Topic: What Are Some Lesser-Known Operas You'd Like to Get to Know ON CD?

[Superhorn]

   I've heard recordings of hundreds of different operas over the years from Monteverdi to contemporary ,on LP and CD. And that doesn't count the operas I've heard multiple recordings of.
 But there are so many I want to get to know on CD. Here's a random list.
 Chabrier "L'Etoile. Wagner: Die Feen.Das Liebesverbot. Richard Strauss: Feuersnot. Lalo: Le Roi D'Ys. Moniuszko: Halka.The Haunted Castle.
Rossini: Mose in Egitto. Le Comte Ory.Matilde di Chabran. Verdi: Oberto.
 Kutavicius: Lokys(The Bear). Hans Krasa:Verlobung Im Traum(Part of Decca Degenerate Music series). Zemlinsky: Der Zwerg. Eugene D'Albert: Die Toten Augen. Busoni:Die Brautwahl. Hindemith:Die Harmonie Der Welt.
 Siegfried Wagner (son of Richard) Der Barenhauter, and several others.
 Rimsky-Kprsakov : The Golden Cockerel.

  I could go on.  Do other people here have other operas they'd like to get to know on CD?  I'd like to hear.

[Anne]

There are several operas by Schubert.  I understand he had trouble with the librettos.  I was thinking I might listen for his melodies.  Several of them have videos or DVD's.

[Sarastro]

Mose in Egitto
Le Comte Ory
The Golden Cockerel

How come those are lesser-known operas? I've heard at least three recordings of each. Besides, Mose in Egitto is the reconstructed Italian version of the french version Moïse et Pharaon, which I heard two recordings of... Schubert's opera Alfonso and Estrella made me understand why Schubert is not recognized as a good opera composer.

[Tsaraslondon]

Surprisingly, there are still a few Verdi operas I haven't heard

Oberto
I lombardi (and it's French version Jerusalem)
I due Foscari
Alzira
Aroldo (the revised version of Stiffelio)

All the others I already have on CD.

[Superhorn]

  Sarastro, you may have several recordings of those operas, but they're still not performed very often by opera companies.

[Subotnick]

I'd like to get to know Schubert's operas too Anne. I have heard so much of his other work, but not one of these. I'll go looking later, but I'm sure recommendations will trickle or flood in.

[Superhorn]

   Schubert's "Fierrabras",which is set in the middle ages and deals with the conflict between the Moors and crusaders, has a very appealing score,but the plot is impossibly convoluted and makes that of Il Trovatore look like child's play.
  I don't know if the live DG performance from Vienna with Abbado and the Chamber orchestra of Europe with a distinguished cast is still available, but it's worth looking for.

[Sarastro]

  Sarastro, you may have several recordings of those operas, but they're still not performed very often by opera companies.

Maybe, they are not very often performed around the place you live at, but those three operas are not as rare in Europe as you think. Moïse et Pharaon is being staged in Salzburg this year, and some time ago I listened to a broadcast of Mose in Egitto, heard of a production of it on the Wildbad Festival last year, Australian production...and I'm not really into opera news. If you make a little research, you would probably find that those operas are quite frequently staged. Of course, one cannot compare them to the popularity of La Traviata, for instance, but stil...they are performed, unlike some operas that have never been performed - just recorded in studio, or even never been recorded at all.

[abidoful]

Schubert operas, Faure's operas, Duka's opera, Pfitzner...

[False_Dmitry]

I'd like to get to know Schubert's operas too Anne.

Actually you wouldn't

It's a bit like going to a restaurant and ordering roast swan.  The idea sounds novel and possibly appealing.  But...

[abidoful]

Actually you wouldn't

It's a bit like going to a restaurant and ordering roast swan.  The idea sounds novel and possibly appealing.  But...

That doesn't seem conceiveble to me- how could an opera by Schubert be something that is totally without any merits?

[Bulldog]

   Schubert's "Fierrabras",which is set in the middle ages and deals with the conflict between the Moors and crusaders, has a very appealing score,but the plot is impossibly convoluted and makes that of Il Trovatore look like child's play.
  I don't know if the live DG performance from Vienna with Abbado and the Chamber orchestra of Europe with a distinguished cast is still available, but it's worth looking for.

Although it's no longer in print, one can get it as an ArkivCD.

[mc ukrneal]

For those interested, Schubert's Freunde von Salamanka is available on Brilliant.

[abidoful]

Although it's no longer in print, one can get it as an ArkivCD.

For those interested, Schubert's Freunde von Salamanka is available on Brilliant.

I come across with quite a few Schubert stage/theater works by browsing Amazon.com/Amazon.uk.com.

[listener]

I'd get these on CD or DVD if they had been recorded:
Holst: The Perfect Fool
Moszkowski: Boabdil, King of the Moors
(Spohr's Alruna, Queen of the Owls if it were really inexpensive, just to have the title.  One of the numbers is available as a clarinet&piano duo)

[Guido]

Osud, Die Schweigsame Frau and three by Schreker are all next for me.

[Superhorn]

  In the meantime I've gotten a chance to hear recordings of several of the operas on my wish list:  Feuersnot,L'Etotoile, The Golden Cockerel,Die Harmonie Der Welt,
 and Matilde Di Chabran. 
  I liked all very much.  Matilde features Juan Diego Florez and Annick Massis,conducted by Riccardo Frizza(who recently led the Met premiere of Armida) on Decca,live from the Pesaro festival in Rossini's home town on Decca. 
  Florez plays a rabid mysoginist who is charmed into marriage by the lovely Matilde.
   The long-forgotten score is prime Rossini and by all means get this!
  Feuersnot has Bernd Weikl and Julia Varady,with Heinz Fricke conducting on an obscure label I can't recall offhand.  This is the second Strauss opera and great fun;it should be better known.
   Die Harmonie der Welt(The harmony of the world) is an interesting opera about the life of the great astronomer Johannes Kepler.L'Etoile is also delightful and was recently done by the New York City Opera. The Golden Cockerel is on a Capriccio CD with an all Bulgarian cast,conductor and orchestra. I recommend all of these recordings.

[False_Dmitry]

(Spohr's Alruna, Queen of the Owls if it were really inexpensive, just to have the title.  One of the numbers is available as a clarinet&piano duo)

It is indeed an extraordinary title!  I like Spohr's music (he was completely overlooked last year among the Big Boy anniversaries) but I've never heard this at all, and had no idea it existed.

Osud

As mentioned on another thread, I rate this short (single-cd) opera very highly.   It has some stupendous music in it.  The opening is audacious...  a spa-town waltz that emerges quickly out of a whirling chaos of strings.  I'm sure Handel would have approved - it's an opera in which someone really does push the soprano out of the window!   The sudden leaps in chronology in the plot would make it ideal material for a "filmed for dvd" production - Doubek has to age about 14 years between the end of the first act, and the end of the opera.  It's one of the few operas I can think of in which the cast are rehearsing a different opera on-stage during the action    The Gerd Albrecht recording is very good, but has some hideous singing from "Mila's mother", which might be intended to sound "drunken and deranged" as the character is - but actually just sounds awful   There's a Mackerras recording with WNO, but sung in English in the "Peter Moores" series.

[Guido]

It is indeed an extraordinary title!  I like Spohr's music (he was completely overlooked last year among the Big Boy anniversaries) but I've never heard this at all, and had no idea it existed.

As mentioned on another thread, I rate this short (single-cd) opera very highly.   It has some stupendous music in it.  The opening is audacious...  a spa-town waltz that emerges quickly out of a whirling chaos of strings.  I'm sure Handel would have approved - it's an opera in which someone really does push the soprano out of the window!   The sudden leaps in chronology in the plot would make it ideal material for a "filmed for dvd" production - Doubek has to age about 14 years between the end of the first act, and the end of the opera.  It's one of the few operas I can think of in which the cast are rehearsing a different opera on-stage during the action    The Gerd Albrecht recording is very good, but has some hideous singing from "Mila's mother", which might be intended to sound "drunken and deranged" as the character is - but actually just sounds awful   There's a Mackerras recording with WNO, but sung in English in the "Peter Moores" series.

I was planning to get the Mackerras recording - is the other one preferential? Didn't realise it was in English.

[False_Dmitry]

I was planning to get the Mackerras recording - is the other one preferential? Didn't realise it was in English.

There's also a third complete recording now available, the Brno Janacek Opera under Frantiszek Jilek (who is highly rated as a Janacek interpreter) - but I haven't yet heard it.  Yes, the Mackerras recording is in English - if you pop into the Amazon site, you can hear some clips to see if you'd find this either attractive or repellent

PS just found there is a longer clip of the Mackerras OSUD (opening section) on YouTube if you'd like to audition it before purchase?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A54LvgpJcQE 
Philip Langridge, Helen Field, Kathryn Harries, Stuart Kale, and the amazing WNO chorus - what's not to like?