What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Florestan]

Ella Fitzgerald sang a wonderful "Summertime", but I have to admit that Janis Joplin is the one who ruined it for me being sung by anyone else!

I'd have posted a clip, but fear I might have ended up bounced from OL!

Do we have a non-classical section? I think not, and frankly, I think NOT having a non-classical section is a good idea. One thing I really like about this site is it is very focused. Other things include all the great members. We really don't get the kind of riff raff that much bigger sites inevitably draw, folks who just seem to want to argue and or beat dead horses.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Do we have a non-classical section? I think not, and frankly, I think NOT having a non-classical section is a good idea. One thing I really like about this site is it is very focused. Other things include all the great members. We really don't get the kind of riff raff that much bigger sites inevitably draw, folks who just seem to want to argue and or beat dead horses.

Thanks for the compliment to the website but as a matter of fact we do have a non-classical section although it's pretty small and mixed up with a bunch of other things. Our Off-Topic section has the following sub-header:

"This forum is for community building. General chit-chat, light banter, humor, general topics of interest that are not linked to opera are welcome here, except Politics and Religion which are topics banned from Opera Lively. Non-classical musical genres belong here, as well as cinema, literature, sports, etc."

And regarding the riff-raff who like to argue, we do get some of these from time to time, but what happens is that we rapidly ban them.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Well, I don't think it would be wrong to post Janis Joplin's version here because after all she is singing an operatic aria so it's not off-topic. Yes, her version is interesting, even though obviously it doesn't employ classical singing technique.



Now, Ella Fitzgerald... I love this version, with Louis Armstrong:



And then, with Leontyne Price:



And then, my favorite version, the one from the spectacular filmed opera DVD of this masterpiece (the singer is the excellent Harolyn Blackwell):

[Sonata]

Ironic, with all the discussion of summer time, as I started listening to Porgy & Bess this morning For Leontyne Price:

[Sonata]

Gundula Janowitz Edition: Excerpts from Fidelio (Excellent!) and Lohengrin

[Itullian]

A steal for 10usd.

[Florestan]

Nice new trend. Post both cover and back side.

I wish they had done the entire opera on this one.

[Clayton]

...And regarding the riff-raff... we do get some of these from time to time, but... we rapidly ban them.

Though we have kept me. A bit of riff-raff can be good for a laugh

[Sonata]

I have really enjoyed exploring Tchaikovsky's operas. Trying out Cherevicki today

[Florestan]

[Itullian]

[Florestan]

There are two package designs. This back image from the more common set. I have the above.

[Itullian]

[Florestan]

Post is deleted for reason that the particular set (Elixir of Love sung in English) was just not that good, so I am moving on.

[Clayton]

Post is deleted for reason that the particular set (Elixir of Love sung in English) was just not that good, so I am moving on.

"Take that, you rubbish recording!"



Though maybe it's also good to leave a record of what you think of a particular recording. People also like to reference positive criticism.