What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Wendell_E]

Which also supports my theory about the opera being much more popular in America than in the UK.

Where do you find all this information?

All three companies have online databases, of widely varying quality.

http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm (Met)
https://www.lyricopera.org/about/production-archives (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
http://archive.sfopera.com/ (San Francisco)

and some others:

http://www.teatroallascala.org/archivio/ricerca.aspx (La Scala)
https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/en/fsdb/ (Bayreuth Festival)
http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performances.aspx (Covent Garden)
https://www.glyndebourne.com/about-us/our-archive/performance-archive/ (Glyndebourne)
https://archive.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/archive (Salzburg Festival)
https://archiv.wiener-staatsoper.at/ (Vienna State Opera)

As for what I'm listening to today, Barbirolli's 1968 Otello, with McCracken, Jones, and Fischer-Dieskau.

[Tsaraslondon]

Thanks. All very useful links.

[ritter]

First listen to this Magic Flute:


The other recordings of this opera in my collection (e.g .Böhm's DG version, Klemperer on EMI) are squarely in the "traditional" style, which IMO suits the work splendidly. Compared to those, of course, things here are much swifter and lighter, but also with an overall effect of blandness, I'm afraid. The vocal contributions are all good. I really got this for Dawn Upshaw as Pamina (there's not that many complete opera recordings available of this singer I much admire). She's very engaging, she tries to pronounce the spoken text with care, but--as was already the case with her Susanna in James Levine's Figaro on DG--it's surprising how soubrettish she sounds in this repertoire, compared to her forays into 20th century music. Still, it's nice to have her in this role.

[Florestan]

First listen to this opera in its entirety. Funny, witty, supremely tuneful and eminently entertaining. Rossini's genius in full display. Marvelous.

[Tsaraslondon]

First listen to this opera in its entirety. Funny, witty, supremely tuneful and eminently entertaining. Rossini's genius in full display. Marvelous.

I reather like this set, though I'd have to admit that Baltsa never really sounds like an ingénue to me. She's much more suited to roles like Eboli and Amneris. My ideal would be Von Stade, the Cenerentola of the Ponnelle film, but she never made a studio recording.

[Florestan]

I reather like this set, though I'd have to admit that Baltsa never really sounds like an ingénue to me. She's much more suited to roles like Eboli and Amneris. My ideal would be Von Stade, the Cenerentola of the Ponnelle film, but she never made a studio recording.

How about this? I have it too but haven't listened to it yet.

[rickardg]

First listen to this opera in its entirety. Funny, witty, supremely tuneful and eminently entertaining. Rossini's genius in full display. Marvelous.

Having just started listening to opera I can't comment on the recording but I must confess my love for La Cenerentola for basically the same reasons as Florestan.

The only recording I've seen is this one from Clyndebourne with Jurowski on medici.tv

https://www.medici.tv/en/operas/rossini-la-cenerentola-glyndebourne-peter-hall-2005/

[asin]B0017RRDPU[/asin]

which I really liked.

I have, however, listened to several versions of  'Nacqui all'affanno/Non più mesta' because, apart from it being fun to listen to, I wanted to find someone that could pull it of technically while keeping Angelina sounding naïve and innocent. (Since i'm not keeping notes I've promptly forgot which versions I've listened to... )

[Tsaraslondon]

How about this? I have it too but haven't listened to it yet.

I don't know it so can't comment. That said, I can't really imagine Horne being convincing in the role either.

[JBS]

I first encountered the opera (and Joyce DiDonato)in this recording
[asin]B000AMMSOY[/asin]
Which I think holds its own compared to my other CD recording, the one conducted by Abbado. 

[Florestan]

I don't know it so can't comment. That said, I can't really imagine Horne being convincing in the role either.

Is this any better? 



What's your favorite Cenerentola on disc?

As for me, I'm far from being an expert in voices and roles, let alone in matching them. I'm a hedonistic anarchist in this respect: if I like what I hear then it's good, and if no, no. 

[Tsaraslondon]

Is this any better? 



What's your favorite Cenerentola on disc?

As for me, I'm far from being an expert in voices and roles, let alone in matching them. I'm a hedonistic anarchist in this respect: if I like what I hear then it's good, and if no, no. 

It wouldn't be for me because I don't like Bartoli, but I think it's been otherwise well received.

[Florestan]

It wouldn't be for me because I don't like Bartoli, but I think it's been otherwise well received.

What's your favorite Cenerentola on disc?

[Tsaraslondon]

What's your favorite Cenerentola on disc?

I haven't heard them all, but, of those I have heard, I'm happy enough with the Marriner on CD and the Ponnelle on DVD.

[Florestan]

I haven't heard them all, but, of those I have heard, I'm happy enough with the Marriner on CD and the Ponnelle on DVD.

Thanks.

[Tsaraslondon]

This recording has always been my studio choice for La Traviata but for some reason it wasn't working for me today.

Maybe I was just feeling grumpy. Maybe I had Callas too much at the forefront of my mind for, truth to tell, nobody really comes anywhere near her total identification with the character of Violetta, particularly at Covent Garden in 1958, a performance that is a total experience rather than just a recording.

Cotrubas is an affecting Violetta, as she was when I saw her in the theatre, Domingo an involved Alfredo and Milnes a fine Germont, if a trifle young sounding, but somehow the performance never really got to me as the opera should. Part of the problem, and I am surprised to hear myself say this given the near reverence that usually greets his name, is Kleiber. I was just too aware of him. He drives the music forward, particularly in the choruses, and sometimes I felt the tempo fluctuations as in the beginning of the second scene of Act II, were just too extreme.

Or maybe, as I said before, I was just feeling a bit grumpy.

[mc ukrneal]

Someone posted the Janet Baker documentary earlier this month. It is now on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/v/ettouLk9_mM

I came across it just a little while before I had to be somewhere. 30 minutes in, I was so engrossed, I had to call to reschedule and watch to the end. It's not a dull doecumentary where they try to show her life evenly.  They focus on the bits that affected her most. But joyfully, it is mostly her singing. I thought one of the most interesting moments was when she talked about singing Elgar after Barbirolli had died and she refers to it as the most unprofessional moment in her life. It was very telling to see her expectations at such a high level despite her emotional turmoil of his having died. Most of us would give ourselves a pass on that one, but she just couldn't do it.

[knight66]

It is one of the best music documentaries that I have seen. Very interesting to hear Baker explain about her early life and how it marked her approach to her professional life. I attended lots of her performances and was in chorus for quite a few, including in a short, tiny chamber-sized tour of Dido and Aeneas. Every appearance was memorable. One of her most remarkable gifts was her ability to project a pianissimo thread of sound to the back of a large hall, daring in a way that few professionals would risk in live circumstances.

She was always professional and pleasant, though not actually friendly and the documentary makes it clear where that all comes from. As a singer I listened closely to her technique. She coloured words so carefully, the word 'round' sung with the roundest tone, draining the life out of the tone as Lucrtia dies. The word golden coloured appropriately, all in service to the music and the words, done without distorting the musical line.

I found the documentary very moving. I described to my wife that final scene, her Mahler playing, Baker talking to her husband and breaking down. And my throat closed and I could not end my description of it. What a great legacy she has given us. One music critic I know a little has been commissioned to construct an anthology of her early and rare performances. A number of us have been piling in with our suggestions.

During its survey of all of the songs of Schubert, DG asked EMI to allow her to record all the songs suitable for a woman's voice. Fischer Dieskau was recording all the male ones. Despite her keeness do do this, EMI refused. She did not then renew her contract with them. Janowitz recorded the songs instead.

I suggest the following to any who don't know her work.

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde: Kubelik
Elgar Gerontius: Barbirolli
Bach Vergnungte Ruh BWV 170 Marriner
Mozart La Clemenza di Tito Davis
Anthology of English Song on Regis
Purcell Dido and Aneas Lewis
Berlioz Troyens La Mort de Cleopatre Gibson/Barbirolli Les Nuits d'Ete

She was superb in opera, but restricted her appearances to the UK. And as the documentary suggested, Covent Garden did not often offer her any work. She did appear in La Clemenza and as a last minute substitute for an indisposed singer in Les Troyens. Also subsequently she was in a run of that same opera. But they missed the boat majorly with her.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

I agree with everything Mike has said. The best classical music programme I have seen on the BBC for a long time. Like you, Mike, I was in tears by the end.

I'd stick my neck out and say Janet Baker is the greatest living singer in the world.

To Mike's list, I would add

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert Lieder - Barbirolli
Elgar: Sea Pictures - Barbirolli
Donizetti: Mary Stuart - Mackerras (1973 on Ponto) with Pauline Tinsley as Elizabeth I

But almost everything she ever recorded is wonderful.

She also sang Alceste at Covent Garden, albeit in her final year singing opera.

[knight66]

I agree with everything Mike has said. The best classical music programme I have seen on the BBC for a long time. Like you, Mike, I was in tears by the end.

I'd stick my neck out and say Janet Baker is the greatest living singer in the world.

To Mike's list, I would add

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert Lieder - Barbirolli
Elgar: Sea Pictures - Barbirolli
Donizetti: Mary Stuart - Mackerras (1973 on Ponto) with Pauline Tinsley as Elizabeth I

But almost everything she ever recorded is wonderful.

She also sang Alceste at Covent Garden, albeit in her final year singing opera.

Thanks, I think that between us we could keep adding favourites until her entire output was listed. I agree on her ststus, though I had never thought about that idea. Yes, that Alceste was also for John Copley I think.

And a track that cannot be omitted from the must hear discs is her singing the Wood-dove in Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. There are two recordings, both live. I think the one that is issued on BBC CDs with the Giulini Les Nuits is the one to have, astonishingly epic and she dares to sing so quietly as well as absolutely wellying out the big notes. The movement of Schoenberg is extracted, I assume, from a full performance and is coupled with a Les Nuits d'Ete. It is so slow, in a good way, and she manages Giulini's meditational tempi as few others could have. It is a surprising and very worthwhile disc.

Mike

[mc ukrneal]

Very interesting guys and thanks for the recommendations. I haven't heard all of them and am now interested in a few. But surely there must be some Handel to add!?!?!?!   I am not as enthusiastic about Handel compared to others, but I did really like what she was singing here. I thought the quick throw away comment about what life would have been like to stay as a contralto was quite 'her'.

The first recording I ever bought of hers was the first disc of the Hyperion Schubert edition. Great stuff (and boy were they lucky to get her)!