A friend mentioned 'that Stella advert music' so it prompted me to listen to this on the morning walk to work.
The gun shot is very loud and I have to remember to pause just before it happens and remove one of my ear pieces. When I first got it I played it so often I knew whereabouts on the river path I'd be when the gun went off!
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
Day off work + perfect solitude + long walk
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Beautiful mild winter's day:
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Schubert:
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Natalie
I must have been very distracted. After a second listen with my full attention, I upgrade this from not very exciting to a very good all singing all dancing (well not all dancing but some very good minuets) french baroque opera that you should buy!
The music IS very exciting, both beautiful and tragic that will bring a tear to the eye (maybe Clorinda's death act 5 sc 4), with some lovely arias, duets and good choruses. There is convincing love, dark hatred, jealousy, horrible vengeance and heartfelt sadness and all very well portrayed by a good cast.
*note to recording companies
please stop glueing the accompanying booklet to the CD case. I don't think anyone wants to read the libretto holding the CD case as well.
Is Adrian suffering from hot weather in the Netherlands? I recorded 33.1ºC (91.6ºF) here yesterday and spent the day with ice packs strapped to my feet...
again, that has nothing to do with my recent listening
Destouches, A: Callirhoé
tragédie lyrique (version 1743)
Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Callirhoé), Cyril Auvity (Agénor), Joao Fernandes (Corésus), Ingrid Perruche (La Reine), Renaud Delaigue (Le Ministre), Stéphanie Revidat (Une Bergère)
Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet
Recorded at the Grande Salle of the Arsenal de Metz, France, in February 2006
Destouches was a French opera composer whose name seems to have disappeared as he falls in to the period between Lully and Rameau where much opera disappeared over time due to a lack of interest and more so as he mainly composed operas only. This is one of his later works first performed 1712 but subject to changes (the revolution played a part in suitable stories) and this was a revision of 1743 which includes a vital scene to the drama (the ending!). The story is adapted from a Greek legend and is quite a dramatic opera.
The south of my county was 35.8 yesterday, my place is like yours, so I am doing nothing, absolutely noting.Is Adrian suffering from hot weather in the Netherlands? I recorded 33.1ºC (91.6ºF) here yesterday and spent the day with ice packs strapped to my feet..
Just the radio in the very background and![]()
Yesterday, I saw a brief clip of an interview with Joan Sutherland from about thirty years ago. When asked about her first reactions to the title La stupenda, she said she was very flattered but (laughing) also was a little unsure as to whether it referred to her voice or her size!
Very cute.
Though again, this has absolutely nothing to do with my recent listening.
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
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It could, very possibly be the affliction of hearditis (I prefer the last thing I heard) but my preference for Lohengrin goes to the Kempe recording made between 1962 and 1963. OR maybe it is the studio recording factor (also remastered by EMI) giving the very good sound, the Kempe factor who does a very romantic interpretation of a romantic opera, or the cast which maybe are the most pathetic yet beautiful and well balanced cast. I don't know.
Wagner: Lohengrin
Jess Thomas (Lohengrin), Elisabeth Grümmer (Elsa), Christa Ludwig (Ortrud), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Telramund), Gottlob Frick (Heinrich), Otto Wiener (Herald)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Rudolf Kempe
1962 and a bit in 1963
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Quite possibly so but I like the KFV / Dasch combination in the Janowski recording, they are such a pretty couple that if I listened to that one I might be saying that is my favourite...
though that has nothing to do with my recent listening
Wagner: Die Walküre
Birgit Nilsson (Brünnhilde), James King (Siegmund), Régine Crespin (Sieglinde), Hans Hotter (Wotan), Gottlob Frick (Hunding), Christa Ludwig (Fricka)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Sir Georg Solti
1965
I have not yet seen a video of the Ring cycle and now I have the one month MET subscription I thought I would like to watch one. I know we have the recommended DVD thread but I want to watch it as a complete cycle and only have the choice of MET on demand.
So for Das Rheingold (well the whole cycle)
Levine 1990 with Ludwig, Jerusalem, Morris, Wlaschiha
or
Levine 2010 with Terfel, Croft, Owens, Blythe?
Please send in your recommendation by midnight (Irkutsk time) Saturday 4th July and don't forget to include a SAE for your chance to win a kit-kat
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
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