What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Heck! I can rave about it here too! Equal opportunity raver, that's me!

Plus the disc is worth a rave or two!

Itullian will enjoy someone with whom to rave about Guillaume Tell then. He's a great fan.

Edit: Actually, so am I.

[Hoffmann]

I getting ready to head out for my afternoon walk and was having trouble deciding what to listen to. Then it occurred to me: Bellini. When in doubt, Bellini makes everything all right.

I hadn't listened to Norma in a couple of months. I usually turn to Callas, but today served up a real treat:





Recorded in 1967, this recording catches Elena Suliotis in still beautiful and capable voice (although I think I could hear hints of trouble to come). Everyone is good in this - Mario del Monaco doesn't seem to shout and Fiorenza Cossotto is as awesome as her reputation.

Glorious!

[Adrian]

I getting ready to head out for my afternoon walk and was having trouble deciding what to listen to. Then it occurred to me: Bellini. When in doubt, Bellini makes everything all right.

I hadn't listened to Norma in a couple of months. I usually turn to Callas, but today served up a real treat:





Recorded in 1967, this recording catches Elena Suliotis in still beautiful and capable voice (although I think I could hear hints of trouble to come). Everyone is good in this - Mario del Monaco doesn't seem to shout and Fiorenza Cossotto is as awesome as her reputation.

Glorious!

Makes my day to see this, I still have one sealed on L.P (just in case )

[Adrian]

I ve been playing this yesterday , look at the cast , worth to buy for the "Gala at Orlovsky's party alone"
The W.P is such good form , splendid .

[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, Sienna



Is this a masterpiece? Masterpiece does sound like a big title and Handel wrote so many great operas. Surely they can't all be masterpieces. It has a lot of good music from the fun ouverture to the final chorus but maybe none of the exceptional music that people remember as that piece from that great opera, Deidamia. Maybe I'll veto it.

Oh it was me who proposed it.

In that case it would be a withdrawl rather than a veto.

Am I overthinking this? I did say the masterpiece thread was just fun.

Actually, Deidamia is that. It is fun. Good music all the way through and that is what I think makes a masterpiece.

Yes, I think I'll let the proposal stand.

Then I thought I must stop talking gibberish all the time.


I'm going for a walk.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

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, Sienna



Is this a masterpiece? Masterpiece does sound like a big title and Handel wrote so many great operas. Surely they can't all be masterpieces. It has a lot of good music from the fun ouverture to the final chorus but maybe none of the exceptional music that people remember as that piece from that great opera, Deidamia. Maybe I'll veto it.

Oh it was me who proposed it.

In that case it would be a withdrawl rather than a veto.

Am I overthinking this? I did say the masterpiece thread was just fun.

Actually, Deidamia is that. It is fun. Good music all the way through and that is what I think makes a masterpiece.

Yes, I think I'll let the proposal stand.

Then I thought I must stop talking gibberish all the time.


I'm going for a walk.

No idea if it's a masterpiece since I've never heard it, but chances are it is, because I used to say that Handel didn't know how to put two notes together without making them beautiful.

[Clayton]

Rameau: Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour, ou Les Dieux d'Égypte
Carolyn Sampson, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Blandine Staskiewicz (sopranos), Jennifer Borghi (alto), Reinoud Van Mechelen, Mathias Vidal (countertenors), Tassis Christoyannis, Alain Buet (basses)
Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet
Recorded February 2014 at the Opéra royal du Château de Versailles



Another one I proposed as a masterpiece. Again a little question mark as it was not so exciting as the one I had in my head from before.

I could put this down to being a little tired from my walk. My walk isn't like Hoffmann does. No, I walked a couple hundred yards (a couple here means two) down the towpath to the pub where I had a couple of pints (a couple here means a few) by the canal.

Let's let it stand for the moment.

[Clayton]

Vivaldi: La Verità in cimento
Nathalie Stutzmann, Gemma Bertagnoli, Sara Mingardo, Guillemette Laurens, Philippe Jaroussky, Anthony Rolfe Johnson
Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi
Recorded September 2002, Eglise de Daoulas, Bretagne France



Now this one is definitely a big bang or masterpiece. All the arias sung by Anthony Rolfe... err wait... is it the opera or is it the production with a star studded cast (we love several other recordings for each one of them in different operas) that makes this a stunning recording? After all I (well actually anyone) have only this interpretation.
It is Vivaldi and there are several other contenders for masterpiece. L'incoronazione di Dario, La Fida Ninfa and Griselda are just three others. Though there are some numbers in this one like the garden trio that are without a doubt just absolutely stunning.

Oh so confusing

maybe best not to over think it

No, Clayton and thinking don't mix too well

[Hoffmann]

I'll let Clayton ruminate a little over his La Verità in cimento dilemma.

In the meantime, I decided to stick with another afternoon with Elena S.





If it makes Clayton feel any better, I sort of cheated this afternoon because Macbeth had finished and I was still in downtown DC. Rather than walk home (+/- another 3 or 4 miles), I took the nicely air-conditioned Metro.

[Clayton]

...Rather than walk home (+/- another 3 or 4 miles)...

How does this calculation work? Is it whether you walk forwards or backwards?

- - - Updated - - -

Oh sorry

I get it now

obviously there's still of that lunch time ale left in me (or just regular stupidity)

[Clayton]

Hasse, J A: Siroe re di Persia
Dresden version (1763)
Max Emanuel Cencic (Siroe), Franco Fagioli (Medarse), Julia Lezhneva (Laodice), Juan Sancho (Cosroe), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Emira), Laureen Snouffer (Arasse)
Armonia Atenea, George Petrou
Recorded July 2014, Parnassos Hall



I like fireworks but this is a completely different pyrotechnic display, an incredible display of vocal skills from all the cast in the superb setting of a Hasse masterpiece (o gawd, it's that M word again).

[Clayton]

Graun, C H: Cleopatra & Cesare
Janet Williams (Cleopatra), Iris Vermillion (Cesare), Lynne Dawson (Cornelia), Robert Gambill (Tolomeo), Ralf Popken (Arsace), Jeffrey Francis (Lentulo), Klaus Hager (Achilla), Elisabeth Scholl (Cneo), Maria Cristina Kiehr (Sesto)
RIAS Kammerchor, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs
1995



Although the libretto is based on the play Corneille's The death of Pompey, it is very similar to that of the libretto by Haym (Handel's Giulio Cesare had its first performance eighteen years earlier in 1724). Despite the King Frederic having his hand in the music of his court, this opera perhaps dramatically is the better. It does not have the comic element of Handel's work and has more characters in the plot which looks further into the relationships such as Cesare's romance and its potential political consequences. With many very good arias, musically too it is comparable to in excellence to the more famous story telling and yes, I think this is a masterpiece too.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Jérusalem was an adaptation of I Lombardi alla prima crociata. It premièred in 1847 at Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. I only know of two CDs; the other being of a live performance with Carreras and Ricciarelli and of the two, I prefer this studio recording.

[Hoffmann]

Wondering about this recording after MAuer's comment, I started the day by listening to:





After this initial listen, I have mixed feelings about the recording. It strikes me that the pacing seems very slow - almost ponderous, especially the spoken sections. Applause and stage noise is present throughout, although I gradually got used to it. The voices are quite good and Wunderlich delivers, as expected. The performance, overall, doesn't sparkle, which should be a given with this charming opera.


For my walk, a little later, I went back to an old favorite I hadn't listened to in some time:

[Clayton]

Handel: Teseo HWV 9
Franco Fagioli (Teseo), Helene Schneiderman (Medea), Jutta Böhnert (Agilea), Kai Wessel (Egeo), Matthias Rexroth (Arcane), Olga Polyakova (Cliizia)
Konrad Junghänel
Live production May 2009 Staatsoper Stuttgart

...I used to say that Handel didn't know how to put two notes together without making them beautiful.

That certainly holds for this opera too. Following in the footsteps of Rinaldo the public wanted more but it seems like this was not as popular and I can not see why. There are many goods arias and it is a very good telling of the Philippe Quinault's Thésée. More fireworks by Fagioli here, a must for all Handel and Fagioli fans.