What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Today's listening: an opera I've never heard before

I don't know that one either.  How are the tempos by the way?  I still remember being aghast at his fast tempos in Tchaikovsky...for me anyway, it took away from the magic and charm of the ballet.

PD

[JBS]

I don't know that one either.  How are the tempos by the way?  I still remember being aghast at his fast tempos in Tchaikovsky...for me anyway, it took away from the magic and charm of the ballet.

PD

Didn't seem wrong, but I had nothing to compare it to. And of course the singers and staging would have influence on the pacing( it's a live recording).

[Wendell_E]

Was that the laser light show Ring?  I watched it if so.

That's how it starts, in any case, to depict the depths of the Rhine. From images I've seen I know the lasers return, but they're not constantly present.

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas first sang the role of Fiorilla in 1950 at the tiny Teatro Eliseo in Rome, though all that survives of that performance is a recording of her singing the aria Non si da follia maggiore. It comes as a surprise at this stage of her career, when she was more associated with dramatic soprano roles like Isolde, Brünnhilde, Kundry, Turandot and Aida, but it does herald the direction her career would take. After a concert performance of Parsifal, she never sang another Wagner role and even Aida had departed her repertoire before she recorded the Rossini opera, which was made in 1954, the year before she sang the role again at La Scala in a production by Franco Zeffirelli. Textually inaccurate it might be, but it is pure joy from beginning to end.

http://tsaraslondon.com/2017/01/08/il-turco-in-italia/

[Henk]

After having listened to many Handel opera some time ago, now some Mozart with Böhm.

[Wendell_E]

Tuesday, the 17 through Thursday, the 19th

The Barenboim/Kupfer Ring on Blu-ray, Die Walküre one act per night.

Poul Elming: Siegmund
Matthias Hölle: Hunding
John Tomlinson: Wotan
Nadine Secunde: Sieglinde
Anne Evans: Brünnhilde
Linda Finnie: Fricka
Eva Johansson: Gerhilde
Ruth Floreen: Ortlinde
Shirley Close: Waltraute
Hitomi Katagiri: Schwertleite
Eva-Maria Bundschuh: Helmwige
Birgitta Svendén: Grimgerde
Hebe Dijkstra: Rossweisse

Now a break from the Ring, with the Met season premiere of Un Ballo in Maschera on Sirius/XM tonight, and their production of Dead Man Walking Live in HD Saturday afternoon.

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas frst sang Violetta in Florence in 1951, a role with which she became particularly associated, especially after this famous Visconti production in 1955, which represented a huge step forward in her conquering of the role's dramatic possibilities. She is in great voice here, but I still prefer London 1958, which is even more subtly and truthfully interpreted. One of the stumbling blocks of this performance, for me anyway, is Bastianini who pours forth his voice at an unstinting and unvaried forte or mezzoforte. That Callas can do as much as she does with the second act duet with so little coming back from her partner is little short of miraculous, but she does far more in Lisbon and London with Sereni and Zanasi, both of whom are much more sympathetic partners.

Still, this was obviously a thrilling night in the theatre and there are some fabulous moments, such as the impassioned Amami, Alfredo which provokes a spontaneous round of applause. It just doesn't quite add up to the shatteringly moving performance she does (with less voice) in London in 1958.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Tuesday, the 17 through Thursday, the 19th

Now a break from the Ring, with the Met season premiere of Un Ballo in Maschera on Sirius/XM tonight, and their production of Dead Man Walking Live in HD Saturday afternoon.

I was quite impressed when I watched Dead Man Walking (then with Susan Graham in it) on t.v.  I purchased the then only available recording of it on CD.

Have you seen it before Wendell?

PD

[Wendell_E]

I was quite impressed when I watched Dead Man Walking (then with Susan Graham in it) on t.v.  I purchased the then only available recording of it on CD.

Have you seen it before Wendell?

PD

I also bought that first recording when it was released. I've seen it three times: In New Orleans in March 2016, and both performances when Pensacola Opera did almost exactly a year later. I also heard the broadcast of the Met premiere last month. Susan Graham's in the Met production as well, but now as the murderer's mother.

[Tsaraslondon]

The Testament issue of this famous performance is taken from a private recording made for Walter Legge. The sound is somewhat clearer than most transfers that had been heard before, but it omits the overture and Testament, rather than including it from an inferior source, have issued just what Walter Legge recorded, which has the advantage of getting the opera onto two lengthy CDs.

It was after these performances in Florence that Ghiringhelli finally capitulated to Callas and offered her a permanent contract at La Scala. She opened the 1951/1952 season in the same opera, though it was conducted there by Victor De Sabata. Callas is a wonwderful Elena but she never sang the role again after the La Scala production. The opera is probably the least performed of all Verdi's middle period operas, I suppose, but I've come to appreciate it more and more over the years.

Callas in I Vespri Siciliani – Florence 1951
 

[Wendell_E]

I thought the Met's Dead Man Walking in HD was very good, even better than the productions I'd seen previously. Unfortunately, there was a buzziness in the sound that began with HD hostess Rhiannon Giddens' introduction and persisted for quite a while. It either got better or maybe I just learned to ignore it. It seems to have only been a problem in the theatre where I saw it. I'll definitely buy a DVD/Blu-ray if they release one. Surprising that as often as it's been produced (over 70 productions were mentioned) there hasn't been one already.

[Tsaraslondon]

I have a confession to make. I don't think I much like Rossini's serious operas, with the possible exception of Guillaume Tell. I'm fairly sure that, were it not for the presence of Callas on absolutely blistering form, I'd be happy never to listen to this one again. I feel much the same about Semiramide.

The sound of this famous recording is also a problem, but, again, it's worth persevering just for the sake of Callas. Though I was listening to this warts and all Divina issue, I'm afraid I skipped the tracks where a male voice at a slow speed is overlaid onto the music. Just too much to cope with. Still, Callas is amazing. I have never in my life heard dramatic coloratura singing of such assurance and such power, and I doubt anyone will ever again. The role of the sorceress Armida fits her like a glove, and yet she never sang the opera again.

Callas in Armida – Florence 1952

[JBS]

I don't particularly like Semiramide, but I think Armida is much better. For one thing, the plot is less contrived and more logical, even though it is more overtly fantastic/magical.

Anyway, listening to Smetana's Prodaná Nevêsta


Sung here in German, from 1962.

If Wikipedia is correct, the Czech title most accurately translates as The Sold Bride. I've seen this opera once, in a touring Met production c 1978 or 1979.
I'm not sure if I've heard it since.

[Tsaraslondon]

The latest Divina Hi-Res transfer of this famous performance is fantastic and so much better than any of the transfers I've heard before. The sound is comparable to mono studio recordings of the period and consequently the performances seems even better than it did before. What a thrilling night this must have been.

The Callas Karajan Lucia di Lammermoor – Berlin 1955

[Wendell_E]

Siegfried, from the Barenboim/Kupfer Bayreuth Ring on Blu-ray:

Siegfried Jerusalem: Siegfried
Graham Clark: Mime
John Tomlinson: Wanderer
Günter von Kannen: Alberich
Philip Kang: Fafner
Anne Evans: Brünnhilde
Birgitta Svendén: Erda
Hilde Leidland: Waldvogel

[Tsaraslondon]

At the same Mexico season of 1952 as she first sang Lucia, Callas added Gilda to her repertoire. A recording of one of the performances sounds under-rehearsed and a bit of a mess and she never sang the role on stage again, which is rather a shame, for she is a wonderful Gilda on this famous recording with Gobbi as Rigoletto. Though Serafin makes the cuts traditional at the time, the recording has almost attained the classic status of the De Sabata Tosca.

Callas and Gobbi in Rigoletto

[ando]

Well, I'm up watching Stefano Montanari's 2017 take on a live (taped) performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Not crazy about the staging (it's awful, actually), the singing is varied but the orchestra is wonderful. I'll come up with a more cogent assessment after I've watched it but I'm enjoying the goings on so far...

[ritter]

Walton: Troilus and Cressida. Janet Baker, Richard Cassidy, Gerald English et al., Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lawrence Foster (cond.).

Act II



"We're in for a storm. Ah, here it comes!
The first enormous drops,
Big as Egyptian shillings!" 

[Tsaraslondon]

Every time I hear this legendary performance it impresses me more, not just for Callas's peerless performances of the role of Lady Macbeth, but for the splendid contribution of the La Scala orchestra and chorus under the baton of Victor De Sabata. If only it were accorded the sound of his studio recording of Tosca made the following year. As it is, the sound on this Warner release is a good deal better than the awful, murky EMI that preceded it.

You would never believe Callas was singing the role for the first time, so assured is her performance. The one mystery is that she never sang the role again after this series of performances at La Scala.



Callas's Lady Macbeth

[Wendell_E]

Concluding the Barenboim/Kupfer Ring production with Götterdämmerung:

Siegfried Jerusalem: Siegfried
Bodo Brinkmann: Gunther
Philip Kang: Hagen
Günter von Kannen: Alberich
Anne Evans: Brünnhilde
Eva-Maria Bundschuh: Gutrune
Waltraud Meier: Waltraute
Birgitta Svendén: 1. Norn
Linda Finnie: 2. Norn
Uta Priew: 3. Norn
Hilde Leidland: Woglinde
Annette Küttenbaum: Wellgunde
Jane Turner: Flosshilde