Reply With QuoteI suggest that getting CD with Raimondi, Anderson and Ernesto Palacio would be much safer choice.Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto
I am going to order a copy of that production of Mosè in Egitto anyway. I don't have a recording of the opera in whatever format.
I suggest that getting CD with Raimondi, Anderson and Ernesto Palacio would be much safer choice.
I might as well. I just have the Moïse et Pharaon from La Scala.
Erwin Schrott in that hat - (giggles)
Natalie
I got this for Aleksandrs Antonenko. He sings well but just doesn't seem genuinely enraged with jealousy, although he does come in to his own in the last act. But Marina Poplavskaya is just brilliant as Desdemona. I can't imagine anyone playing this with more conviction and intensity. She had me weeping like a baby, which is a first, because usually I just feel a bit irritated with this character.
Natalie
I said similar thing over in Verdi review thread for this performance, I have since purchased every Marina performance on blu ray/DVD she is so charismatic and natural on screen, a striking classic beauty visually. Somehow she seems to be just below the big names in opera stardom keeping a "relatively" low profile in the mediaI got this for Aleksandrs Antonenko. He sings well but just doesn't seem genuinely enraged with jealousy, although he does come in to his own in the last act. But Marina Poplavskaya is just brilliant as Desdemona. I can't imagine anyone playing this with more conviction and intensity. She had me weeping like a baby, which is a first, because usually I just feel a bit irritated with this character.
She is also a great Amelia in Verdi's Boccanegra.......
Today it is raining outside, and I am here at the office wishing I were anywhere else. To cheer myself up, I am listening to the old Philips recording of La finta giardiniera in German, starring Helen Donath, Jessye Norman, Ileana Cotrubas, Tatiana Troyanos, Werner Hollweg, Gerhard Unger and Hermann Prey. I love the Harnoncourt recording with Gruberova and Heilmann, but the cast on the Philips is so wonderful and the enthusiasm of everyone is so infectious, I just find it irresistible, 'wrong' language and all. Viva Mozart!
It's all good, but doesn't make me want to explore complete operas by Alessandro Scarlatti. Some arias on this CD I found enjoyable, but if these are the highlights of his operas, I don't think there is anything really great about them. Or perhaps it's my fault that I compare him with baroque fames, most of which were considerably later composers (geezers like Vivaldi or Haendel were born around 20 years later than him).
Last edited by Soave_Fanciulla; January 5th, 2018 at 08:10 AM.
Finished La finta giardiniera. Now it is songs by Wolf and R. Strauss, sung by Elisabeth Schumann. Glorious.
It's all good, but doesn't make me want to explore complete operas by Alessandro Scarlatti. Some arias on this CD I found enjoyable, but if these are the highlights of his operas, I don't think there is anything really great about them. Or perhaps it's my fault that I compare him with baroque fames, most of which were considerably later composers (geezers like Vivaldi or Haendel were born around 20 years later than him).
You made an excellent point about the geezers like Vivaldi and Handel who were born a couple of decades or so later. I also do prefer the mature Baroque style of the final generation of masters who wrote the bulk of their operas in the first half of the 18th century before the Classical styles began to emerge (though still with Baroque influences, for example young Mozart's Mitridate). The scoring of Scarlatti's operas were often relatively modest, for strings only.
Have you listened to the new Jacobs recording of it? I rather love it, although I feel Nicholas Rivenq was miscast as Il Podestà, which is rather sad, because I like him.
No, I didn't even know Jacobs had recorded this! Thank you for the information. I am also a fan of Rivenq, and I cannot even imagine him as the Podesta; his voice (to my ear, at least) has an innate nobility to it that is all wrong for the character. I must get this recording immediately!
I have been very impressed with Jacobs' recordings of the Mozart operas, and have been praying that he would turn his attention to the earlier works, which he now seems to be doing. Dare we hope for Lucio Silla, or my personal favorite, Mitridate? Il seraglio would be nice, too.
Well, he is doing ALL THE MOZART, so I don't think the early ones or indeed Seraglio are that far away.
But yes, it came out very recently, in October or so, I think. Sophie Karthäuser as Sandrina, Jeremy Ovenden as Belfiore (to think, we could have had Topi Lehtipuu *swoon*), the incredible Alexandrina Pendatchanska as Arminda, and Sunhae Im as Serpetta.
And yes, I agree. His voice is not suited to Il Podestà. It's a (low) tenor part, for goodness sake!
Good Lord! I think I just had a minor stroke merely imagining a Jacobs Mitridate. I can only pray he hires Pendatchanska for Aspasia and Bernarda Fink for Farnace.
I have always been sorry Jacobs never got around to recording another of my favorites, Haydn's wonderful Il mondo della luna. I know he led a stage production in Innsbruck several years ago, but so far there has been no recording, to my knowledge. And perhaps he would be the man to finally give us Cherubini's Medea in the version with spoken dialogue and on period instruments. Pendatchanska again, without a doubt. I wonder if he has considered it.
I wouldn't be surprised if he does a complete Haydn cycle after this. Or Keiser. I want Rene Jacobs to focus his attention on reviving the operas of Reinhard Keiser.
But speaking of Haydn, he did an Orlando Paladino, also with Pendatchanska (she was Alcina) that was most excellent, also on DVD. I really want him to do a L'isola disabitata. I think he could probably do great things with it. Preferably with Topi Lehtipuu as Gernando.
Although YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES to a Medea with Pendatchanska. Seriously, that woman is amazing!
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