What opera have you been listening to, lately?

[Florestan]

[MAuer]

Needed some Mozart.

[Florestan]

Needed some Mozart.

While I am not a Mozart fan, that particular recording has an excellent cast of ladies. Sometimes I will check out an opera not for the libretto but for the singers. And this one is tempting.

[MAuer]

The only odd bit with this recording is the casting of Maria Casula as Vitellia -- you'd probably enjoy her very plush mezzo, but it has the rather strange effect of giving the lady a deeper voice than the two "gentlemen" of Berganza (Sesto) and Fassbänder (Annio). (Vitellia is usually sung by a soprano.) My fave, of course, is the tenor in the title role, Werner Krenn. And Popp is a lovely Servilia.

[Florestan]

I have been listening to a lot but have been too lazy to keep posting everything. Forgot half what I've listened to in the past several weeks. But right now this is playing in my left ear.

[Florestan]

[Florestan]

[Florestan]

It is a very good recording, but not sure it is needed if you have the Gergiev 1869 recording. Wait for the prices to come down as this one is quite pricy.


EDIT: Just found a review and it more or less concludes as I note above.
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com...ew-1869-boris/

Bottom line: If you already own Gergiev’s double-Boris set, you won’t really need this recording except for the spectacular sound...

[terrased]

Just picked this up today. Price is amazing, Corelli overdoes it a bit. Very nice recording!

[Florestan]

[Florestan]

Just finishing up Gotterdammerung. Hildegard Behrens is awesome! And she gets a lot of play in Gotterdammerung. Going to have to go back and listen to my Levine set see how she compares there vs the Sawallisch set.

Incidently, I have heard a lot of folks say that Solti's is the ultimate Ring on disk, but I never was that enthused with it. Here is a Gramopone article that rates this Sawallish set higher than Solti for a number of reasons.

But I am liking Behrens so much that I am listening to this next:

[Florestan]

[MAuer]

I have the video version of the Met/Levine Ring with Jerusalem as Siegfried, but I've always liked Goldberg as well. Speaking of whom, a blurb in the September-October issue of Opernwelt notes that Herr Goldberg will be celebrating his 80th birthday next month -- and he's still appearing onstage, though now in minor roles such as Ulrich Eisslinger in Die Meistersinger.

[Florestan]

I have the video version of the Met/Levine Ring with Jerusalem as Siegfried, but I've always liked Goldberg as well. Speaking of whom, a blurb in the September-October issue of Opernwelt notes that Herr Goldberg will be celebrating his 80th birthday next month -- and he's still appearing onstage, though now in minor roles such as Ulrich Eisslinger in Die Meistersinger.

I never realized that Jerusalem was not on the CD (but quite clear from the cover). I thought the CDs were simply the sound track of the DVD, but apparently not. Must be more like Bernstein's Fidelio where they did the CD tracks in the studio and switched out one of the singers. Anyway, here my next one on my listening list:

[MAuer]

Another audio Ring released around the same time on the EMI label (Haitink conducts) has Jerusalem as the two Siegfrieds and Goldberg as Siegmund. Eva Marton sings Brünnhilde, with Cheryl Studer as Sieglinde.