What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

She is very beautiful, phyiscally and of course vocally, too.

I saw one of her recitals in my town. They placed special seats in the pit and that's what I got, so I was a couple of meters from her. Very interesting lady. Unfortunately I didn't have Opera Lively at the time so it never occurred to me to interview her. A missed opportunity!

[Schigolch]

[Aramis]

Italiana in Algeri
Washington, 2006
Director: Riccardo Frizza
Juan Diego Florez (Lindoro)
Ildar Abdrazakov (Mustafa)
Olga Borodina (Isabella)
Lyubov Petrova (Elvira)
Leslie Mutchler (Zulma)

Also this Flórez CD including three Rossini duets + guest appearance of Kasarova singing some bonus solo arias :

[brianwalker]

There is always something missing when recording lack the ultimate interpreter. Del Monaco is the Lion of Venice that roars like Domingo never could roar. But there's no point in asking "how does it compare" when you have model performance in mind - and MDM's Otello is model performance, classic of classics. Domingo makes good Otello too though and the less you think of "how does it compare", the more you can enjoy the recording which is good on it's own right.

JUST MY TWO CENTS, NOT THAT YOU SHOULD CARE

I see.

Well, del Monaco had a voice that was close to the consensus ideal for Otello. A real dramatic tenor's voice, of Herculean dimensions, rather dark, with very beautiful low and mid ranges, and reliable top notes, though perhaps not that beautiful in the passage. On top of that, genuine squillo and a never-ending fiato. However, he was definitely not the best actor in the singing world, nor he was able to deliver all the finer nuances of his characters. Otello was a signature role for him, and there are a dozen or so recordings to enjoy.

The Karajan version was preceded by another one with the same cast, but recorded some years before with Alberto Erede conducting. Del Monaco is better in the first recording, and so was Tebaldi. Protti was about the same, though. Of course, Karajan's orchestra was much better than Erede's. All in all, the Karajan version is a good and satisfactory recording, in my opinion.

Domingo's Otello, built on the morbid mid range of the Spanish singer, and in his legendary acting abilities, is more refined, more introspective, more modern. However, in 1992 it was already a trifle too 'instrospective' for my taste.

I think Karajan's recording is clearly better than Chung's. The best Domingo's Otellos are those with Kleiber-Freni-Capuccilli and Levine-Scotto-Milnes.

Having since acquired the Erede and Chung recordings (I've had the Levine for some time now), I have to say that this is all spot on and that I am in complete agreement.

You guys should write Amazon reviews.

[StLukesGuildOhio]

Recently I discovered... much to my chagrin... that I had fewer recordings of Mozart's Magic Flute than I did of the other "Big 4" Mozart operas... this in spite of the fact that The Magic Flute is quite possibly my favorite opera of all time. Obviously it was imperative that I rectify this ASAP. I quickly picked up the following:











Yesterday I listened to the old classic recording of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte... a mono recording from 1950 conducted by Herbert von Karajan and featuring Anton Dermota, Irmgard Seefried, Erich Kunz, Ludwig Weber, etc... with the Vienna Philharmonic. Under Legge, Karajan conducted a handful of exceptional recordings of Mozart... Le nozze di Figaro, Così Fan Tutte as well as Die Zauberflöte... to say nothing of the classic recording of the four horn concertos with Dennis Brain. As one reviewer suggested, listening to these recordings is like tasting a finely aged vintage wine. Marvelous.

Today I popped in the Sir Charles Mackerras recording. I probably would have never thought to pick up this recording... in spite of the fact that I quite enjoyed his recordings of Mozart's symphonies... but Damn! The set was on sale for less than $5 US. How could you possibly go wrong? (And Cosi and Le Nozze were on sale for an equal cut-rate price). Although the singers might not be up to the level of the Karajan set... the recording was still quite enjoyable. Beautifully performed and well=paced.

Tomorrow Fricsay?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I’ve been watching the Ring from Stuttgart (on Medici) – the one with a different director for each opera. I really wish they’d given all four to Peter Konwitschny as Götterdämmerung is the only one worth watching – the others really had nothing much going for them production-wise . But the Götterdämmerung hangs together, has some gently humorous moments (surprising, eh) and best of all the wonderful Eva-Maria Westbroek as a believable and vulnerable Gutrune. And Zagrosek does a great job with the orchestra – heard some things that I’d never noticed.



This is a really stellar recording of I Masnadieri. And I loved the “cello concerto” overture.



Ewa Podleś can do no wrong in my book. And her voice goes beautifully with Sumi Jo’s in this:

[Schigolch]

I have always considered one of those special opera evenings, the performance of Tancredi by Ms. Podles in Madrid, in the 1990s.

We can hear also Ms. Podles singing Isaura:

[MAuer]

Recently I discovered... much to my chagrin... that I had fewer recordings of Mozart's Magic Flute than I did of the other "Big 4" Mozart operas... this in spite of the fact that The Magic Flute is quite possibly my favorite opera of all time. Obviously it was imperative that I rectify this ASAP. I quickly picked up the following:



Yesterday I listened to the old classic recording of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte... a mono recording from 1950 conducted by Herbert von Karajan and featuring Anton Dermota, Irmgard Seefried, Erich Kunz, Ludwig Weber, etc... with the Vienna Philharmonic. Under Legge, Karajan conducted a handful of exceptional recordings of Mozart... Le nozze di Figaro, Così Fan Tutte as well as Die Zauberflöte... to say nothing of the classic recording of the four horn concertos with Dennis Brain. As one reviewer suggested, listening to these recordings is like tasting a finely aged vintage wine. Marvelous.

Today I popped in the Sir Charles Mackerras recording. I probably would have never thought to pick up this recording... in spite of the fact that I quite enjoyed his recordings of Mozart's symphonies... but Damn! The set was on sale for less than $5 US. How could you possibly go wrong? (And Cosi and Le Nozze were on sale for an equal cut-rate price). Although the singers might not be up to the level of the Karajan set... the recording was still quite enjoyable. Beautifully performed and well=paced.

Tomorrow Fricsay?

That Fricsay recording is one that I grew up with when I was a pre-schooler/kindergartner. My favorite then was Streich's Queen of the Night (as scratches on the old LP attested ). As an adult, I'd pick her and Josef Greindl's Sarastro as my favorites from this recording. Fischer-Dieskau and Lisa Otto would reappear as Papageno and Papagena on the 1964 Böhm version.

[Nico1616]

The Klemperer still wins, it is perfect in every way. Gardiner is remarkebly good and very light, the only minus is a weak Pizarro (Matthew Best). Bernstein is superbly conducted, but has a weak Rocco (Manfred Jungwirth).

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I have always considered one of those special opera evenings, the performance of Tancredi by Ms. Podles in Madrid, in the 1990s.

This is another opera I have got to know thanks to your enthusiastic recommendation!

[Schigolch]

[Aramis]

This is absoluetly superb opera and is represented by that (and others) superb recorings. Now somebody explain me why it's so underrated. Lenght argument doesn't count, it doesn't work with Wagner and neither it does here. There are no hole-fillers, only tons of beautiful, accomplished, mature music of Rossini with which he gained redemption for all generic, uninspired and empty masses of music he used to produce in breaks between his good music and his masterpieces.

[HarpsichordConcerto]

This is absoluetly superb opera and is represented by that (and others) superb recorings. Now somebody explain me why it's so underrated. Lenght argument doesn't count, it doesn't work with Wagner and neither it does here. There are no hole-fillers, only tons of beautiful, accomplished, mature music of Rossini with which he gained redemption for all generic, uninspired and empty masses of music he used to produce in breaks between his good music and his masterpieces.

... the overture, must be his best.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

This is a fairy tale in the same way that Tosca is a chick-flick. The action is updated but the allegorical aspects still come over. Jonas is ably partnered by Isabel Rey and the usual Zürich suspects (Widmer, Nikiteanu) do a good supporting act.



Robert Wilson's stylised gestures and tableaux vivants work really well with L'Orfeo. And of course it has Roberta Invernizzi as Euridice. Resonant ad beautiful.



If I hadn't known better I'd have thought this was Rossini. The best thing about this is José Carreras. I'm certainly intrigued to see the DVD that's just come out.

[Schigolch]