Reply With QuoteI'm a big fan of Juan Bautista Otero and the work being done with Real Compañía Ópera de Cámara (esp the man from Barcelona). The Porpora is also a very good work and I really want to see Otero do some more but it seems nothing recently.
I can't really understand why this was stripped up from another opera called Angelica and made into an Orlando that never really existed on its own. In the booklet Otero says it was for "dramatical purposes" as the subplots added little to the drama. Fair enough, but no one goes cutting half of the characters off in a Handel opera even when they're not that essential to the main story. It is especially frustrating because Porpora is so sparsely recorded...
That aside, this is great stuff! The music is wonderful. It is true that we may have gotten so accustomed to Venetian opera that at first the faster arias seem a bit lacking in verve and pyrotechnics — can someone really outdo Vivaldi's fire, though? I think not — but the highlights in this aren't in tempeste or mari turbati. In true neapolitan fashion it is the slow, delicate and super melodious moments that stand out. Considering this is still somewhat early Porpora I can see where gems like Alto Giove come from and only wonder what else hides in his enormous body of work.
OPERA HOUSES, RECORDING LABELS: WE NEED MORE PORPORA!
I'm a big fan of Juan Bautista Otero and the work being done with Real Compañía Ópera de Cámara (esp the man from Barcelona). The Porpora is also a very good work and I really want to see Otero do some more but it seems nothing recently.
Couldn't find a proper cover on Google images as this comes in a book rather than a standard CD case.
Claudio Cavina conducts La Venexiana. Emanuela Galli and Mirko Guadagnini in the lead roles.
EGG!!!!
this time Florestan is directing my listening...
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Thomas Stewart (Hans Sachs), Sandor Konya (Walther von Stolzing), Gundula Janowitz (Eva), Thomas Hemsley (Beckmesser), Gerhard Unger (David), Brigitte Fassbaender (Magdalene), Franz Crass (Pogner), Keith Engen (Kothner), Raimund Grumbach (Nachtwächter)
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik
Recorded Herkulessaal der Münchner Residenz October 1967
This is a favourite recording for the work and it's quite easy to see why; it has a purity or honesty that is so engaging and plausible with the essential gaiety and comic touch. A fabulous recording, I strongly recommend for any DMVN or Wagner fan.
this morning I'm back to festat-programming
(I tried thinking once; it hurt my brain too much)
Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Emanuela Galli (Poppea), Roberta Mameli (Nerone), Josè Maria Lo Monaco (Ottone), Xenia Meijer (Ottavia), Ian Honeyman (Arnalta) & Raffaele Costantini (Seneca)
La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina
This is the recording that made me fall in love with Monteverdi, LIDP and Emanuela Galli.
Originally Posted by Festat
I love that opera - how is that recording? I love this one with the always fabulous Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey - not to mention Kathleen Battle! (inspired by your post, I just put it on for my morning listening):
I also have the Claudio Abbado with Agnes Baltsa and Ruggero Raimondi. It's pretty much lifeless compared with the Scimone.
Last edited by Hoffmann; September 10th, 2016 at 02:50 PM.
I have those and two more Italianas (yes, I know...) and the Giulini is the one I play more often. Actually I think it is my most played Rossini! I can't really turn Giulietta Simionato down and 100% Italian cast is always a thumbs up in opera buffa. However, like all bel canto performed in the 50s, it has cuts: runs for about 1h50min, while the other recordings range from 2h10min to 2h30min.
The "quoi quoi quoi (kwa kwa kwa) frog chorus in Platée has to be one of the greatest musical jokes ever penned.
Natalie
Lots of wonderful stuff here, from a fantastic cast
Hasse, J A: Siroe re di Persia
Dresden version (1763)
Max Emanuel Cencic (Siroe), Franco Fagioli (Medarse), Julia Lezhneva (Laodice), Juan Sancho (Cosroe), Mary-Ellen Nesi (Emira), Laureen Snouffer (Arasse)
Armonia Atenea, George Petrou
Beethoven: Leonore
Edda Moser (Leonore), Richard Cassilly (Florestan), Helen Donath (Marzelline), Eberhard Büchner (Jaquino), Theo Adam (Pizarro), Hermann Christian Polster (Fernando), Karl Ridderbusch (Rocco)
Rundfunkchor Leipzig & Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Natalie
I haven't heard this one before... any comments?
The postman always rings twice. Well, not always but most times as I've got the music playing and can't hear. Actually, I don't even have a doorbell so he knocks twice.
Anyways, Mitchell must think I'm his happiest customer on the street as I'm always grinning ear to ear when he does knock as I mostly know it's something from Prestos. It's nice because it makes him smile too.
So I got a delivery of a few Ring cycles and the first to be listened to was
Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Marjorie Lawrence (Brunnhilde), Dorothee Manski (Gutrune), Kathryn Meisle (Waltraute), Lauritz Melchior (Siegfried), Friedrich Schorr (Gunther), Eduard Habich (Alberich) & Ludwig Hofmann (Hagen)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, Artur Bodanzky
Recorded 11 January 1936, remastered Ward Marston
This is a very exciting and romantic account. There are not hiss, cracks and pops that I imagined but the recording has been wonderfully restored by the award winning engineer, Ward Marston. There are a few places with the tape whirpping noise but it's not too distracting and the music and drama manage to take you away from just a recording to a magical place. Of course there is no escaping the actual age of the recording and wife said it sounded like I was watching a 1930's science fiction film on the picture box, which is maybe another way of describing the sound quality.
It's worth it to hear the voices recorded here, not just Melchior and Lawrence but Hofmann and the others too. Wonderful dramatic account.
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