What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Peter Grimes has been extraordinarily lucky on disc and I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite recording. This one is certainly one of the finest and the sound is superb.

The only one that I know is the one with Peter Pears.  Which other ones do you like?  As an aside, I do love the Four Sea Interludes and the Passacaglia from the opera.   

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

The only one that I know is the one with Peter Pears.  Which other ones do you like?  As an aside, I do love the Four Sea Interludes and the Passacaglia from the opera.   

PD

My favourites are the Britten with Pears, the Davis with Vickers and this one. The Britten and Davis both have slightly better supporting casts, but Langridge is also a great Grimes and the sound of the Chandos recording is amazing. The Davis also has my favourite Ellen in Heather Harper.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

My favourites are the Britten with Pears, the Davis with Vickers and this one. The Britten and Davis both have slightly better supporting casts, but Langridge is also a great Grimes and the sound of the Chandos recording is amazing. The Davis also has my favourite Ellen in Heather Harper.

Thanks, I'll check into them via library.     I must admit though, from what I recall, I wasn't keen on Vickers' voice...at least in terms of his Aida.  Will try and keep an open mind though.

Best wishes,

PD

[JBS]

My favourites are the Britten with Pears, the Davis with Vickers and this one. The Britten and Davis both have slightly better supporting casts, but Langridge is also a great Grimes and the sound of the Chandos recording is amazing. The Davis also has my favourite Ellen in Heather Harper.

Vicker's voice was a much better fit for roles like Grimes than Aida.

While you're at the library check to see if they have the DVD of the Met's production. I thought that was an absolutely stunning version.

[Tsaraslondon]

Thanks, I'll check into them via library.     I must admit though, from what I recall, I wasn't keen on Vickers' voice...at least in terms of his Aida.  Will try and keep an open mind though.

Best wishes,

PD

Vickers is one of my all time favourite singers with an immediatelty recognisable sound. He sang a great deal of Italian opera in his early career before turning to Wagner and then eventually concentrating on a handful of roles - Tristan, Grimes, Otello and Samson in particular. I like his Radames, though apparently it was not a happy recording experience as he and Solti did not get on.

Round about the time of his first recording of Otello he recorded a superb recital of Italian arias with Serafin. His singing is wonderfully musical and intensely dramatic at the same time with none of the bad habits of many of the Italian tenors of the period - aspirates and extraneous sobs etc. I've reviewed it on my blog https://tsaraslondon.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/jon-vickers-italian-opera-arias/.

Incidentally, he was a favourite of Callas and she chose him to sing Giasone in the Dallas production of Medea and in all subsequent performances of the opera in London, Epidaurus and Milan. She wanted him for Pollione in her final performances of Norma, but he declined as he didn't have the high C in his Act I aria. He did eventually sing the role to Caballé's Norma in Orange, but omitted the top C. I don't think he ever sang it again.

[springrite]

Vicker does not have what you may call a "beautiful voice", but his voice is so perfect for characterization, which makes him the perfect voice for certain opera roles.
I first heard him in 1981 in Das Lied von der Erde with Giulini and LAPO in concert.

[Tsaraslondon]

Vicker does not have what you may call a "beautiful voice",

Oh I don't know. This sounds rather beautiful to me. https://youtu.be/CjpGohxUjVk

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thank you for the suggestions.  I'll look into them.   

PD

[springrite]

Oh I don't know. This sounds rather beautiful to me. https://youtu.be/CjpGohxUjVk

Beautiful to me as well, of course.

[André]

Vickers is one of my all time favourite singers with an immediatelty recognisable sound. He sang a great deal of Italian opera in his early career before turning to Wagner and then eventually concentrating on a handful of roles - Tristan, Grimes, Otello and Samson in particular. I like his Radames, though apparently it was not a happy recording experience as he and Solti did not get on.

Round about the time of his first recording of Otello he recorded a superb recital of Italian arias with Serafin. His singing is wonderfully musical and intensely dramatic at the same time with none of the bad habits of many of the Italian tenors of the period - aspirates and extraneous sobs etc. I've reviewed it on my blog https://tsaraslondon.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/jon-vickers-italian-opera-arias/.

Incidentally, he was a favourite of Callas and she chose him to sing Giasone in the Dallas production of Medea and in all subsequent performances of the opera in London, Epidaurus and Milan. She wanted him for Pollione in her final performances of Norma, but he declined as he didn't have the high C in his Act I aria. He did eventually sing the role to Caballé's Norma in Orange, but omitted the top C. I don't think he ever sang it again.

Thanks for the info, Tsaras. I put this disc in my cart and look forward to hear it !

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Vicker's voice was a much better fit for roles like Grimes than Aida.

While you're at the library check to see if they have the DVD of the Met's production. I thought that was an absolutely stunning version.

JBS,

We can't yet go wandering through the stacks here.  I am able to sign into my account and request items to be put on hold for me though.  I'm then notified when they are available for pickup.  I did find an ROH recording (DVD) with Vickers and put a hold on it.

Beautiful to me as well, of course.

Thank you for that youtube link Tsaras; I enjoyed it.  Think that I might have an Otello with him too.  Will look later.

Best wishes,

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

This wouldn't be my top choice for the opera, but it's an enjoyable enough set and Freni is in fresher voice here than she is on the Levine, where she just sounds too old.

[Tsaraslondon]

I'd not heard this performance of Donizetti's charming comedy before, but it's really very good indeed. I slightly prefer Cotrubas on the Pritchard to Ricciarelli here, but I like Carreras much more than Domingo who can't quite disguise the fact that his voice was a bit heavy for the role by the time he came to record it. Nucci is better here than I've heard him before and Scimone conducts a sparkling account of the score.

Very enjoyable.

[André]

Cross posted:

Landowski's second opera dates from 1956 and is a dramatic/philosophical tale on WMD and the annihilation of mankind. Heady stuff. Nothing to do with the Gogol story, it inhabits the pessimistic world of Kafka and Orwell. The music is sensational. Landowski's use of the orchestra is that of a master painter. Every tune, every tone, every voice inflexion carries meaning. The whole 85 minutes experience is riveting.

I don't know if the original release on lp (pictured above) contained a libretto. The Landowski box maintains that copyright issues forbade the printing of texts (this box contains a few vocal works). This French production boasts superior singing (van Dam and Huttenlocher are very impressive), and Landowski keeps the vocal lines singable at all times (no stratospheric screeching from the soloists or chorus).

[Tsaraslondon]

Another very enjoyable recording of Donizetti's comedy. Good to be reminded of the youthful Alagna, whom I saw in Roméo et Juliette at Covent Garden around the same time as this recording was made. He is a charmingly diffident Elvino and sings a lovely, inward Una furtiva lagrima. Devia hasn't the most individual of voices but is nonetheless perfectly cast as Adina. Spagnoli is a bit too "straight" as Belcore but sings well and Pratico is an excellent Dulcamara.

Viotti conducts a sprightly performance with the English Chamber Orchestra in sparkling form.

[pjme]

During the weekend: Wagner and Massenet. On TV.

My first ever complete Tristan. Stuart Skelton (tenor), Nina Stemme (soprano) en René Pape (bass), Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo/Brangaene). Metropolitan Opera House / New York in 2016. Simon Rattle / Mariusz Trelinski director.
I tried hard, grew increasingly impatient. Stemme and Skelton were extremely valiant but seemed just old and tired. Is it possible to both act and sing well in this never ending story?. The staging (very dark/ WWII war zones?) didn't help.  My heart stayed cold, my nerves painfully tested.
I'm not a Wagnerian.

Massenet : Cendrillon (1899). A huge contrast, of course, after Wagner (whom Massenet loved & knew well ). This fairy tale is  light,  sentimental, fun (almost an operetta),pleasant, quick paced and also full of vocal and orchestral fire works. A good evening out in Freiburg, but I wasn't moved.
The production from Freiburg (2017 – directed by Barbara Mundel / sets by Olga Motta) is colorful and ingenious but less refined/sharp and humorous as Laurent Pelly's  star studded version (La Monnaie/ Santa Fe/ London...see YT).
Soprano Kim-Lillian Strebel isn't Joyce DiDonato... with Katharina Melnikova, Anat Czarny, Anja Jung and Juan Orozco . Fabrice Bollon conducted.

[knight66]

Peter Grimes has been extraordinarily lucky on disc and I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite recording. This one is certainly one of the finest and the sound is superb.

I am waiting eagerly for the new Chandos set from Ed Gardner. It is due in a couple of weeks. It has the cast of the concert tour of the work. I saw it in Edinburgh and it has to be one of my very top opera experiences. I am certain the discs will be terrific.

Since it was issued my mainstay has been Colin Davis with Vickers and Harper. Powerful and poetic, I would never want to be without it.

Mike

[knight66]

Oh I don't know. This sounds rather beautiful to me. https://youtu.be/CjpGohxUjVk

That was beautiful, thanks. Vickers seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. He felt he should have been given the chance to make more recordings, especially Parsifal and Don Carlo. Fortunately there are good live recordings of both and he did have a good run at a lot of his roles. Has anyone ever had a better line in heroic suffering? As you say, his voice is instantly recognisable and he always sang off the words. More modern Otellos make comparatively little of the words such as Gloria. He colours it, savours it and makes us hear the regret, grief, loss in one word. Most tenors simply sing the note and move on. To an extent, like very few other singers, Callas was one, he etched moments into your head and you can't here them sung any other way.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

This recording of the 1859 score, as it was most likely performed at the Théatre Lyrique, is not really comparable to or competitive with all other recorded versions as it differs in so many ways, chief amongst them being the spoken dialogue which Gounod replaced with recitative for the 1869 production at the Paris Opéra. There are other differences too such as the omission of Valentin's famous Avant de quitter ces lieux (though, curiously we still hear the tune in the overture) and Méphistophélès's Veau d'or. Siebel and Marthe are also much bigger roles.

Splendidly performed here by the period ensemble Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset, the best of the soloists is undoubtedly Benjamin Bernheim as Faust, a lyric tenor, who fulfils all the requirements of the role, including a lovely voix mixte when required. Andrew Foster-Williams is a lighter voiced Méphisto than the ones we have become used to and Gens rather heavier than sopranos usually allotted the role of Margeurite. She is an intelligent singer but I still prefer De Los Angeles in the role.

I doubt it will ever replace the much more regularly performed 1869 version, but I found this excellent performance of the 1859 version very enjoyable on its own merits.

[Tsaraslondon]

That was beautiful, thanks. Vickers seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. He felt he should have been given the chance to make more recordings, especially Parsifal and Don Carlo. Fortunately there are good live recordings of both and he did have a good run at a lot of his roles. Has anyone ever had a better line in heroic suffering? As you say, his voice is instantly recognisable and he always sang off the words. More modern Otellos make comparatively little of the words such as Gloria. He colours it, savours it and makes us hear the regret, grief, loss in one word. Most tenors simply sing the note and move on. To an extent, like very few other singers, Callas was one, he etched moments into your head and you can't here them sung any other way.

Mike

The whole recital that aria is taken from is one of my favourite recital records. He doesn't just sing the music, he experiences it, each aria emerging as a mini drama of its own, but with none of the excesses of so many tenors.