What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Clayton]

Handel: Siroe, King of Persia, HWV24
Johanna Stojkovic (Emira), Sunhae Im (Laodice), Ann Hallenberg (Siroe), Gunther Schmid (Medarse), Sebastian Noack (King Cosroe), Timm de Jong (Arasse)
Capella Coloniensis, Andreas Spering
2003

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Handel: Siroe, King of Persia, HWV24
Johanna Stojkovic (Emira), Sunhae Im (Laodice), Ann Hallenberg (Siroe), Gunther Schmid (Medarse), Sebastian Noack (King Cosroe), Timm de Jong (Arasse)
Capella Coloniensis, Andreas Spering
2003

It's in the Presto basket; do I press buy?

[Clayton]

Handel: Siroe, King of Persia, HWV24
Yosemeh Adjei (Siroe), Anna Dennis (Emira), Aleksandra Zamojska (Laodice), Antonio Giovannini (Medarse), Lisandro Abadie (Cosroe) & Ross Ramgobin (Arasse)
FestspielOrchester Göttingen, Laurence Cummings
2013

[Clayton]

It's in the Presto basket; do I press buy?

Yes, of course Soave_Fanciulla presses buy as it is a very good Handel opera for GBP 10.

Over the Cummings recording? Well that's a little more complicated.

I am not sure if I prefer Ann Hallenberg or Yosemeh Adjei as Siroe. Laodice is clearly Sunhae Im's role hands down but I think I prefer Anna Dennis as Emira in the Cummings.

The Spering recording is about thirty minutes shorter which is probably about twenty-four minutes of recitatives cut (good or bad?) and maybe about four minutes from arias being shortened ("I love you" repeat x15 to repeat x12).

The Spering is studio recorded whilst Cummings is live and though the recording quality is good there is alot of stage noise including the Clayton-much-hate-gunshot noise.

Then we go back to HM heritage being a budget label so although GBP 10 no libretto whilst Accent label Cummings has a full three language libretto (Soave probably has libretto already but information for other readers)...

So yes, buy

but cabinets empty

or some foreign language expression sounding similar that basically means take note or at your own risk or something like that...

[Festat]

[Hoffmann]

I don't listen to this version very often - Janet Baker is very, very good, but Beverly Sills' timbre seems a little too thin for my taste.

I haven't heard the version with Sills and Tatiana Troyanos conducted by Sarah Caldwell, that pre-dates the Patane by 6 years, which might have Sills in better voice. I clearly remember its distinct packaging on the shelves of the late, lamented Tower Records:







I like the Luisi/Netrebko/Garanca version, but prefer these two recordings:





and

[Clayton]

I talked myself here with all that Gluck warhorse dribble...

Gluck: Paride ed Elena
Magdalena Kozená (Paride), Susan Gritton (Elena), Carolyn Sampson (Amore), Gillian Webster (Pallade)
Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh



I take a lot longer to listen to this opera as I can't stop myself putting Le belle imagini in a loop three (four, five or six) times before I can move on

[Nekrotzar]

I had a great day today. So happy. Want some time to relax......my parents seem to be wandering around the house for some reason. No idea why. Talking to each other in concerned voices about mundane issues at work and mundane issues at home But here I am listening to this without a care in the world:

[Clayton]

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Live Recording Bayreuth 1968
Theo Adam (Sachs), Gwyneth Jones (Eva), Janis Martin (Magdalene), Waldemar Kmentt (Walther), Hermin Esser (David),Thomas Hemsley (Beckmesser) & Karl Ridderbusch (Pogner)
Choir and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival, Karl Böhm



A very good recording/performance with young Theo Adam

I've now decided my favourite Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is somewhere between
Solti (Vienna)
Kempe
Kubelik
Solti (Chicago)
Böhm
Jurowski (Glyndebourne)
Janowski

[Clayton]

Mozart: La finta giardiniera, K196
posthumous version from 1796
Sophie Karthäuser (Sandrina/Violante), Nicolas Rivenq (La Podesta), Jeremy Ovenden (Il Contino Belfiore), Alex Penda (Arminda), Marie-Claude Chappuis (Ramiro), Sunhae Im (Serpetta), Michael Nagy (Nardo/Roberto)
Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs
2011



as much of a fan of the Neapolitan school I am, clearly Anfossi's work was not as good as this

[Festat]

Inspired by the other thread,

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

I had a great day today. So happy. Want some time to relax......my parents seem to be wandering around the house for some reason. No idea why. Talking to each other in concerned voices about mundane issues at work and mundane issues at home But here I am listening to this without a care in the world:

Excellent antidote to wandering parents!

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Excellent antidote to wandering parents!

So sad that I am often the wandering parent when I really want to be the carefree opera-listening princ(ess) of darkness.

[Clayton]

Hasse, J A: Cleofide
Emma Kirkby (Cleofide), Agnès Mellon (Erissena), Derek Lee Ragin (Poro). Dominique Visse (Alessandro), Randall K. Wong (Gandarte), David Cordier (Timagene)
Cappella Coloniensis, William Christie
1986



Still in the Metastasio period, this time Hasse over Pacini although it was Vinci that originally set the story to music. That is something I would like to hear too.

[Adrian]

Boito: Mefistofele
Ghiaurov/ Pavarotti/ Caballe / Freni.

Decca .L.P