. I'm not sure if I will watch them. Since I was here anyway I kept working until 10 PM to catch up to the accumulated work from my vacation week in NYC... and now I'm exhausted.

[Clayton]

Courtesy of Spoti5

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384
Maria Stader, Rita Streich, Ernst Haefliger, Martin Vantin, Walter Franck, Josef Greindl
RIAS-Kammerchor, RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay
Mono 1954 recording



If this was available to purchase as a CD (available as download only unless you are willing to pay 74 billion dollars), I would buy it. In fact I might just try to contact Lex Luthor to see if we can figure something out.