What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[JBS]

Okay, that does make sense. Thanks a lot for the explanation ad the further insight into opera film production at that time - I have no knowledge about that.

The Swarowski Don Giovanni on Preiser is oop alas and the "evil" place nearby doesn't have a remaining copy in stock (I bought about ten other things though, but no opera).

If you do vinyl,  Amazon US has two listings....
https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Chorus-Swarowsky-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B079V1FVPY/
https://www.amazon.com/Hans-Swarowsky-Vienna-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B01N1HGC8J/

[king ubu]

Sorry to hear that. Now that you mention it, I recall that when I got it, it was already OOP, and it wasn't cheap at all (but I wanted to have Stabile as the Don). I know, I know, it's in bad taste to say that just the recording that is virtually unobtainable is a really worthwhile one.  But I do hope the other ten things you got  were worthwhile. 

Deleted in 2014 their notes said ... they had about ten other Dons, but I have a dozen or so already, so ...

[Tsaraslondon]

Soundwise one of the best of all the La Scala live broadcasts, though not as clear as the studio recording made the previous year, also with Di Stefano, but with Votto in the pit. Despite that I would, in all but one instance, prefer this live performance to the studio recording.

Chief among its virtues is the much more propulsive and dramatically alive conducting of Gianandrea Gavazzeni. By comparison Votto, though he accompanies his singers well, is dull and prosaic.

The cast here on what was a stellar night for La Scala could hardly have been bettered. Callas is in enviable form, singing with the kind of assurance she was rarely able to achieve after the Rome walkout the following January, which garnered some of the most vitriolic tabloid press of her career. Her voice rides the orchestra with power to spare, and yet she still executes all the intricate details, such as trills and gruppeti with an accuracy that would be the envy of much lighter sopranos. Indeed her trills are much more cleanly articulated than those of the occasionally shrill Oscar of Eugenia Ratti. Di Stefano is also on top form in a role to which his natural charm and ebullience were well suited. If he lacks a certain sense of nobility, well we should remember that this production sets us firmly in America, not in the Swedish court of Gusrave III. Simionato's darkly misterious Ulrica is powerhouse casting in a relatively small role and Bastianini is in gloriously rich voice as Renato, his singing of Eri tu earning him one of the greatest rounds of applause of the evening. However, this is one of the only instances in which I would prefer the studio performance, for, though Bastianini has the more naturally Verdian voice, Gobbi gets far more out of the character. The way he sings the one word Amelia when he discovers the identity of Riccardo's paramour haunts the memory in a way the more forthright Bastianini cannot match.

Warmly recommended to all but those totally allergic to live performance.

[Tsaraslondon]

Elisabetta - Shirley Verrett
Maria Stuarda - Montserrat Caballé
Leicester - Ottavio Garaventa
Talbot - Raffaele Arie
Cecil - Giorgio Fioravanti
Anna - Nella Verri

Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan - Carlo Felice Cillario

Live. Milan 1971

Verrett all but steals the show as Elisabetta in this live La Scala performance, singing with wonderful concentration and dramatic power. She is the perfect foil for Caballé's gentler Maria, though she too pulls out all the stops in the confrontation scene, which is absolutely thrilling. Elsewhere Caballé sings beautifully, but, as so often, her singing can seem a little generic, and she lacks the specificity of someone like Janet Baker. None the less she in superb form, and rises brilliantly to the challenge of the final scenes.

That said, both ladies are the raison d'être of this performance, the men being not quite in their league. All are adequate, none outstanding.

Recording quality is a trifle recessed, but perfectly listenable.

[Tsaraslondon]

Not usually considered one of Callas's best sets and rarely a top choice among Aida recordings, on this occasion I actually enjoyed it more than some of the more central recommendations like Muti, Karajan and, I suppose, Solti, whose unsubtle, overloud and unlyrical conducting ruins that set for me.

Though Callas sang Aida a good deal in the early part of her career, this studio recording was her farewell to the role and she hadn't in fact sung it on stage for two years. She doesn't command the sheer beauty of tone of such famous Aidas as Milanov, Tebaldi, Price and Caballé, but she brings the rather placid and passive character of Aida to life as none of those quite do, and her portrayal is full of incidental detail usually overlooked by those more entitled singers. Incidentally, the top C climax of O patria mia, though not exactly dolce as marked in the score, is a good deal more secure than she is usually given credit for, and preferable to the watery, wavery note sung by Harteros in the Pappano recording.

Amongst the rest of the cast, Gobbi's impacable Amonasro stands out and the Nile duet with Callas's Aida is the high point of the set, with both singers striking sparks off each other. Serafin, a conductor whose conducting is just unobtrusively right, is also at his best here. No other conductor I know quite manages to make the violins sob and cry the way he does at the moment Aida capitulates to her father.

The weakest link is probably Tucker, whose singing inclines to the lachrymose, continually breaking up the line with sobs and aspirates. He compensates with the quality of his manly, virile voice. Barbieri is an Amneris in the best Italian tradition, and a good deal more subtle than she is often given credit for, and the two basses Giuseppe Modesti and Nicola Zaccaria are both excellent.

I might prefer Callas's singing on the thrilling live Mexico performance of 1951 (with the legendary top Eb in the finale of Act II), but here her portrayal is a deal more subtle and varied and the sound, of course, much better.

[André]

In a Time magazine interview Mirella Freni mentioned that her longevity as a singer was due in part to her avoiding heavy emotional roles like Butterfly. I guess it's no good if, as a singer, you are so involved emotionally that you always fear choking. True, she never sang it on stage, although she recorded it twice. But a recording is not like a stage performance.

I feel very much the same with Butterfly and Jenufa. Both works are musically magnificent and dramatically so intense that I usually break up the listening session to take a couple of welcome pauses. That's not the sort of thing that I experience when listening to Wagner, Strauss, Mozart, Gounod, Massenet or even Verdi - although Otello comes close. Jenufa is a heart-rending story saved from crudeness by its naturalistic setting and simple, flowing narrative. It is filled to the brim with musical wonders, both from the stage or from the pit. Rarely has an opera been supplied with such an endless stream of orchestral wonders.

From a vocal standpoint it is not easy casting. It must field a strong lyric soprano, strong dramatic soprano, strong lyric tenor and a good supply of strong character voices. The three main roles must have access to a gleaming, transparent, uncluttered top and must be very adept at voice characterization and word pointing. This 1977-78 recording supplies all that, plus excellent, alert playing from the pit. The sound is natural and solid, if a tad reverberant at times. It's hard to think of a better entry point into Jenufa than this splendid recording. The Mackerras version somewhat doesn't reach the same emotional level, despite its qualities.

[Todd]

I dig Mattila and Silja, but Haitink not so much.

[Tsaraslondon]

I only have one studio recording of Andrea Chénier (I don't really like the opera enough to have more), and, of those I've heard (the others featuring Pavarotti, Corelli, Del Monaco and Carreras), this one strikes me as the best all round.

Domingo is more the poet than the revolutionary, and none the worse for that, though some may miss the squillo of a Corelli. Scotto, in a role that might have been considered a notch to big for her, sings with her customary intelligence, musicality and verbal acuity, only occasionally turning squallty on top, and Milnes makes a thoroughly believable Gérard, both melfluous and gruff when the role calls for it. There are some star names amongs the supporting cast as well, like Maria Ewing as Bersi, Michel Sénéchal as L'incredibile and Enzo Dara as Mathieu.

Levine sweeps the score along with real dramatic verve and flair. One of his best recordings.

[Mirror Image]

Currently:

Enescu
Oedipe, Op. 23
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orféon Donostiarra
Lawrence Foster, conductor
José van Dam (bass-baritone), Gino Quilico (vocals), Marcel Vanaud (vocals), Gabriel Bacquier (bass-baritone), Petits chanteurs de Monaco (vocals), Jean-Philippe Courtis (vocals), José van Dam (baritone), Laurence Albert (vocals), Cornelius Hauptmann (bass), Jocelynne Taillon (vocals), Jocelyne Taillon (vocals), John Aler (tenor), Barbara Hendricks (vocals), Nicolai Gedda (tenor), Brigitte Fassbaender (vocals), Marjana Lipovsek (vocals)

[André]

My justification for including this Requiem in the opera section is twofold. First, Decca isued it in its Grand Opera series  . Second, I haven't heard a more unashamedly operatic interpretation of the work, of which I own some two dozen versions. It is a live performance from 1951 at the Teatro alla La Scala. Considering the circumstances and date, the sound is okay. The soloists not only belt away their parts, but they do so with quite some flair, narrowly eschewing vulgarity. I was most impressed with Rossi-Lemeni's plangent, elegant bass. Too often he has come across on records as a woolly-sounding, tired second rank basso, but not here. His is the singing I enjoyed the most. Tebaldi is her unsubtle self, albeit on very good vocal form. The performance is of the fiery kind, more dramatic and, yes, operatic than De Sabata's EMI version with Schwarzkopf.

[Ken B]

My justification for including this Requiem in the opera section is twofold. First, Decca isued it in its Grand Opera series  . Second, I haven't heard a more unashamedly operatic interpretation of the work, of which I own some two dozen versions. It is a live performance from 1951 at the Teatro alla La Scala. Considering the circumstances and date, the sound is okay. The soloists not only belt away their parts, but they do so with quite some flair, narrowly eschewing vulgarity. I was most impressed with Rossi-Lemeni's plangent, elegant bass. Too often he has come across on records as a woolly-sounding, tired second rank basso, but not here. His is the singing I enjoyed the most. Tebaldi is her unsubtle self, albeit on very good vocal form. The performance is of the fiery kind, more dramatic and, yes, operatic than De Sabata's EMI version with Schwarzkopf.

I assume, since this is Verdi, you mean unsubtle as high praise.

I confess I dislike this.  Leonard Bernstein's Mass is worse. If Webern wrote a mass, it's worse. But I cannot think of any other candidates off the top of my head 

[Ciaccona]

NP:



Verdi: Macbeth

[JBS]

Just finished

A PI  performance of the 1821 Weimar version, with the overture and a very brief instrumental piece appended from the first 1810 Paris version.

Sounds very much like a Mozart/Haydn epigone. Nothing wrong with the music, but....
If you want a look at opera from that era, this will do very well. But still a world of difference from the bel canto style that was about to appear.

[Tsaraslondon]

This is the earlier of the two Welitsch Met performances, recorded in 1949. By the time of the 1952 performance the voice was already beginning to lose its lustre, and in fact in 1953 she was diagnosed with nodules and thereafter only sang character roles.

Here in 1949, she is at her absolute peak, and her performance is both enthralling and thrilling, the voice freely soaring over the orchestra. This is surely the Salome Strauss must have dreamed about, both vocally and histrionically. Amongst the commercial recordings that followed, Behrens for Karajan probably comes closest.

The Met surrounded Welitsch with a great cast, Herbert Janssen as Jokanaan, Frederick Jagel as Herod and Kerstin Thorborg as Herodias, all under Fritz Reiner's masterful baton.

Sound isn't bad for a 1949 radio broadcast but can't hope to compare with more modern recordings. Nonetheless, absolutely essential listening.

[Tsaraslondon]

Of the two recordings of Die lustige Witwe featuring Schwarzkopf, I come down emphaticaly on the second under von Matacic, with Wächter as Danilo. That is one of the greatest recordings of an operetta ever committed to disc, and I would never want to be without it.

However this one too has its attractions, with Schwarzkopf and Gedda both in slightly fresher voice, though the difference is marginal. Here Schwarzkopf is more the young, flighty widow, whereas in the later recording, she is more mature, more experieced. Both are valid interpretations.

Hard to choose between the two Valenciennes, Emmy Loose and Hanny Steffek, but whe it comes to Danilo, I would come down emphatically on the side of Eberhard Wächter on the second recording. Erich Kunz was a great artist, adept and experienced in operetta as well as opera, but here he sounds too old and he often has to alter the vocal line when it lies uncomfortably high for his bass-baritone. Wächter is also a baritone, but has no trouble with a role which is often sung by a tenor, and his Danilo is much more convincing. Gedda is wonderfully ardent and lyrical on both sets, if a little more assured on the second.

Ackermann, as in all the other recordings in Legge's series of "champagne operetta" recordings, is superbly idiomatic and conducts with evident love for the score. Matacic was perhaps a more surprising choice for the second recording, but he too conducts with a fine sense of the echt Viennese style. That recording is also in excellent stereo, whereas as this one is in mono.

That said, this earlier recording is hugely enjoyable and well up to the standard of the others in the series.

[Ciaccona]

Recent listening:

[asin]B000002S38[/asin]

Puccini: Gianni Schicchi

From the Box-Set:

[asin]B001BO184Q[/asin]

More or less a first listen - Enjoyed the work, especially the (famous) aria "O mio babbino caro".
I intend to listen to the remaining 2 Operas from Il Trittico over the next few days...

[Tsaraslondon]

This recent re-mastering, overseen by the producer of the original stereo version, Christopher Parker, really is the best you are ever likely to hear. Parker has slightly adjusted the balance in the big trio and it really makes a big difference, Stich-Randall now not so shrill and blending better with Schwarzkopf and Ludwig.

What a performance it is, with a cast that could hardly be bettered anywhere, with Schwarzkopf's warmly feminine, noble Marschallin dominating the opera, as she should. Her singing is wonderfully detailed, Hofmannsthal's text superbly brought to life. Just listening to her you can see every fleeting facial expression, and I smply cannot understand those who bandy about the usual criticisms of over-artfulness and mannerisms, especially when the lyrical moments are also filled with gloriously refulgent tone. This might just be Schwarzkopf's greatest achievement on disc.

Ludwig's ardently impetuous Octavian is the perfect foil for this Marschallin, and if she doesn't have quite the same matchless control over her resources as Schwarzkopf, the extroverted outpouring of tone suits the character of Octavian to a nicety. Stich-Randall is a  slightly white-voiced Sophie, suitably innocent and naïve, sailing up to those stratospheric notes with a silvery purity second to none, and Edelmann remembers that Ochs may be a boor, but that he is also a nobleman.

Wonderful support from the likes of Gedda as the Italian tenor, Wächter, a wonderfully fussy Faninal and Welitsch as the Duenna, with a plethora of well known names amongst the supporting cast.

Karajan's direction is just right in every phrase, beautifully managing the dance elements of the score, whilst giving the many lyrical moments their due. He always knows just how to build to the climaxes and his sense of the structure of the opera is spot on, his pacing both quicksilver and expansive. Just to make our cup runneth over we have the Philharmonia on top form.

The recording may have been made in 1956, but sounds absolutely splendid in this latest remastering. My top recommendation for the opera, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

[Tsaraslondon]

One wouldn't do Monteverdi like this now of course, but one has to remember that it was Raymond Leppard's realisations of these pieces that largely put Monteverdi, and other operas of the period on the map. Leppard also changed the pitch of some of the roles, so we get a tenor Nero, a baritone Ottone, a female alto Arnalta and a tenor Page to Ottavia (the excellet John Brecknock, whose diction is so perfect you can hear every single word).

Remembering all that, this is an excellent performance and well worrth investigating if you can get past the use of a modern orchestra and Leppard's romanticised orchestrations. The opera is sung in (very clear) English. Would that more of today's singers could sing with such natural, unforced diction. One hardly needs to follow along wth the libretto, which is provided (yet another rarity these days).

It might come as a surprise to find the great Dame Janet Baker as Poppea rather than Ottavia, but she is wonderfully scheming, kittenish and manipulative, the voice character she creates a million miles away from the suffering Ottavia she sings in recorded extracts.

Unsurprisingly none of the other singers is quite on her level of inspiration, but all are expressive and more than adequate. Would that the ENO could provide such a cast nowadays.

My favourite recording of the opera is the quite recent la Venexiana recording of the Naples version under Claudio Cavina, but this is worth listening to, both as a reminiscence of a bygone age and for the inestimable singing of Dame Janet Baker.

[Ciaccona]

This recent re-mastering, overseen by the producer of the original stereo version, Christopher Parker, really is the best you are ever likely to hear. Parker has slightly adjusted the balance in the big trio and it really makes a big difference, Stich-Randall now not so shrill and blending better with Schwarzkopf and Ludwig.

What a performance it is, with a cast that could hardly be bettered anywhere, with Schwarzkopf's warmly feminine, noble Marschallin dominating the opera, as she should. Her singing is wonderfully detailed, Hofmannsthal's text superbly brought to life. Just listening to her you can see every fleeting facial expression, and I smply cannot understand those who bandy about the usual criticisms of over-artfulness and mannerisms, especially when the lyrical moments are also filled with gloriously refulgent tone. This might just be Schwarzkopf's greatest achievement on disc.

Ludwig's ardently impetuous Octavian is the perfect foil for this Marschallin, and if she doesn't have quite the same matchless control over her resources as Schwarzkopf, the extroverted outpouring of tone suits the character of Octavian to a nicety. Stich-Randall is a  slightly white-voiced Sophie, suitably innocent and naïve, sailing up to those stratospheric notes with a silvery purity second to none, and Edelmann remembers that Ochs may be a boor, but that he is also a nobleman.

Wonderful support from the likes of Gedda as the Italian tenor, Wächter, a wonderfully fussy Faninal and Welitsch as the Duenna, with a plethora of well known names amongst the supporting cast.

Karajan's direction is just right in every phrase, beautifully managing the dance elements of the score, whilst giving the many lyrical moments their due. He always knows just how to build to the climaxes and his sense of the structure of the opera is spot on, his pacing both quicksilver and expansive. Just to make our cup runneth over we have the Philharmonia on top form.

The recording may have been made in 1956, but sounds absolutely splendid in this latest remastering. My top recommendation for the opera, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

I've been listening to this recording recently too - Love it!.

[Ciaccona]

NP:

[asin]B079P9BZCZ[/asin]

Verdi: Il Trovatore