What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

According to an interview in the March issue of Opera News, the Met's incoming Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has a collection with around 10,000 CDs!

I guess for a conductor it's not abnormal. That's what they do for a living, so they spend a lifetime studying this stuff. They are the operatic professionals who don't need to spend hours vocalizing so they have more time available to study scores and past performances and to listen to them.

[Florestan]

Today these three (tonight Beethoven's Missa Solemnis live in concert!):

[Florestan]

I'm imagining a Florestan busy building a new storage unit with a fifty thousand square foot foot print for growing CD collection whilst listening to opera...

I would love it! Dedicated listening room and a room full of CD shelves.

[Hoffmann]

I'm imagining a Florestan busy building a new storage unit with a fifty thousand square foot foot print for growing CD collection whilst listening to opera...

Says the man with 83 tea cabinets...

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I guess for a conductor it's not abnormal. That's what they do for a living, so they spend a lifetime studying this stuff. They are the operatic professionals who don't need to spend hours vocalizing so they have more time available to study scores and past performances and to listen to them.

Yeah, but like the rest of us, he still probably listens to his same 25 or so favorites!

[Hoffmann]

This is good, but doesn't replace the Muti/Gruberova as my favorite recording of the opera:

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Yeah, but like the rest of us, he still probably listens to his same 25 or so favorites!

I have to say that doesn't apply to me. I consciously listen to new recordings almost all the time. I rarely revisit.

(Im trying to get though my ULP before I die)

[Hoffmann]

I have to say that doesn't apply to me. I consciously listen to new recordings almost all the time. I rarely revisit.

(Im trying to get though my ULP before I die)

Yeah, I figured that statement would get me into trouble. I try mightily to mix up my listening, but have to admit that it would be very easy for me to default to my top 25 favorites.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Yeah, I figured that statement would get me into trouble. I try mightily to mix up my listening, but have to admit that it would be very easy for me to default to my top 25 favorites.

So many of my top 25 favourite operas now are ones I hadn't heard 5 years ago.

[Clayton]

I think I'm mostly stuck on about 25 recordings but none of those are the same as a few years ago...

[Hoffmann]

I have expanded my listening over the few years I've been here on OL, but admit that recordings aren't my preferred vehicle for opera pleasure, preferring live performance above all. Naturally, I've picked the most expensive of all options and am still figuring out how make that work. I don't buy any where near as many new recordings as you guys do, and probably do less listening - mostly using my recordings to keep me company when out on the trail entertaining myself by dodging the cyclists.

So, what's changed in my listening? As much as I am ashamed to admit it, I had only just become acquainted with the Ring just before signing on to OL and now have seen 3 different cycles. Also, many of you are so devoted to the Baroque period, that you have helped expand my appreciation and knowledge of the period so, of course, Handel and Vivaldi. I really only knew Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, and have come to understand him as a mostly un-recognized genius, especially his still largely not very well known serious and semi-serious operas. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail once was totally lost on me, but now is among my favorites, along with his so-called lesser operas: Mitradate Re di Ponto, Il re Pastore, La Finta Giardiniera, etc. Parsifal no longer is lost on me. Verdi's operas outside of the 'Big 7' (Aida, Don Carlos, Rigoletto, Otello, Il Trovatore, La Traviata and Un Ballo in Maschera).

There's more, but, oh yes, last but not least: I've learned not to turn up my nose to contemporary opera!

[Florestan]

This one very good:


However, so far I am only leaving the Bartoli and Cossotto Barbers on my MP3 Player. Here is my collection:

Baltsa
Bartoli
Battle
Berganza
Callas
Cossotto
D'Angelo
Della Jones (Sung in English)
Ganassi
Gruberova
Larmore
Peters
Sills

I know there are more Barbers out there, but are any worth my acquiring?

[Florestan]

According to an interview in the March issue of Opera News, the Met's incoming Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has a collection with around 10,000 CDs!

If they average 65 minutes per CD and he listens 8 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year, it will take him about 3.7 years to listen thorough his entire collection.

[Hoffmann]

This one very good:


However, so far I am only leaving the Bartoli and Cossotto Barbers on my MP3 Player. Here is my collection:

Baltsa
Bartoli
Battle
Berganza
Callas
Cossotto
D'Angelo
Della Jones (Sung in English)
Ganassi
Gruberova
Larmore
Peters
Sills

I know there are more Barbers out there, but are any worth my acquiring?

Are these listed in order of preference?

I only own the Callas and the Peters, mostly because the Callas seems to me to be one of those "One True Recordings". The Peters also is very good.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

[Florestan]

Are these listed in order of preference?

I only own the Callas and the Peters, mostly because the Callas seems to me to be one of those "One True Recordings". The Peters also is very good.

Alphabetical order as from my folder listings. Peters is coloratura. You have two soprano Rosinas, but I recall it was written for mezzo, and so you need a mezzo. Of mine,

Baltsa (Mezzo)
Bartoli (Mezzo)
Battle (Soprano)
Berganza (Mezzo)
Callas (Soprano)
Cossotto (Mezzo)
Gianna D'Angelo (Soprano)
Della Jones (Mezzo) Sung in English
Ganassi (Mezzo)
Gruberova (Soprano)
Larmore (Mezzo)
Roberta Peters (Soprano)
Sills (Soprano)