Reply With Quoteno, no, no, no...Originally Posted by Salomé
this is perfectly decent behaviour!
They (Naïve Vivaldi) are all very good and all baroque opera lovers deserve to have them.
I have another 10 Vivaldi operas where that came from.... I think I am slightly insane for having so many. I blame the Naive Edition for this.
I listened to half of act 1 coming to school today, I can't get enough of this, why are Vivaldi's operas not performed or recorded more often? I looked up the discography of this one and some others and there wasn't much to be found.....
Anyhow, I shall be listening to parts of this whenever I get a chance today.:
I am currently relistening to a bit of Ercole Sul Termodonte.
no, no, no, no...
this is perfectly decent behaviour!
They (Naïve Vivaldi) are all very good and all baroque opera lovers deserve to have them.
For this morning's outing, an opera I bought a while back, but promptly forgot about (The Forgot About Unlistened to Pile..)
Good, but not great. Solti still rules with Le Nozze!
And, as I write, another selection from The Forgot About Unlistened to Pile:
This is particularly wonderful, a real treat.
This is the version of I Capuleti e i Montecchi with a tenor Romeo.
The cast is wonderful, with the young Renata Scotto a couple of decades before she acquired the nasty nickname "Renata Screecho" as Giulietta, and she does sound lovely. There are some beautifully floated high notes here. Giacomo Aragall is an ardent, virile Romeo, and there is enough of a difference in timbre between his "woodwind" sound and the bright, brass-like quality of Pavarotti (Tebaldo) to make the second act duet work well. And, of course, the Pav is the Pav, with that distinctive voice of his and the brilliant high notes. The lower voices are fine, too, with Alfredo Giacomotti's sonorous Lorenzo and Gaetano Ferrini's Capelio.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the quality of the recording is atrocious. It affects the sound of the orchestra much more than that of the soloists, but one would get the impression listening to it that the recording was made in the 1920s or '30s instead of 1967. Of course, Opera d'Oro is an inexpensive label, and as a rule, one gets what one pays for. But I have recordings on this label of Mozart's Zaide (1956), Beethoven's Leonore (1960), Handel's Serse (1962), one of the Glyndebourne Idomeneos (1964), and Le Nozze di Figaro (1968), and none of them sound this bad. In fact, considering that they are all live recordings, I find the sound quality on all of these others to be quite respectable. And, of course, there is no libretto -- but I managed to track down a German translation online.
I know that there are quite a few fine versions of this opera available on other labels, but this is what I get for insisting on a tenor Romeo . . .
Another one sent to me. I heard a production of this opera on the radio four or five years ago and was blown away by the music. So happy to hear it again!
If you would seek salvation, remember this:
a life in Hell can still aspire to BLISS.
Tamerlano kind of day
Handel: Tamerlano
Xavier Sabata (Tamerlano), Max Emanuel Cencic (Andronico), John Mark Ainsley (Bajazet), Karina Gauvin (Asteria), Ruxandra Donose (Irene), Pavel Kudinov (Leone)
Il Pomo d’Oro, Riccardo Minasi
2013
and
Handel: Tamerlano
Nicholas Spanos (Tamerlano), Mata Katsuli (Asteria), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Andronico), Tassis Christoyannis (Bajazet), Irina Karaianni (Irene) & Petros Magoulas (Leone)
Orchestra of Patras, George Petrou
2006
...
both very good; no preference
You know you want this too so you get the best aria, which is missing from the above:Tamerlano kind of day
Handel: Tamerlano
Xavier Sabata (Tamerlano), Max Emanuel Cencic (Andronico), John Mark Ainsley (Bajazet), Karina Gauvin (Asteria), Ruxandra Donose (Irene), Pavel Kudinov (Leone)
Il Pomo d’Oro, Riccardo Minasi
2013
and
Handel: Tamerlano
Nicholas Spanos (Tamerlano), Mata Katsuli (Asteria), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Andronico), Tassis Christoyannis (Bajazet), Irina Karaianni (Irene) & Petros Magoulas (Leone)
Orchestra of Patras, George Petrou
2006
...
both very good; no preference
Natalie
I got inspired by last week's voting on Ariadne auf Naxos. This really is a glorious recording, with Gundula Janowitz at her peak and a very respectable Teresa Zylis-Gara as Zerbinetta - James King also is terrific.
Unfortunately, the opera is not long enough to last for 10 miles!
Although this is a good opera, it is slightly let down by the cast which is not top notch, particularly the countertenor singing Cesare, all hooty and shouty and strained, and the other not much better; if we had Cencic and Sabadus it would be a whole different beast. I do not recommend this version; let's hope someone else records it again.
Ferrandini: Catone in Utica
Kobie van Rensburg, Robert Crowe, Simone Schneider, Johnny Maldonado, Florian Simson
Ensemble Neue Hofkapelle Munich, Christoph Hammer
Natalie
A small voice in his head speaks to him... he picks the CD from his shopping basket and looking at it one last time, replaces it on the shelf.
Money would be better spent on this if you don't already have it. Nearly finished it - great singing, and a wonderful mix of tragedy and very amusing comedy.
Natalie
For the precious little opera time left before the cricket starts later this morning, he spent hours trying to decide which opera to listen to last.
Okay, that is a typical exaggeration. He actually only considered it for a few minutes and had a shortlist. The shortlist though, went out the window as he was distracted by the purchasing thread and ended up back at Terradellas and Sesostri (and Sunhae Im).
I do like this. I unfairly compared it Griselda and said it didn't have the arias or depth of characters but was more colourful and had a little L'incoronazione di Poppea kind of humanity/comedy drama.Money would be better spent on this if you don't already have it. Nearly finished it - great singing, and a wonderful mix of tragedy and very amusing comedy.
I haven't listened to it since... I need to put it on the to listen to pile again.
Wow, another Baroque opera composer I need to explore in the near future (after I know more Vivaldi, Charpentier and Rameau that is)...(and oce I finish all the Strauss that I'm trying to get through)
If you would seek salvation, remember this:
a life in Hell can still aspire to BLISS.
Nevermind Sunhae Im wotabout Tom Randle
Natalie
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