What opera have you been listening to, lately?

**Soave_Fanciulla** · February 9th, 2018, 03:10 AM

Clayton - I'm so sorry - that is horrible. I did wonder where you were.

**MAuer** · February 9th, 2018, 12:15 PM

Terrible news. I'm so sorry for your loss. His family must be devastated.

**Clayton** · February 9th, 2018, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Florestan

...I wonder if there is something about Wagner that is soothing after an emotionally draining situation such as you are experiencing.

I'm not sure. It might just be a Wagner-time-of-cycle thing.

I should be back to (French) baroque in no time.

I hope.

**Sonata** · February 9th, 2018, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Clayton

I was completely knocked off balance by the loss of a good friend. He was the same age as me but a picture of good health and living and most tragic is his son is due to complete college in the next few weeks and was due to start working with him. He was so much looking forward to this, he was talking about it all year. Music is slowly pulling me back in to life.

It has been mainly Wagner I have been listening to lately.

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your good friend. It's so sad that he had the dream of working with his son and that was never realized.

Currently for me:

Verdi: Otello, conducted by Serafin with Vickers, Gobbi, and Rysanek.

It's becoming a habit for me to listen to different recordings of the same Verdi opera back to back lately

**Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)** · February 9th, 2018, 10:05 PM

Sorry for the loss of your friend, Clayton.

**Florestan** · February 10th, 2018, 02:00 AM

Not an opera but parts from many operas in a double disk set. I note that this set is cheesy in that the artwork amounts to a track list on the back of the cover image of a single card, not booklet, not liner notes. But the music is quite wonderful. Here is the track listing.

To me, Anneliese Rothenberger is the German Beverly Sills.

**Ann Lander (sospiro)** · February 10th, 2018, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by Sonata

I am so grateful to Gardelli for his work in making high quality recordings of Verdi's early operas!!

I agree. I love these Gardelli recordings.

**Ann Lander (sospiro)** · February 10th, 2018, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Clayton

I was completely knocked off balance by the loss of a good friend. He was the same age as me but a picture of good health and living and most tragic is his son is due to complete college in the next few weeks and was due to start working with him. He was so much looking forward to this, he was talking about it all year. Music is slowly pulling me back in to life.

I am so sorry to hear your awful news. My condolences to you.

**Soave_Fanciulla** · February 11th, 2018, 02:16 AM

I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that I was listening to Cesar Hernandez and not Domingo - perhaps Hernandez is a bit rougher round the edges but the timbre is remarkably similar (Domingo apparently premiered the role). The opera itself is musically more Mascagni than Sciarrino, with Iberian flavour thown in for good measure.

Menotti: Goya
Cesar Hernandez (Goya), Suzanna Guzman (Duchessa), Andrew Wentzel (Manual Goody), Penelope Daner (Queen of Spain), Howard Bender (King of Spain), Boaz Senator (Martin Zapater), Daniele Tonini (Propretor), Karen Nickell (Leocadia), Angela Adams (Maid), Dominic Inferrera (Steward), The Westminster Choir, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Steven Mercurio.

**Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)** · February 11th, 2018, 05:06 AM

Originally Posted by Soave_Fanciulla

I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that I was listening to Cesar Hernandez and not Domingo - perhaps Hernandez is a bit rougher round the edges but the timbre is remarkably similar (Domingo apparently premiered the role). The opera itself is musically more Mascagni than Sciarrino, with Iberian flavour thown in for good measure.

Menotti: Goya
Cesar Hernandez (Goya), Suzanna Guzman (Duchessa), Andrew Wentzel (Manual Goody), Penelope Daner (Queen of Spain), Howard Bender (King of Spain), Boaz Senator (Martin Zapater), Daniele Tonini (Propretor), Karen Nickell (Leocadia), Angela Adams (Maid), Dominic Inferrera (Steward), The Westminster Choir, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Steven Mercurio.

I'm not a big fan of this opera. Did you like it?

**Soave_Fanciulla** · February 11th, 2018, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)

I'm not a big fan of this opera. Did you like it?

It was OK but not memorable.Luckily it was part of my free box set so no regrets.

**MAuer** · February 11th, 2018, 12:29 PM

Conductor/orchestra: Peter Maag, Bavarian Symphony Orchestra
Cast: Ursula Koszut (Leonora), Siegfried Jerusalem (Florestano), Giorgio Tadeo (Rocco), Norbert Orth (Pizzarro), Edita Gruberová (Marcellina), Wolfgang Brendel (Giacchino), John van Kesteren (Don Fernando)

Another recording I hadn't listened to for a while. It's not Fidelio, of course, but I think Paer's opera has its own merits. In any case, I enjoy hearing it. And an interesting side note: the tenor Giulio (Julius) Radichi sang the role of Florestano in the early 19th century, and it was likely based on this that Beethoven hand-picked him to sing Florestan at the premiere of the 1814 final version of Fidelio. I'm aware of only two other tenors to sing both roles: Siegfried Jerusalem and Jonas Kaufmann.

**Hoffmann** · February 11th, 2018, 06:25 PM

I was completely knocked off balance by the loss of a good friend. He was the same age as me but a picture of good health and living and most tragic is his son is due to complete college in the next few weeks and was due to start working with him. He was so much looking forward to this, he was talking about it all year. Music is slowly pulling me back in to life.

Clayton, I'm really sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. It's especially hard when it is a contemporary.

It's not really comparable, but I had similar news of an old college friend who had been the ex-girlfriend of a close friend. She was one of 4 of us that were very close and traveled together when we were students in Germany. She had the most joyful sense of humor and laugh and we were all heavy smokers (I quit right after I graduated). We had been out of touch for decades and she had passed a couple of years ago. Regardless, after her ex forwarded her obit over the holidays, it still came as a shock.

**Florestan** · February 13th, 2018, 05:25 PM

Listened to the Sawallisch 1968 Roma Ring over the weekend. Image of one of the operas in this set:

Listened to the Swallisch 1989 Siegfried last night and tonight plan to listen to the 1989 Sawallisch Gotterdammerung off this wonderful set:

**Soave_Fanciulla** · February 13th, 2018, 06:05 PM

Some wonderful singing in this. Annie would love the bass arias!

Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
Galina Vishnevskaya (Iolanta), Nicolai Gedda (Vaudemont), Walton Gronroos (Robert), Tom Krause (Ibn-Hakia), Dimiter Petkov (René), James Anderson (Almeric), Fernand Dumont (Bertrand), Viorica Cortez (Martha), Tania Gedda (Brigitta)
Groupe Vocal de France & Orchestre de Paris, Mstislav Rostropovich