What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

Pergolesi: L'Olimpiade
Raffaella Milanesi (Aristea), Ann-Beth Solvang (Argene), Olga Pasichnyk (Megacle), Jennifer Rivera (Licida), Martin Oro (Alcandro), Jeffrey Francis (Clistene), Markus Brutscher (Aminta)
Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro de Marchi
Recorded live August 2010 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music



One of many operas set to Metastasio's libretto for Caldara, this is a great interpretation with many very good numbers. I can not help smiling every time I put this CD on. I love it.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri
Critical edition by Fondazione Rossini, edited by Azio Corghi.
Marianna Pizzolato (Isabella), Lorenzo Regazzo (Mustafa), Ruth Gonzalez (Elvira), Elsa Giannoulidou (Zulma), Giulio Mastrototaro (Haly), Lawrence Brownlee (Lindoro), Bruno De Simone (Taddeo) & Gianni Fabbrini (harpsichord continuo)
Virtuosi Brunensis & Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir, Cluj, Alberto Zedda

I've never really enjoyed L'Italiana that much in the visual productions I've seen - directors often seem to milk the comedy in a rather heavy handed way. The audio version had me laughing and smiling - and this is a well-sung live recording with a top cast, currently available at a bargain price from Presto.





In the car, some lovely Mozart:

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, K621
Mark Padmore (Tito), Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Vitellia), Bernarda Fink (Sesto), Marie-Claude Chappuis (Annio), Sunhae Im (Servilia) & Sergio Foresti (Publio)
RIAS Kammerchor & Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs

[Clayton]

Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Fernando Guimarães (Ulisse), Jennifer Rivera (Penelope), Aaron Sheehan (Telemaco), Leah Wool (Minerva), Owen McIntosh (Giove), Abigail Nims (Melanto), Daniel Auchincloss (Eumaeus), Sonja DuToit Tengblad (Juno), Ulysses Thomas (Antinous) & Marc Molomot (Irus)
Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman
Recorded April 2014, Mechanics Hall, Worcester Massachusetts



Of the surviving Monteverdi operas, this one has perhaps the most different interpretations. This is explained by Martin Pearlman in the accompanying booklet by the fact that we have less documentation. The only surviving manuscript is a copy probably made after the death of Monteverdi and it is incomplete; even the instrumentation is not recorded. He explains most of the opera is on just two staves: vocal line plus instrumental bass. There is very little orchestral accompaniment, in total about fifteen minutes of the opera. This is where mainly the variation in interpretation arises. How much orchestration?
This is Martin Pearlmans version where he says he looks to take a balance between the no orchestration of the original score and some of the more fully orchestrated versions.
Certainly it sounds fresher but this I put down mostly to the beautiful voice of Rivera which is an intelligent and beautiful Penelope and a well partnered Guimarães as Ulisse. The orchestration doesn't sound all that dramatically different but there is subtlety and delicacy perhaps, which I think I will need to hear more than once to appreciate better. I am looking forward to getting to know this version better.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Fernando Guimarães (Ulisse), Jennifer Rivera (Penelope), Aaron Sheehan (Telemaco), Leah Wool (Minerva), Owen McIntosh (Giove), Abigail Nims (Melanto), Daniel Auchincloss (Eumaeus), Sonja DuToit Tengblad (Juno), Ulysses Thomas (Antinous) & Marc Molomot (Irus)
Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman
Recorded April 2014, Mechanics Hall, Worcester Massachusetts



Of the surviving Monteverdi operas, this one has perhaps the most different interpretations. This is explained by Martin Pearlman in the accompanying booklet by the fact that we have less documentation. The only surviving manuscript is a copy probably made after the death of Monteverdi and it is incomplete; even the instrumentation is not recorded. He explains most of the opera is on just two staves: vocal line plus instrumental bass. There is very little orchestral accompaniment, in total about fifteen minutes of the opera. This is where mainly the variation in interpretation arises. How much orchestration?
This is Martin Pearlmans version where he says he looks to take a balance between the no orchestration of the original score and some of the more fully orchestrated versions.
Certainly it sounds fresher but this I put down mostly to the beautiful voice of Rivera which is an intelligent and beautiful Penelope and a well partnered Guimarães as Ulisse. The orchestration doesn't sound all that dramatically different but there is subtlety and delicacy perhaps, which I think I will need to hear more than once to appreciate better. I am looking forward to getting to know this version better.

Intriguing, thank you.

To begin with, I listened to this opera only to familiarise myself with it before I saw it live. At first I wasn't even sure if I liked it but it has totally got under my skin. I have three versions so far, Harnoncourt, Cavina and Jacobs and relish the thought of getting to know another.

On my list to buy.

[Clayton]

Intriguing, thank you.

To begin with, I listened to this opera only to familiarise myself with it before I saw it live. At first I wasn't even sure if I liked it but it has totally got under my skin. I have three versions so far, Harnoncourt, Cavina and Jacobs and relish the thought of getting to know another.

On my list to buy.

I kowtow to AVTRP

Annie's Very Thorough Research Program!

Though as you said, Monteverdi just does that to you!

I also recommend the Glen Wilson De Nederlands Opera production but this is a DVD

Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Ulisse), Graciela Araya (Penelope), Toby Spence (Telemaco), Jaco Huijpen (Antinoo), Christopher Gillett (Pisandro), Diana Montague (Minerva), Brian Asawa (Anfinomo)
Baroque Ensemble Orchestra, Glen Wilson, stage direction by Pierre Audi

All the cast and production is very good. It is the minimalist stage production that also produced the very good L'Incoronazione di Poppea; a very sincere and not off his rocker Pierre Audi.

[Vlad]

Einstein on the Beach - Glass

[Clayton]

Einstein on the Beach - Glass
...

Ah but pray tell; what is in the glass?

[Vlad]

Ah but pray tell; what is in the glass?

Greenore Irish single grain, earl grey bitters, orange blossom water, turbinado syrup, ice sphere

[Clayton]

Greenore Irish single grain, earl grey bitters, orange blossom water, turbinado syrup, ice sphere

Yeah, that IS opera in a glass! Sounds very good and I want to try some. You don't live anywhere near Berkhamsted do you?

[Vlad]

Yeah, that IS opera in a glass! Sounds very good and I want to try some. You don't live anywhere near Berkhamsted do you?

I wish I did! I'm a whisky nerd, and you've got access to many, many single malts I can't get in the US.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I also recommend the Glen Wilson De Nederlands Opera production but this is a DVD

Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Ulisse), Graciela Araya (Penelope), Toby Spence (Telemaco), Jaco Huijpen (Antinoo), Christopher Gillett (Pisandro), Diana Montague (Minerva), Brian Asawa (Anfinomo)
Baroque Ensemble Orchestra, Glen Wilson, stage direction by Pierre Audi

All the cast and production is very good. It is the minimalist stage production that also produced the very good L'Incoronazione di Poppea; a very sincere and not off his rocker Pierre Audi.

Sounds good. This one I presume?





I have this and I think it's brilliant.

[Clayton]

I wish I did! I'm a whisky nerd, and you've got access to many, many single malts I can't get in the US.

Okay, that does it. Gotta start a Whisky thread. I can drink and talk whisky until the grains come home.

[Itullian]

UGH, All this bore-oque.

I'll be back after some Wagner, Strauss, Mozart and Mefistofele.

[Clayton]

UGH, All this bore-oque.

I'll be back after some Wagner, Stauss, Mozart and Mefistofele.

yes, I'm stuck in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and my obsession is making me broke

[Adrian]

yes, I'm stuck in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and my obsession is making me broke

(nothing to do with my age , your remark is hilarious)