What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[André]

I'm not a fan of Duval. She was Poulenc's favourite female singer, composing many parts with her voice in mind. I'll check what's on offer on Youtube. Hopefully there are a few interpretations to choose from.

[pjme]

Duval is indeed an acquired taste.  She belongs in the "canary" department ....but has a certain vocal "chic" , humour and "la langue rapide". I miss warmth...

But together with Poulenc it can be quite elegant...in 1958

https://youtu.be/jbHBoEjKKkY

[André]

This really belongs to the super duper bargain thread, but since itks about opera recordings, here it is:

JPC has a big sale(over 60 titles) of Opera d'Oro discs, retailing at 4.99€ (approx 4€ ex-VAT).

Link:
https://www.jpc.de/s/Opera+d%27Oro+preiswert?searchtype=campaigntext

[André]

Duval is indeed an acquired taste.  She belongs in the "canary" department ....but has a certain vocal "chique" , humour and "la langue rapide". I miss warmth...

But together with Poulenc it can be quite elegant...in 1958

https://youtu.be/jbHBoEjKKkY

Very good description, pjme! Precisely why I'm not sure she's the ticket in La voix. But I could be dead wrong. Need to investigate...

[knight66]

I don't know the Poulenc disc, but I do have a recording of her singing Britten's Les Illuminations, which I like very much.

Thanls for the further VM suggestion, I will have a look at it.

I have the Britten disc you illustrated. And that very neatly highlights my reservations about Lott. If you for example hear Heather Harper on Les Illuminations, you hear much more colour and flavour and bite. For me Lott is a classical Julie Andrews.

Mike

[pjme]

I have the Britten disc you illustrated. And that very neatly highlights my reservations about Lott. If you for example hear Heather Harper on Les Illuminations, you hear much more colour and flavour and bite. For me Lott is a classical Julie Andrews.

Mike

The performance of Les illuminations by Heather Harper is absolutely gorgeous. Has it been reissued on CD?

Peter

[North Star]

The performance of Les illuminations by Heather Harper is absolutely gorgeous. Has it been reissued on CD?

Peter

It's at least included in this splendid box, Peter.

[asin]B001EOOC3W[/asin]

E: And also in this smaller set

[asin]B00D56AD9E[/asin]

[Tsaraslondon]

Sãvitri - Janet Baker
Satyavãn - Robert Tear
Death - Thomas Hemsley

Purcell Singers, English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Holst

Holst's short (30') opera Sãvitri is a concentrated mini masterpiece, and well worth listening to.

This well cast version, with the wonderful Dame Janet Baker as the eponymous heroine, and the composer's daughter Imogen Holst conducting, has a special magic all its own. The other works on the disc are equally lovely.

Recommended.

[Tsaraslondon]

Thanls for the further VM suggestion, I will have a look at it.

I have the Britten disc you illustrated. And that very neatly highlights my reservations about Lott. If you for example hear Heather Harper on Les Illuminations, you hear much more colour and flavour and bite. For me Lott is a classical Julie Andrews.

Mike

I understand what you are saying, and I suppose I'm mostly responding to the beauty of the voice. I do prefer the songs sung by a soprano.

I only ever heard Lott live once - at a performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass, and she sang beautifully, and looked stunning.

[ritter]

...

I only ever heard Lott live once - at a performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass, and she sang beautifully, and looked stunning.

i've seen Felicity Lott live three times, at different stages of her career, and each occasion was very enjoyable. First, as the Countess in Le nozze di Fígaro in the mid 80s in Chicago, then as the Marschallin in the mid 90s at the Teatro Real, and finally the aforementioned La voix humaine in 2011. A very elegant singer, with a great stage presence and (I insist), one who pays very close attention to the sung texts.

Sãvitri - Janet Baker
Satyavãn - Robert Tear
Death - Thomas Hemsley

Purcell Singers, English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Holst

Holst's short (30') opera Sãvitri is a concentrated mini masterpiece, and well worth listening to.

This well cast version, with the wonderful Dame Janet Baker as the eponymous heroine, and the composer's daughter Imogen Holst conducting, has a special magic all its own. The other works on the disc are equally lovely.

Recommended.

i'm not really an admirer of Holst's music, but Sāvitri is a work I would want to explore. Thanks for the recommendation, Tsaraslondon. I'll look that CD up.

THREAD DUTY:

In the wake if seeing Die Meistersinger live st the Bayreuth Festspielhaus a couple of weeks ago, listening to this glorious opera recorded at the same venue, but 67 years earlier:

[asin]B00008IHVN[/asin]

This, along with Knappertsbusch's version for Decca, was the first commercial recording of the piece. It has a sense of occasion to it, as it was dome in the first postwar festival. Otto Edelmann is a good Sachs, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is more palatable to me as Eva than in other roles, but Hans Hopf is an unsubtle Walther. The real star here IMO is Erich Kunz as Beckmesser. All in all, a nice performance, but one that has been superseded over the years.

[pjme]

It's at least included in this splendid box, Peter.
E: And also in this smaller set

[asin]B00D56AD9E[/asin]

Thanks! I definitely want that smaller set (I have many works by Britten).  I look forward to hear Heather Harper again . Les Illuminations is a favorite Britten work .

Peter

[ritter]

Heather Harper is excellent in her recording of Ravel's Shéhérzade as well:

[asin]B00000DS0D[/asin]

Wholeheartedly recommended!

[knight66]

Sãvitri - Janet Baker
Satyavãn - Robert Tear
Death - Thomas Hemsley

Purcell Singers, English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Holst

Holst's short (30') opera Sãvitri is a concentrated mini masterpiece, and well worth listening to.

This well cast version, with the wonderful Dame Janet Baker as the eponymous heroine, and the composer's daughter Imogen Holst conducting, has a special magic all its own. The other works on the disc are equally lovely.

Recommended.

I think this is a magical gem of an opera, a short three hander with a minor off-stage chorus. I saw Baker in this in what was supposed to be a double bill, the other opera was Dido and Aneas. Everything went as you would expect, terrifically. However, sandwiched between the two more established works was another one act work called Fanny Robin by Edward Harper. This was added after we had booked the tickets. It is based on an incident in Far From the Madding Crowd and had a separate cast. It did not find favour with audiences and I never heard of it again. The conductor was John Currie who was our chorus master. He is still alive, though very unwell and looked after in a nursing home.

Anyway, back to the recording in question which is my preferred version, conducted by Holst's daughter. It is not like any other piece I know, very much a chamber opera in scale and influenced by Holst's interest in Indian sacred music. It really ought to be much more widely known.

Mike

[knight66]

Thanks! I definitely want that smaller set (I have many works by Britten).  I look forward to hear Heather Harper again . Les Illuminations is a favorite Britten work .

Peter

It may be available second hand, but the BBC/IPM issued a live prom version which was paired with My Hunting Fathers and the Four French Songs. There is a variety of conductors, but what a disc for showing what Harper could do.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Galina Gorchakova, Larissa Dyadkova, Sergei Larin, Sergei Leiferkus, Anatoly Kotscherga

Chorus of Royal Opera, Stockholm, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi.

Mazeppa is probably Tchaikovsky's most performed opera after Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, though it is still rarely performend in the West.

Though there is some great music, and, as always with Tchaikovsky, a wealth of wonderful tunes, it lacks the intimate, deeply felt lyricism of Onegin or the intensely dramatic pull of The Queen of Spades, which could explain its comparative neglect. Tchaikovsky seems less engaged with his subject.

This performance, recorded in Sweden with a splendid cast of Russian singers, makes a great case for it though.

[ritter]

First viewing of this recent purchase:

[asin]B000NIWI9A[/asin]

Wow! Just wow! I would never have thought that a film version of an opera (the singers lip sync the prerecorded soundtrack) could be so compelling! A superb cast (who have been clearly coached to adapt there acting to the screen medium, so different from the operatic stage), the great Bruno Maderna leading a perfectly paced performance, and really accomplished cinematography.

I had seen (many, many years ago—in a cinema) Die Meistersinger from this same Hamburg State Opera series—actually, that was the first time I saw Die Meistersinger rather than just listening to it—, but I don't remember it being anything as good as this Wozzeck.

Wow! 

[JBS]

First viewing of this recent purchase:

[asin]B000NIWI9A[/asin]

Wow! Just wow! I would never have thought that a film version of an opera (the singers lip sync the prerecorded soundtrack) could be so compelling! A superb cast (who have been clearly coached to adapt there acting to the screen medium, so different from the operatic stage), the great Bruno Maderna leading a perfectly paced performance, and really accomplished cinematography.

I had seen (many, many years ago—in a cinema) Die Meistersinger from this same Hamburg State Opera series—actually, that was the first time I saw Die Meistersinger rather than just listening to it—, but I don't remember it being anything as good as this Wozzeck.

Wow! 

I think Richard Cassilly deserves more attention than he usually gets.
But I think that cover deserves a place in the Ugly CD thread.
Unless they were actually using a rope through his ears to floss his brain.

[Draško]

Act II

During mid 50s Decca recorded seven Russian operas, in stereo, here in Belgrade with forces of Belgrade National Opera. Operas in question were Godunov, Khovanshchina, Prince Igor, Ivan Susanin, Onegin, Pique Dame and The Snow Maiden. Conducting was divided between Oskar Danon and Kresimir Baranovic, and the singers in most major parts were Miroslav Cangalovic, Zarko Cvejic (basses), Dusan Popovic (baritone), Miro Brajnik, Drago Starc (tenors), Veronika Heybal (soprano), Biserka Cvejic (mezzo), Melanija Bugarinovic (alto).

I'm quite excited, even if happens that the time has run over the performances, because I never had the chance to hear any of them before. None of them were ever released locally, and even in England and US releases were mostly mono, and this Eloquence series is first ever official CD release. They plan on releasing all seven, so far the two Mussorgsky's, Susanin and Prince Igor.

So far I've heard first two acts of Prince Igor and I'm quite pleasantly surprised with the quality of singing, especially Popovic as Igor and Bugarinovic as Konchakovna, choir is very good, conducting is tight and vigorous and mid 50s stereo is excellent.

[Tsaraslondon]

This magical set has certainly withstood the test of time. Schürhoff's Witch is possibly a bit over the top, but everything else is just about perfect.

[Tsaraslondon]

In all but recorded sound, Khaikin's wonderful account of Tchaikovsky's most popular opera sweeps the board. Aside from Khaikin's masterful, brilliantly detailed but spontaneous sounding conducting, its chief asset is the young Vishnevskaya's girlishly impulsive and totally adorable Tatyana, almost passionately erotic in the Letter Scene, but growing to full maturity in the final scene. Lemeshev is a bit over the hill for Lensky, but sings as stylishly as ever, Belov makes a suitably reserved, sardonic Onegin and Petrov makes a strong impression in Gremin's beautiful Act III aria.