What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

OMG you are killing me. You know how I HATE delayed gratification.

That good?


EDIT: Woop di doo. Available to download for half the price. Yaaaas

Did you download or are you waiting for library stock?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Did you download or are you waiting for library stock?

Downloaded, and now about halfway through. What bliss.

[Hoffmann]

?

Is that something like 8 hours in the car?

I made pretty good time and did it in 9. It's a long day.

[Clayton]

I made pretty good time and did it in 9. It's a long day.

There isn't enough road in England for a nine hour drive. You would just end up going past where you started from.

[Clayton]

Cesti: Orontea
Andrea Bierbaum (Filosofia), Cettina Cadelo (Amore, Tibrino), Helga Müller-Molinari (Orontea), Gregory Reinhart (Creonte), Guy de Mey (Aristea), René Jacobs (Alidoro, Floridano), Gastone Sarti (Gelone), David James (Corindo), Isabelle Poulenard (Silandra), Jill Feldman (Giacinta, Ismero)
Concerto Vocale, René Jacobs
Recorded August 1982 Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck



This is a composer that was new to me

Pietro Antonio Cesti 1623-1669, born in Arezzo, he became a Franciscan friar at 14 and became master of music in the Seminary in Volterra. By 1650, he was in Florence and sang in Cavalli's Giasone (not acceptable behaviour for a monk). He then went on to compose his first musical dramas for the 1651 and 1652 Carnival of Venice.
By the age of 30, the Archduke of Tyrol (brother-in-law of the Medici) appointed him as Master of the Chamber where he composed music for the court for entertainment of the sovereigns. He was extremely well paid and was "esteemed as todays' first composer of music".
This work was composed in 1656 on the occasion of the passage through Innsbruck and the conversion to Catholicism of Queen Christina of Sweden.

[Hoffmann]

There isn't enough road in England for a nine hour drive. You would just end up going past where you started from.

Yes, and there also is the infamous I-95 corridor between Washington, DC and New York City to contend with. Good thing there is opera...

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Yes, and there also is the infamous I-95 corridor between Washington, DC and New York City to contend with. Good thing there is opera...

I always have plenty of opera in the car and when I get stuck in a traffic jam (happens increasingly in Auckland these days) I just think to myself "Oh, well, that's a few more arias". I'm even happier when it's in the middle of the work day and I'm driving from one learner interview to another and I'm therefore BEING PAID TO LISTEN TO OPERA!!!!!

[Clayton]

I just read my last post and realized I did not write any comment on what I thought of the opera. It does have some very beautiful music and some of the singing is very pretty, not least Jacobs' Alidoro. I would recommend for those interested in late renaissance/early baroque, even if it is download only (I had a loooong lunch and so was in no fit state to read the libretto).

- - - Updated - - -

This morning I decided on French

Rameau: Dardanus
Bernard Richter, Gaëlle Arquez, João Fernandes, Benoit Arnould, Alain Buet, Sabine Devieilhe, Emmanuelle De Negri & Romain Champion
Ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Live Recording February 2012 L'Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles

[Hoffmann]

I listened to Die Entführung aus dem Serail while walking today - it's particularly good walking music, even when it's 90F in the shade:





I had listened to this only once before after buying it, but it is an excellent recording - despite its age, having been recorded in 1954. It's a spirited rendering of the opera, and every voice seems to be at peak performance. Maria Stader is a very powerful and spot-on Kostanza and the male voices are very impressive. According to Fanfare Magazine , the spoken parts are delivered by professional actors rather than the singers, which helps explain why the women, especially, remind me of young women on the Washington Metro going home after school.

Aside from the Solti, this is about the best sung version of this opera that I've heard. Terrific!

My favorite line: "Was gibts, Osmin"? Sort of the equivalent of "What's up, Osmin"? (more urban: Sup, Osmin?)

[Adrian]

Now playing (L.P)
Bizet : Carmen.
Regine Crespin /Gilbert Py/ van Dam / Pilou.
Alain Lombard conducting.
As far as I know never being released on CD.

[Clayton]

Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
Ferdinand Frantz - Hans Sachs
Gottlob Frick - Veit Pogner
Benno Kushce - Sixtus Beckmesser
Elisabeth Grümmer - Eva
Marga Höffgen - Magdalene
Rudolph Schock - Walther Von Stolzing
Gerhard Unger - David
Hermann Prey - Ein Nachtwächter

Choirs of the Municipal Opera and German State Opera, Berlin
(chorus master: Hermann Lüddecke)
Choir of St. Hedwin's Cathedral, Berlin
(chorus-master: Karl Forster)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Rudolf Kempe
Studio recording from 1956
XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, August-October 2010



I would suggest an absolute must for Meistersinger fans. Wonderful sound, beautiful singing and music that is romantic, poetic and a little comic.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I'm sorting through a pile of papers so wanted something light and frothy which didn't need too much attention.

[Clayton]

I'm sorting through a pile of papers so wanted something light and frothy which didn't need too much attention.

I was just about to suggest TMS, it is quite an exciting match but Aggers has just said there is rain forecast "coming in one minute..."

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I was just about to suggest TMS, it is quite an exciting match but Aggers has just said there is rain forecast "coming in one minute..."

Just checked the score card. I think I'd be tearing my hair out while I sorted.

[Clayton]

Just checked the score card. I think I'd be tearing my hair out while I sorted.

I won't lie, England have not failed to keep our stomachs in a knot

but the great TMS team have not failed to keep the comedy element


*Bryan Waddle to Tuffnell (they're trying to find better words to describe good shots)

Waddle: Do you have a thesaurus at home?

Tuffers: Err... I've got a couple of cats...

*actually from the Lords match