Reply With QuoteI do like the work of Otero and the opera company but they haven't announced any further recording (opera) projects on their website for a while.
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(Actually I haven't checked recently)
Utterly gorgeous. A must for all baroque opera lovers.
Natalie
I do like the work of Otero and the opera company but they haven't announced any further recording (opera) projects on their website for a while.
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(Actually I haven't checked recently)
Have your got the Porpora Orlando?Originally Posted by Clayton
Natalie
Yes, I like it too. I think it's a good suggestion for this afternoon's listening!
yesterday's post cricket opera
Handel: Partenope, HWV 27
Philippe Jaroussky (Arsace), Karina Gauvin (Partenope), John Mark Ainsley (Emilio), Teresa Iervolino (Rosmira), Emöke Barath (Armindo), Luca Tittoto (Ormonte)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Riccardo Minasi
Recorded February 2015, Lonigo Italy.
Handel: Serse
Conductor: Piero Bellugi
Cast: Luigi Alva (Serse), Mirella Freni (Romilda), Rolando Panerai (Arsamene), Irène Companeez (Amastre), Fiorenza Cossotto (Atalanta), Leonardo Monreale (Ariodate), Franco Calabrese (Elviro)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Alla Scala
This opera has some of the loveliest music I’ve ever heard – along with some music I’ve evidently never heard. Of course, Opera d’Oro’s bare-bones packaging doesn’t include anything resembling a libretto, so after I purchased this recording, I hunted online and was lucky enough to find a copy along with an English translation. However, when I attempted to listen to the opera while following along in the libretto, I found that after a while there was discrepancy – a big discrepancy. In this live La Scala performance from early 1962, the score seems to have been sliced and diced and rearranged by someone in charge (conductor Piero Bellugi?), with entire sections of recitative as well as some arias omitted. It’s a pity, because the cast is a fine one. I wasn’t all that keen on Luigi Alva’s Serse at first, but his voice has grown on me with repeated listening. Mirella Freni and Fiorenza Cossotto are delightful as the sisters Romilda and Atalanta, and I’m quite impressed by Irène Companeez’s Amastre, sung with a beautiful lyric mezzo. Eventually, I’ll need to purchase the German language version with Wunderlich in the title role in order to hear the complete opera (I hope). I know; this is what I get for insisting on a tenor Serse . . .
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
I really like this one. Have you got it?
I do have it! I don't think I've ever listened to it tho' ... I'll cue it up next time, great cast.
This morning, I decided to listen to another recording that came out of that big box I bought last year and hadn't listened to:
An excellent rendition of this opera and as good as Roberta Peters is in the role, it remains that I can't get Maria Callas' voice out of my head - so that recording stays in first place.
Then, for my walk, I hadn't listened to another old favorite in some months, so decided to indulge:
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
I was aiming for Porpora but distracted by itywltmt's post, missed the target completely
Catalani: La Wally
Renata Tebaldi (Wally), Mario del Monaco (Giuseppe Hagenbach), Piero Cappuccilli (Vincenzo), Justino Diaz (Stromminger), Stefania Malagu (Afra), Lydia Marimpietri (Walter), Alfredo Merlotti (Soldier)
Orchestre National de l'Opera de Monte-Carlo, Fausto Cleva
Recorded Salle Alcazar, June 1968
Last edited by Clayton; November 20th, 2016 at 11:50 AM. Reason: same as usual, spelling worse than a dyslexic cat that's never been to school
Not so sure about walking today - exceedingly windy with gusts to 50 mph. I've been walking lots in the last week or so, trying to drop some weight that I gained while traveling during the summer. But wind is not conducive to happy walking, so maybe I'll take a break today.
So, this morning, I decided to listen to the Callas I Puritani remastered recording to compare with the Sutherland/Ghiaurov/Pavarotti set I like so well. Callas is terrific, of course, and it may be the less than sophisticated recording technique used in 1953, but I don't find the recording nearly as satisying. While I'm not sure how to explain it, it seems that the style of singing itself is much different than in the 1970s and later - there seemed to be a lot of vibrato in the male voices, which were quite capable of hitting the notes, but something was off. Also, the pace of the conducting on the Callas set (Tullio Serafin) seems to be slower than the Bonynge.
Currently listening to the 1869 off of this set:
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
I have to confess I'm struggling with this but maybe it'll grow on me!
I think this is an opera better seen than heard.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
Yes I got a bit lost there too and "better seen than heard", I think were pretty much the same words Soave_Fanciulla said at the time to me
I have to confess I'm struggling with this but maybe it'll grow on me!
I think this is an opera better seen than heard.
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