What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Nemorino]

oh... one of those ones will just have to keep an eye out for at the charity shop

Yeah, I guess I *really* got a good deal on this one. I didn't even know until I was looking for the cover image.

[Sonata]

Incredibly, I'm not listening to an opera written by Verdi (Although Rigoletto was making a very strong case for himself!)
Currently:

Delibes: Lakme, with Joan Sutherland

[Florestan]

Just arrived today. Excellent recording!

[Florestan]

[Dichteurehalle]

Oh what a shame, I hope the other contents survived. It's so tempting to buy stuff like that to bring home and before the liquids ban, I regularly brought olive oil home from Italy and kept it in my hand luggage.

Thankfully, the initial assessment was overly pessimistic, and quite a lot of it was not smashed! My clothes took the brunt of it, which meant that the praline brioche and other goodies were mostly unaffected. And what did leak all came out in the wash, so a pretty good result, all in all. I was very tempted by various oils, but held back by the fear of oil not coming out from clothes...

[Sonata]

Anna Netrebko & Daniel Barenboim: In the Still of the Night


Kind of interesting with this one; it was an impulse purchase when I was first getting into opera and Almaviva spoke often about Netrebko. Unfamiliar with Russian classical songs, I couldn't wrap my head around this one and regretted the purchase. Now years later with much more exposure, I am really enjoying getting to know this album more and appreciate it much more than when I first bought it. Almost like finding a hidden gem in my own music catalogue. In general, I am not a big Netrebko fan, but I like her performance here and in a couple of Russian operas.

[Florestan]

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Massenet: Le Portrait de Manon
Susana Gaspar (soprano), Hanna Hipp (mezzo), Pablo Bemsch (tenor), ZhengZhong Zhou (baritone)
Southbank Sinfonia, Geoffrey Paterson, Volker Krafft

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I may have had a little weep.

[Clayton]

I was listening to the Bychkov Onegin and I too, may have had a little weep.

[Sonata]

Massenet- Don Quichotte

[Florestan]

This one is absolutely wonderful, a live and dynamic performance (sound clips).


Back Cover Image

[Florestan]

[Florestan]

Waltraud Meier, Fidelio/Leonore
Plácido Domingo, Florestan
Falk Struckmann, Pizarro
René Pape, Rocco
Soile Isokoski, Marzelline

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Wanted to know the story; so watched the film of the recording, unfortunately the left channel is missing on the upload. (took a lot of fiddling with headphones and mild panic until I realised it was the YT upload and not the expensive sennheisers that had failed). Anyway it's a good opera, some funny bits but dominated by the very poignant story about a refugee stuck in an airport.