What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

I just went to add this to my Amazon Wish List and it comes very dear. $51.60 - or $46.25 on PC. No wonder CD sales are off.

I think this price is too much. The music content is excellent; like Soave_Fanciulla says, the music is gorgeous and the singing is excellent. However these prices are going to cut out a lot of potential listeners which is a shame. It is not even as if it is like Opera Rara's lavish presentation. It is a fairly bog standard job, so I was really disappointed with that.

That said, again I would highly recommend it as an opera recording if cost was not an issue

You can get this at PC for download only for USD 25, or maybe wait until it goes on special offer.

[Clayton]

And, today:



Attachment 7749


I have to admit that the Overture never fails to make me smile. As most folks know (though I don't know about overseas), the center, lively part of the Overture was used as the theme music for the TV cowboy show "The Lone Ranger" when I was about 10 years old. It became so ingrained that even now I am unable to separate the two emotionally.

That is a nice story. I have very little memories of my father from when I was a child but once I met him in NY when we were both there coincidentally on business and I took him to the MET where there was a production of La Traviata.

He was asleep. Opera was not his thing...

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Rain interrupted play (cricket) so I went back to Die Meistersinger but it was neither Kempe, Kubelik nor Solti...

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Albert Dohmen (Hans Sachs), Robert Dean Smith (Walther von Stolzing), Edith Haller (Eva), Dietrich Henschel (Sixtus Beckmesser), Peter Sonn (David), Michelle Breedt (Magdalene), Georg Zeppenfeld (Veit Pogner), Matti Salminen (Night Watchman), Tuomas Pursio (Fritz Kothner), Michael Smallwood (Kunz Vogelsang), Sebastian Noack (Konrad Nachtigall), Jörg Schörner (Balthasar Zorn)
Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
Live recording 3 June 2011, concert performance



I like this recording very much. It is very different from the Kempe and aside from the difference of this being a modern production with beautiful sound, it is a more comic approach and with crispier music and singing. Hans Sachs is quite different and could be a bit love him or hate him but the rest of the cast is excellent.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I just went to add this to my Amazon Wish List and it comes very dear. $51.60 - or $46.25 on PC. No wonder CD sales are off.

Yes absolutely ridiculous. I even left a comment about this on Decca's facebook. But the download was affordable.

[Hoffmann]

Yes absolutely ridiculous. I even left a comment about this on Decca's facebook. But the download was affordable.

Unfortunately, PC doesn't provide many (if any) downloads to the U.S. The Vinci Catone in Utica entry reads "Sorry, but download not available in your country":

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4788194

[Clayton]

Unfortunately, PC doesn't provide many (if any) downloads to the U.S. The Vinci Catone in Utica entry reads "Sorry, but download not available in your country":

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4788194

Oh sorry. I did try to check before posting, changing my delivery country to US and currency to USD but maybe the site picked up on the fact that I was logging in from the UK and I did not get that message.

Back to plan B and wait until they sell at a lower price. I'm sure they (Decca) have got their pricing wrong.

[Hoffmann]

I hadn't listened to this in a while - a very good opera, and this is a very good recording. Luciano Pavarotti is in great form and not as annoying as usual - but it's fairly early in his career (1974). Fiorenza Cossotto also is great. My only complaint: this version is very heavy on orchestral, what I presume is ballet music. Spare me.

[Adrian]

I hadn't listened to this in a while so I decided to do it yesterday.
I am probably one of the few who both this recording but I like it.
It is nice to hear Peter Hofmann and the rest of the cast.
It has very little to do with the period instrument practises, I like it though
(L.P ) The highlights where on sale long time ago on CD .

[Floria]

Puccini: SuorAngelica

Tebaldi, Siminonato

I started with La favorita, but the prompter was driving me crazy.

[Clayton]

me poochie and tebaldi too

Puccini: La fanciulla del West
Renata Tebaldi (Minnie), Mario del Monaco (Dick Johnson), Cornell MacNeil (Jack Rance)
Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Franco Capuana
Recorded 1958

[Floria]

me poochie and tebaldi too

Puccini: La fanciulla del West
Renata Tebaldi (Minnie), Mario del Monaco (Dick Johnson), Cornell MacNeil (Jack Rance)
Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Franco Capuana
Recorded 1958

I was trying to decide what next, and decided to join you. This is a great suggestion.

[Clayton]

I was trying to decide what next, and decided to join you. This is a great suggestion.

This was the first time I have heard this opera and I love it.

[Floria]

This was the first time I have heard this opera and I love it.

Let me know if anything sounds familiar.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Let me know if anything sounds familiar.

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This was the first time I have heard this opera and I love it.

I love it so much that it's my avatar.

[Clayton]

Let me know if anything sounds familiar.

Yes there are a couple of passages that sound familiar. The wife was an Ethan Freeman fan who had chased him thirty-odd times from Her Majesty's theatre to New York and I can recognize the sound from six hundred yards upwind (sorry Mister Freeman, there was nothing I could have done to help you there).
Though more, I enjoyed the romanticism, drama and the musical flow of the opera; I think I even prefer this to Tosca but I do know that I get easily over excited so I am listening to it again now.

[Floria]

When my husband and I watched this, he liked it. No one died !