Verdi's Simon Boccanegra

[knight66]

Thanks a lot !  I am always amazed to see that one has to go back nearly forty years to find a good recording even for operas that  are regularly produced around the world...

Studio recordings are less frequent these days. A generation ago I can recall that the recording industry stuffed out a Caballe opera set about three times a year. No tenor now will exceed Domingo on the variety and duplication of sound recordings of his roles. But I suppose that instead there is a growing array of DVDs. Although I have a fair few, I don't keep up with them in the way I did and do with sound recordings. Productions seem to go out of date quickly and I have made a number of mistakes with DVDs; for instance, the Levine Don Carlo, like a slighly animated waxwork. I might well have enjoyed it as a sound recording, but on screen I did not manage to get to the end of it.

If you do want a DVD of the Boccanegra, I would avoid the Domingo, he is no baritone. I imagine others here have a better grip on the DVD array.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

If you do want a DVD of the Boccanegra, I would avoid the Domingo, he is no baritone. I imagine others here have a better grip on the DVD array.

Mike

I'm no fan of Solti, as you know, Mike, but I seem to remember the Covent Garden production of the opera, with Alexandra Agache as Simon and Te Kanawa at her peak as Amelia being quite good.