What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Florestan]

This, not to forget that Beethoven shouldn't be passing a lot of judgment regarding opera. While Fidelio is a good one, it took him enormous trouble to fine-tune it and he was so traumatized from the experience that he abandoned the operatic medium all together. Rossini was far superior to Beethoven in the matter of operatic composition, so as far as opera is concerned, he should be the one giving lessons to Beethoven; not the other way around.

Yes, but he wouldn't be Ludwig von Beethoven if he didn't freely speak his mind whether qualified or not.

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I don't doubt it. It's just that it is harder to enjoy a comedy as much by just listening to it, since acting, body language, comedic timing, chemistry between leads, and all, are so important in comedy. A scene can be very funny when seen, and "meh" when just heard (even though we can still admire the quality of the voices). Given that Hoffmann is a CD kind of guy who only recently started directing some of his attention to opera on DVD (and when he travels to see opera live he tends to privilege the heavy stuff such as Wagner), I was just wondering if he's seen La Cenerentola live or on DVD, and if he hasn't, maybe it can explain why he feels at a loss regarding this opera.

Absolutely. I watch the Abbado DVD and then the images are in my head to some degree when I listen to the CD. There are many great and hilarious moments in the DVD. I love the one where Chlorinda and Tisbe hiss at each other. Or where Dandini keeps pulling the chair out from under Don Magnifico. Many others too numerous to list.

[Clayton]

...For centuries, including into modern times musicology, the Germans and German Opera-loving folks wouldn't take the Italians seriously...[/SIZE]

except for the late seventeenth early eighteenth century when the operas composed and performed in Germany were mainly Italianate

[Clayton]

Wagner: Lohengrin
Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin), Annette Dasch (Elsa), Susanne Resmark (Ortrud), Gerd Grochowski (Friedrich von Telramund), Markus Brück (Der Heerrufer des Königs), Günther Groissböck (Heinrich der Vogler)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski
Live recording 12 November 2011 concert performance Berlin Philharmonie



Still my preferred Lohengrin

[Clayton]

Haydn: L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice
Cecilia Bartoli (Euridice/Genio), Uwe Heilmann (Orfeo), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Creonte), Andrea Silvestrelli (Pluto)
The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood
Recorded December 1995/April 1996 Henry Wood Hall, London



Another very good opera based on the Orpheus myth with a superb performance by Bartoli, including the Genio aria (described by H C Robbins Landon as "the greatest coloratura tour-de-force of the second part of the century").

[Soave_Fanciulla]

[Clayton]

Canadian tenor,

French music

London Orchestra,

Korean director

Deutsche recording label

posted from New Zealand (by Swiss girl?)

on an American website
(owned by Italian descendant?)
...

read in England
(drinking wine from Argentina whilst listening to music by Austrian composer)


the international opera community

[Clayton]

and my psychiatrist is Welsh

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I'm joking.

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he's from Barcelona

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sorry, I'm still being silly

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go on, enjoy your opera now

I'll shut up

[Hoffmann]

For my walk today:





I like this opera and recording, but Katia Ricciarelli is good, but not outstanding. Samuel Ramey, though, wow! He's worth the price of the recording any day.


And, yesterday's listening:




Bergonzi is great on this and Tebaldi and Bumbry good but, again, it's Nicolai Ghiaurov's bass and his "Ella giammai m' amò!" that jumps out and makes my day..

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

on an American website
(owned by Italian descendant?)

Actually a bit more than just a descendant. I do have Italian citizenship as well. I'm a dual citizen of Italy and the United States.

Sono un italiano vero.

[Itullian]

Wagner: Lohengrin
Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin), Annette Dasch (Elsa), Susanne Resmark (Ortrud), Gerd Grochowski (Friedrich von Telramund), Markus Brück (Der Heerrufer des Königs), Günther Groissböck (Heinrich der Vogler)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski
Live recording 12 November 2011 concert performance Berlin Philharmonie



Still my preferred Lohengrin

UUUGGHHHHH

[Adrian]

For my walk today:





I like this opera and recording, but Katia Ricciarelli is good, but not outstanding. Samuel Ramey, though, wow! He's worth the price of the recording any day.






.

Katia Ricciarelli is good, that's her problem , she never was outstanding, a bit dull sometimes.
As for the opera: even more boring than La Cenerentola
( That is my humble opinion)

[Soave_Fanciulla]

UUUGGHHHHH

Bad Itullian. You are condemned to a steady diet of countertenors for the next week.

[Itullian]

Bad Itullian. You are condemned to a steady diet of countertenors for the next week.

Including Vogt?

[Clayton]

Bad Itullian. You are condemned to a steady diet of countertenors for the next week.

I've actually made arrangements for Itullian to be kidnapped and in a Clockwork Orange style be forced to watch a specially commisioned musical film adaptation of Lohengrin with adaptations by Tim Rice and Britney Spears, starring Dick Van Dyke as the King and Lily Savage as Ortrud. We blew the budget so the rest of the cast is made of waiters and waitresses picked from Hollywood diners though we did manage to get the Power Rangers to make a special dance routine on ice skates for a specially commisioned ballet during the wedding.
He will be forced to watch this continually until a polygraph test shows he genuinely appreciates the Janowski production.

[Clayton]

I had planned to listen to Glass' Orphee this morning but again I was distracted and ended up in a different century

Bellini: La straniera
Edita Gruberova, Laura Polverelli, José Bros, Luca Grassi, Kay Stiefermann, Thomas Michael Allen
SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg & Orpheus Vokalensemble, Pietro Rizzo
Recorded in November 2012, Baden-Baden, Germany

DVD/CD Reviews
...
- Bellini: La Straniera
Conductor: Pietro Rizzo
Soloists: Edita Gruberova, José Bros, Laura Polverelli, Luca Grassi, Kay Stiefermann, Thomas Michael Allen
Nightingale NC 0715603 (2 CDs)
...Edita Gruberova’s Alaide is pretty much the raison d’être for this recording, and her fans will likely want to acquire it. Her soprano retains its excellent focus, effortlessness in ornamentation, and the dynamic nuances that give her phrasing its characteristic intensity. But her spectrum of tonal colors is reduced, her sound has become harder, and intonation can be questionable; most significantly, the stupendous technical superiority that was once her trademark is gone, so this recording will also fill the listener with a little sadness…

Okay, I read that and I hear that now so I am a little bit sad

but even with only one eye with the Gruberova tinted spectacles it is still a good opera/recording