What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Tsaraslondon]

A performance which has become the stuff of legends. My review here.

The Callas Karajan Lucia di Lammermoor – Berlin 195

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the WAYLTN thread:

Revisiting Erich Leinsdorf's classic, star-studded recording of Così fan tutte:

[Florestan]

Ditto:

An Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, a Spaniard and an Italian (individualized as such by talk, accent and pronunciation) shipwreck on a beautiful island. Upon learning it's the island of the sorceress Alcina, they collectively vow not to let themselves succumb to her charms, but no sooner do they see her than the vows are forgotten (though constantly invoked by each and every one of them as a reminder to the others: Amici, il giuramento!) and they take turns in declaring their love. And this is just the beginning.

One can only dream about what Rossini or Offenbach would have made of such a libretto so we have to make do with Gazzaniga. 

[Tsaraslondon]

Though Callas sang more performances of Tosca than she did of Medea, I consider the Cherubini opera the fourth cornerstone of her career, the others being Norma, Violetta and Lucia. Considering Medea was hardly known at all before she sang it in Florence in 1953, it is remarkable so many productions were mounted for her - in Florence, at La Scala (twice), in Rome, in Dallas, in London and in Epidaurus. This performance came after Bing's notorious "sacking" of Callas from the Met and there is no doubt it fired her up to give one of the most thrillingly intense performances of her career.

Callas sings Medea – Dallas, November 1958

[atardecer]

Mozart - La clemenza di Tito 

[Florestan]

An Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, a Spaniard and an Italian (individualized as such by talk, accent and pronunciation) shipwreck on a beautiful island. Upon learning it's the island of the sorceress Alcina, they collectively vow not to let themselves succumb to her charms, but no sooner do they see her than the vows are forgotten (though constantly invoked by each and every one of them as a reminder to the others: Amici, il giuramento!) and they take turns in declaring their love. And this is just the beginning.

One can only dream about what Rossini or Offenbach would have made of such a libretto so we have to make do with Gazzaniga. 

Actually, it's not at all bad. The libretto is funny (the Baron von Brikbrak's part is hilarious, the way he speaks Italian and especially the way he reads it must have provoked waves of laughter in the opera house), the music is enjoyable and the performance is quite good.

[atardecer]

Mozart - Così Fan Tutte

1992 France
Amanda Roocroft - Fiordiligi
Rosa Mannion - Dorabella
Rodney Gilfry - Guglielmo
Rainer Trost - Ferrando
Eirian James - Despina
Claudio Nicolai - Don Alfonso
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner - Conductor
Peter Mumford - Director
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Music
Lorenzo Da Ponte - Libretto

[Florestan]

[JBS]

Spending the afternoon with Norrington's Don Giovanni

In essence, he gives the Prague version. The music unique to the Vienna version (52 minutes worth) is served separately on the third CD.

[atardecer]

Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro

The 1976 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle film with Hermann Prey, Mirella Freni, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kiri Te Kanawa & Maria Ewing. Conducted by Karl Böhm with the Wiener Philharmoniker

[JBS]

Some Puccini I've never heard before.

Not surprisingly it sounds like it was composed by the guy who composed Madama Butterfly or La Boheme.

This seems to have been issued four different times. The most available version seems to be this one. Cast listing and other details on the back cover.

It's a live recording, although I'm not sure it was a staged version or a concert version.

[Florestan]

It's a live recording, although I'm not sure it was a staged version or a concert version.

If there are no audible stage noises and the voices don't move around then it's probably a concert version.

[ritter]

If there are no audible stage noises and the voices don't move around then it's probably a concert version.

From what Ive read, it was a fully staged performance at the Festival dela Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca in 1994. That festival specialises in resurrecting forgotten / obscure works (or lesser-known versions of familiar repertoire).

I do not know that recording, but the absence of stage noise surprises me. I have a live recording form the same venue, also on the Dynamic label, of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, and one would think that the carpenters were still finishing the sets during the performance (what appears like insistent hammering is well present in the sound picture -- just as well, as it partly drowns the terrible music  ).

[atardecer]

Mozart - Idomeneo
John Eliot Gardiner • English Baroque Soloists, 1990

[Papy Oli]

A first listen to Bartok's Bluebeard' Castle (with Alsop on Naxos - one of their free downloads this month)

[Wendell_E]

Some Puccini I've never heard before.

Not surprisingly it sounds like it was composed by the guy who composed Madama Butterfly or La Boheme.

Le Villi here as well, a DVD from the Festival Euro Mediterraneo, 31 July 2004, with Albert Montserrat, Andrea Rola, Halla Margret, conducted by Tamás Pál. I'd rented it from Netflix back in 2010, but got it again to preview my local company's (Mobile Opera) upcoming production.

[atardecer]

I've been on a Mozart opera kick lately having listened to - La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Idomeneo. Now for the finale I'm going to listen to Don Giovanni. (I omitted The Magic Flute because I know that one already more than these others.)

I've enjoyed all of these operas immensely, they each have their own unique charm, and are staggering in their scope and brilliance.

Mozart - Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni - Rodney Gilfry
Leporello - László Polgár
Donna Anna - Isabel Rey
Don Ottavio - Roberto Saccà
Donna Elvira - Cecilia Bartoli
Zerlina - Liliana Nikiteanu
Masetto - Oliver Widmer
Commendatore - Matti Salminen
Conductor - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Director - Brian Large

[JBS]

Relatively good.
Recorded live: applause but no stage noise, so I presume it's a concert performance.

[Florestan]

Relatively good.
Recorded live: applause but no stage noise, so I presume it's a concert performance.

Recorded live at the Concertgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam on 16 November 1992 (as per the back cover).

[Tsaraslondon]

For the Callas centenary I've written an article detailing the chronology of her stage roles. This has prompted me to start my next listening project - at least one recording of all Callas's roles of which we have a record in the order she sang them on stage (not in the order she recorded them).

So far I've listened to Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca, La Gioconda and have just started on Turandot.