What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[San Antone]

Here's what Opera Magazine had to say about the Czech I Lombardi recording cast:

Most impressive of the principals is Pavel Kudinov's Pagano, amply suggesting the out-and-out villain of Act 1 before developing further as the Hermit of later scenes. Kate Allen registers as a lively presence as Sofia, Anna Werle defines Viclinda in her forceful soprano and Daniel Dropulja is noticeable in the secondary role of Pirro.

Here's the Music-Web review summing up:

However, the great star of the performance is Polish soprano Ania Jeruc as Giselda. This is a big role with many opportunities to expose the talent of a good lirico-spinto – and she does so with knobs on. Her first solo, the beautiful Salve Maria in the first act (CD 1 tr. 12) is sung with great feeling and beauty of tone. There is some minimal unsteadiness but this is negligible considering how well she sings. And she grows throughout the performance. Just listen to O madre, dal cielo (CD 1 tr. 25) and even better in the final act Quel prodigio (CD 2 tr. 10). This is glorious singing that should appeal to any admirer of great singing!

Whether the recording as such is recommendable is a matter of taste. The recording was made live between 15 and 20 July 2018 but there is no sign of an audience – although there are some stage noises – but no applause anywhere and the silences between scenes are almost ghostly silent. The recording is SACD but I have heard it in regular 2-channel stereo; it is very good.

Competition isn't very keen, although I still recommend either of Lamberto Gardelli's studio recordings – personally I prefer the Hungaroton with Sylvia Sass as a superb Giselda, but Ania Jeruc runs her very close and Verdi enthusiasts should at least sample this latest incarnation of I Lombardi – a flawed opera and hardly a masterpiece, but still a valuable opera in the Verdi canon. (Göran Forsling)

It is a little odd that they differ on which singers they choose to praise.

[San Antone]

Today's Verdi opera is ...



Ernani (1844)

Ernani, a bandit - Marco Berti (tenor)
Don Carlo, King of Spain - Carlo Guelfi (baritone)
Don Ruy de Silva, a Spanish grandee - Giacomo Prestia (bass)
Elvira, Silva's niece and loved by Ernani - Susan Neves (soprano)
Don Riccardo, the King's equerry - Samuele Simoncini (tenor)
Jago, equerry to Silva - Alessandro Svab (bass)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Reggio, Parma, Italy/Antonello Allemandi
Director, Set and Costume designer: Pier'Alli

Performed in the Critical Edition by Claudio Gallico.
rec. Teatro Reggio, Parma, May 2005, annual Verdi Festival


The present production and staging combines to overcome some vocal and acted weaknesses. It's a fully satisfactory performance of an under-performed opera brimming with the composer's compositional melody and vitality. Music-Web

Berti's Ernani has an effective vocal line and little stage persona, Carlo Guelfi's baritone suddenly springs into life with his aria, and Giacomo Prestia is a slightly woolly-toned da Silva. The production by Pier'Alli is fine, the sets monolithic, the costumes quite unflattering. Opera Now

[Tsaraslondon]

Sylvia Sass is very impressive on Gardelli's second I Lombardi recording, on Hungaroton.

But the other principals aren't of the same calibre. A shame she wasn't on the Philips/Gardelli, but I'm pretty sure it was recorded before Sass made such an impression in the role at Covent Garden.

[San Antone]

After listening to the Parma Ernani, I re-activated my Met Opera on Demand subscription and am half-way through the February 2012 production:



Rising Met star Angela Meade is Elvira, the young woman caught between three men: her lover, the nobleman-turned-outlaw Ernani (Marcello Giordani); her guardian, the rich, elderly de Silva, who wants her for himself (Ferruccio Furlanetto); and Don Carlo, the King of Spain, who also desires Elvira (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). Verdi's early drama is full of sweeping melody and rousing rhythms, delivered masterfully by the Met Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Marco Armiliato.

I think that Ernani, despite the unbelievable aspects of the plot, is a near-great early Verdi opera.  There are some fantastic tunes and dramatic moments, trios, and arias.  Very enjoyable.  The Met production is really very good, IMO.

[San Antone]

After listening to the Parma Ernani, I re-activated my Met Opera on Demand subscription and am half-way through the February 2012 production:



Rising Met star Angela Meade is Elvira, the young woman caught between three men: her lover, the nobleman-turned-outlaw Ernani (Marcello Giordani); her guardian, the rich, elderly de Silva, who wants her for himself (Ferruccio Furlanetto); and Don Carlo, the King of Spain, who also desires Elvira (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). Verdi's early drama is full of sweeping melody and rousing rhythms, delivered masterfully by the Met Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Marco Armiliato.

I think that Ernani, despite the unbelievable aspects of the plot, is a near-great early Verdi opera.  There are some fantastic tunes and dramatic moments, trios, and arias.  Very enjoyable.  The Met production is really very good, IMO.

Very enjoyable!  Despite the implausible plot, the 3rd and 4th acts really delivered a dramatic punch.  Some great music in this opera.

Now onto I due Foscari, tomorrow.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Well actually I'm a newbie in Opera, I know only Stravinsky- Nightingale , Bartok fantastic- Blue Beard castle and I'm listening now to Penderecki the devil of loudon, based on a novel ,It's creepy as hell, I like it... the ambiance is pitch dar, I like dark stuff in small dose.Have a good night folks...

ps- I had to get rid of absinthe I purchase for new year eve, I realize, this was extreme, for the stomach and I had sutch a headache  waking up it lasted the entire days even whit 3-4 extra  potent  tylenol( minus detail) I wanna to stop drinking after new years.

[JBS]

Crosspost from WAYLT2
First listen
[asin]B07WVNQ5RP[/asin]

Book is enhanced by a number of high quality photographs of pastoral Britain (mostly) and some thorough discussion of the work's political background and performance  practices.  The plot is utterly unhistorical, but by sticking firmly to the context of Arthur leading Britons in a war with the Saxons it's probably more historical than the medieval Matter of Britain...of which nothing  appears here, not even the Round Table.

[Cato]

For the Epiphany, January 6th, we have...

https://www.youtube.com/v/gPAjNu4WW0I

The American television network, NBC, broadcast the opera via the Hallmark Hall of Fame series between 1951-1963. How times have changed!  Such a program is unthinkable today for prime time...or any other time, on a major network.

[T. D.]

[j winter]

After a few stalled attempts over the years, I'm finally getting into the Ring.  This past week or so I've been listening to several different recordings of Das Rheingold, primarily Solti and Bohm, now moving on to Die Walkure.

What really has helped me is picking up Penguin's recent translation of the libretto, which I've read most of the way through.  Not that I've read very many translations for comparison, but this seems well done to me; it flows nicely, and it's very easy to follow along, German & English on facing pages....

[asin]0241305853[/asin]

[T. D.]

I listened to Goodall's (English language, Chandos) Rheingold last week via Youtube and was impressed. I don't need another Ring cycle, but may acquire either his Twilight of the Gods or Rheingold (my 2 favorites of the cycle). I was a Wagner fanatic about 25 years ago, still listen but not nearly as often, Parsifal gets the most play nowadays.

[San Antone]

Cross-posted from WAYLT

On Met Opera on Demand



VERDI : Nabucco

Verdi's thrilling early opera is ideally served by the masterful conducting of Music Director James Levine and Elijah Moshinsky's powerful production. Juan Pons in the title role of the Babylonian King leads the cast of this biblical drama, opposite Maria Guleghina as the ambitious Abigaille and Samuel Ramey as the noble high priest of Jerusalem, Zaccaria. Gwyn Hughes Jones and Wendy White are the young lovers, Ismaele and Fenena.

[Tsaraslondon]

Possibly not the recording to go for if you just want to wallow in the glorious tunes and orchestration. This one brings you face to face with real tragedy and is a deeply unsettling experience. Indeed it usually reduces me to a quivering wreck by the end.

A much more detailed reviwe of it on my blog https://tsaraslondon.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/madama-butterfly/

[San Antone]

Cross-posted from WAYLT

On Met Opera on Demand



VERDI : Nabucco

Verdi's thrilling early opera is ideally served by the masterful conducting of Music Director James Levine and Elijah Moshinsky's powerful production. Juan Pons in the title role of the Babylonian King leads the cast of this biblical drama, opposite Maria Guleghina as the ambitious Abigaille and Samuel Ramey as the noble high priest of Jerusalem, Zaccaria. Gwyn Hughes Jones and Wendy White are the young lovers, Ismaele and Fenena.

Yesterday I watched the 2001 Nabucco posted above (Levine had revived this Verdi gem in 2001 after a lapse of fifty years).  Today I am watching the production from 2017; so far it is no match for the earlier production, but I will give it until Domingo makes his entrance, at least.



Legendary superstar Plácido Domingo and Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine continue their historic partnership in this performance of the opera that first made composer Giuseppe Verdi famous. Domingo portrays Nabucco, the King of Babylon, who is supernaturally driven mad when he proclaims himself God, then restored to health when he repents. Liudmyla Monastyrska is the cruel and treacherous Abigaille, supposedly Nabucco's oldest daughter but actually a slave, who seizes the crown and plots the death of her sister Fenena (Jamie Barton), who loves Ismaele (Russell Thomas), as does Abigaille. With Dmitry Belosselskiy as the High Priest of Jerusalem, Zaccaria.

[San Antone]

NP:

[asin]B0000254UX[/asin]


I finished ripping Karajan's Ring Cycle this morning and have been listening to Das Rheingold and Die Walküre most of the day.
No surprise comment - I like this Cycle so far. One of Herbert von Karajan's strengths is his Opera recordings IMO.
I have wanted to own his Ring Cycle for ages so very glad I finally have it in my collection now - I think I will probably end up listening to it a fair bit alongside Solti and Bohm.
One thing that puzzles me - I read online about this Ring and it was mentioned a couple of times that it was a "Chamber Ring?". I don't get it TBH... (maybe someone here knows what the reviewers were on about?)...

Interesting.  I just watched Act 1 of the Met's recent production, March 2019.



Christine Goerke quickly has become one of the most electrifying dramatic sopranos currently appearing on the Met stage. The vocal powerhouse raised her artistry to the next level at the end of the 2018–19 season, singing the impetuous warrior maiden Brünnhilde in three full cycles of Richard Wagner's epic Ring cycle. In this Live in HD transmission of Die Walküre, the second and most popular installment in the composer's sweeping tetralogy, Goerke is joined by bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Brünnhilde's godly father, Wotan, and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as his unbending wife, Fricka. As the incestuous lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and tenor Stuart Skelton—alongside bass Günther Groissböck as Sieglinde's bloodthirsty husband, Hunding—round out the principal cast. And on the podium, Maestro Philippe Jordan conducts Robert Lepage's innovative staging, which uses state-of-the-art stage technology to tell Wagner's mythic tale.

Weird: brother-sister marriage?  Beautiful music with strange libretto. I've watched Act 1; Act 2 will have to wait until tomorrow.

[j winter]

Taking a slow tour through the Ring.  I watched Levine's Die Walkure on DVD last night, listening to Solti today.  Marvelous stuff.

[André]

Mesmerizing in its unrelenting intensity. I was surprised by the immediacy of the recording: mono, but clear, immediate and wide-ranging. I wish there was a libretto, though.

[ritter]

Mesmerizing in its unrelenting intensity.

Indeed,, next to Penthesilea, Strauss's Elektra sound like Bellini's  La sonnambula .

I was surprised by the immediacy of the recording: mono, but clear, immediate and wide-ranging.

Good to know. I don't really need another rceording of the work (to put alongsaide the Helga Dernesch/Gerd Albrecht live from Salzburg on Orfeo, and the Yvonne Naef/Mario Venzago on Musiques Suisses, but am an admirer of Martha Mödl, so might be tempted.

I wish there was a libretto, though.

You have it in German here, but I haven't been able to locate an English or French translation online.

Regrads,

[André]

Thanks for the comment (I am curious about the other versions, too!). Could you post again the url link? I can't open it. The german libretto will be fine. At least I'll know who sings what. There are 5 female roles in the opera, so it's confusing at times  .

[Tsaraslondon]

One of my three favourite recordings of my favourite Puccini opera (the others being Callas/Karajan and Scotto/Barbirolli) and better I think than De Los Angeles's second (stereo) recording. First and foremost, the conducting of Gianandrea Gavazzeni gives much more shape to the opera than Patané. Bjoerling might seem to be one of the attractions of the second set and as always of course there is a great deal of pleasure to be had from his singing per se, but Di Stefano is the more believably charming Pinkerton. He is in enviable vocal form here and I think this one of his best performances on record. Gobbi is quite simply the most sympathetic, most multi-faceted Sharpless you are ever likely to hear. Anna Maria Canali is an excellent Suzuki too. And De Los Angeles? Well she is in easy, golden voice in a role that she might have been born to sing, and one she made very much her own. Maybe not as searingly intense as Callas, but very much inside the role and absolutely adorable.

The recording is mono of course, but the transfer has been well managed.