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I love Fagioli but this should come with a Joan Sutherland Stamp of Unintelligible Italian. I couldn't understand a word he sang, even in the recits. Sounds like it's just one single modified vowel and random consonants here and there.
Hello Hoffmann, I read you had an accident. I hope everything is good now and there was no serious damage.
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Today, there was one of the usual suspects
Lucrezia Borgia - Andriy Yukevych 2010, Edita Gruberova, José Bros, Sillvia Tro Santafé, Franco Vassallo
I love the opera, I love the cast and actually I think I had not listened to it for a while. I enjoyed it so much, I pressed play again at the end...
I love Fagioli but this should come with a Joan Sutherland Stamp of Unintelligible Italian. I couldn't understand a word he sang, even in the recits. Sounds like it's just one single modified vowel and random consonants here and there.
Fagioli tends to wander in that direction sometimes
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how is it otherwise?
Natalie
I went with Lohengrin for today's walk:
I generally love Klaus Florian Vogt, but have to say that after listening almost solely to the EMI/Rudolf Kempe/Jess Thomas/Elisabeth Grümmer recording over the past couple of years, I find Vogt's voice almost too lyrical for the role. Still, a wonderful opera on a nice day.
Aido tend to get over excited (when listening to new recordings)
but at the time of the release I said I might have voted for the Pappano Aida as my favourite recording had it been around at the time of voting...
on my recent listening; I'm going back to the Sony
Verdi: Aida
Anja Harteros (Aida), Jonas Kaufmann (Radamès), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Amneris), Ludovic Tezier (Amonasro), Erwin Schrott (Ramfis), Marco Spotti (Il Re d'Egitto), Paolo Fanale (Un Messaggero), Eleonora Buratto (Sacerdotessa)
Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma; Coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma, Antonio Pappano
Recorded November 2015, Sala Santa Cecilia, Rome
Verdi: Aida
Zinka Milanov (Aida), Jussi Björling (Radamès), Fedora Barbieri (Amneris), Leonard Warren (Amonasro), Boris Christoff (Ramphis/Il Re di Egitto), Bruna Rizzoli (Una Sacerdotessa), Mario Carlin (Un Messaggero)
Orchestra e Coro dell Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Jonel Perlea
Recorded July 1955, Rome Opera House
Of course there have been many, many, many recordings of this great favourite and I have only listened to few but all round cast this earlier work is more to my taste
Massenet: Thaïs
Renée Fleming (Thaïs), Thomas Hampson (Athanael), Giuseppe Sabbatini (Nicias), Estefano Palatchi (Palemon)
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Yves Abel
Recorded between Feb 1997 and May 1998, Salle Franklin Bordeaux
Exotic, beautiful, sensuous and a brilliant production. Perhaps one of Flemings star roles.
For today's outing, I was looking for something a little different that also would last long enough for 10 miles. While reviewing possible choices, I came across this Tancredi I bought some time ago and not yet listened to.
I have two other Tancredis - Naxos/Alberto Zedda/Sumi Jo/Ewa Podles and Sony/Ralf Weikert/Marilyn Horne. Neither recording has really put Tancredi even close to being my favorite Rossini opera. This, however, was a big surprise - the voices here are well matched and the vocal blending is superb. I don't know very much about either Vesselina Kasarova or Eva Mei but when this was recorded, they both also had totally secure top notes, all of which was quite a thrilling listen!
Now I need to go back and give Marilyn Horne and co. another shot...
^ I have all three recordings and the Mei/Kasarova is my favorite too. Also, it includes both the tragic and happy endings and a couple of alternate tracks. I first came across Mei in a DVD of La Sonnambula, which I enjoyed immensely.
"Ah,non credea mirarti si presto estinto, o fiore." --Bellini, La Sonnambula (also written on his tomb).
Verdi: Otello
Mario del Monaco (Otello), Aldo Protti (Iago), Renata Tebaldi (Desdemona), Nello Romanato (Cassio), Athos Cesarini (Rodrigo), Fernando Corena (Lodovico), Tom Krause (Montano), Ana Raquel Satra (Emilia)
Wiener Philharmoniker & Wiener Staatsopernchor, Herbert von Karajan
Studio recording, 1961
del Monaco does tender and passionate just as well as does shouty*
*technical term for tenore forte
After listening to this recording a few weeks back, along with revisiting the Met DVD (also with Fleming and Hampson), I've come to a greater appreciation of this opera. Initially, I too thought the music was "exotic, beautiful, sensuous," but found the interplay of the two main characters, the way they in effect convert each other, too forced and mechanical.Originally Posted by Clayton
Massenet: Thaïs
Renée Fleming (Thaïs), Thomas Hampson (Athanael), Giuseppe Sabbatini (Nicias), Estefano Palatchi (Palemon)
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Yves Abel
Recorded between Feb 1997 and May 1998, Salle Franklin Bordeaux
Exotic, beautiful, sensuous and a brilliant production. Perhaps one of Flemings star roles.
Revisiting the opera, though, I was reminded of just how carefully we're prepared for these changes. Thaïs, even when surrounded by luxury, has a jaded awareness of her fading beauty and a longing for something more lasting. Even more tellingly, Athanaël's determination to "save" Thaïs has an unhealthy taint about it from the outset, so that even his fellow religious hermits recognize it as a dangerous fixation. So if the two figures end up going to opposite extremes--Thaïs embracing a saintlike renunciation, Athanaël succumbing to sensual obsession--the seeds of those urges have been planted from the beginning.
This is a bit of a delayed realization on my part, no doubt. But it does help me find more psychological interest in the opera, to go with the lovely music.
Massenet also looks at redemption or saviour in his "Miracle in three acts" Le Jongleur of Notre-Dame, which I think he thought was his favourite work. This too, is both beautiful and tragic and I can recommend. If maybe not thought as equal musically as his more popular works, I think Amfortas might like the poetry...
Rossini: Mosè in Egitto
Ruggero Raimondi (Mosè), Siegmund Nimsgern (Faraone), June Anderson (Elcia), Ernesto Palacio (Osiride), Zehava Gal (Amaltea), Salvatore Fisichella (Aronne), Sandra Browne (Amenosi), Keith Lewis (Mambre)
Ambrosian Opera Chorus & Philharmonia Orchestra, Claudio Scimone
moving stuff this. like parting of the Red Sea magnitude.
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
Anna Netrebko (Iolanta), Sergey Skorokhodov (Vaudémont), Alexey Markov (Robert), Monika Bohinec (Martha), Junho You (Almerik), Lucas Meachem (Ibn-Hakia), Vitalij Kowaljow (King René), Luka Debevec Mayer (Bertrand), Nuška Rojko (Laura), Theresa Plut (Brigitte)
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Emmanuel Villaume
Contender for Clayton's Really Annoyed, Pathetic Design Award (known as CRAP design awards) for worse design cover,
" I have an idea for a design with braille but that would be too expensive so we'll just put some random colour dots on the cover that will be completely meaningless for those with sight difficulties... "
However the actual content... is ... is... oh just get it! Absolutely stunning performance from AN.
"Ah,non credea mirarti si presto estinto, o fiore." --Bellini, La Sonnambula (also written on his tomb).
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