What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[André]

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.

I purchased the cd and it is on the table next to me  .

Re: the 1859 Faust. I agree with your assessment. It is a substantially different work, lighter on its feet, more nimble (the 1869 version is sometimes made to sound as long as Parsifal). And yes, Bernheim is a real revelation, singing off the words like few do.

[JBS]

Something light and fluffy

[Tsaraslondon]

I purchased the cd and it is on the table next to me  .

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

[Tsaraslondon]

Dame Janet Baker's searing performance of Dido, recorded when she was only 28, has never been bettered. The HIP movement may have changed the way we perform this work nowadays, but such wonderful emotionally committed singing never goes out of fashion.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Dame Janet Baker's searing performance of Dido, recorded when she was only 28, has never been bettered. The HIP movement may have changed the way we perform this work nowadays, but such wonderful emotionally committed singing never goes out of fashion.

About ten or fifteen years ago, someone told me about her Dido.  I remember watching a youtube upload of her at 10 in the morning singing "When I am Laid in Earth" and tears streaming down my face.  A rough but beautiful way to start the day. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_50zj7J50U

PD

[pjme]

Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites in John Dexter's 42-year old production from the Met.

Sister Blanche: Isobel Leonard
Sister Constance: Erin Morley.
Mme de Croissy, the Old Prioress: Karita Mattila.
Mother Marie: Karen Cargill:
Mme Lidoine: Adrianne Pieczonka

The men have little to do in this opera.
Jean-François Lapointe as Blanche's father
David Portillo as her brother.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

A very good production with excellent singers, chorus and orchestra. Mattila goes all the way in the quite cruel dying scene.
However, I do prefer an even more austere approach  - Robert Carsen / Dutch National Opera.

[Tsaraslondon]

About ten or fifteen years ago, someone told me about her Dido.  I remember watching a youtube upload of her at 10 in the morning singing "When I am Laid in Earth" and tears streaming down my face.  A rough but beautiful way to start the day. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_50zj7J50U

PD

Baker is one of my favourite singers. She had a tremendous ability to get to the emotional heart of all she was singing. Her operatic repertoire was small (her concert repertoire much larger), but she excelled in all that she did.

[knight66]

Dame Janet Baker's searing performance of Dido, recorded when she was only 28, has never been bettered. The HIP movement may have changed the way we perform this work nowadays, but such wonderful emotionally committed singing never goes out of fashion.

Still my favourite version and no one touches her expressiveness in the part. I was in a short concert tour of the piece with her singing Dido and a young Thomas Hampson. The choir was about 30, so we were all very close to her, it was a great experience.

For more modern recordings I very much enjoy Sarah Connelly, conducted by Steven Devine and the usual music has been added to with some Purcell dance music buinging it closer to the kind of Contrasted entertainment Of the times.

Mike
Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Recorded in 1951, this was the first LP recording of Dido and Aeneas, based on performances at the Mermaid Theatre, though there the role of Belinda was sung by Maggie Teyte rather than Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Schwarzkopf's English is lightly accented, but that doesn't really bother me, though it was probably a mistake to have such a distinctive voice also double the Second Lady and The Attendant Spirit.

The performance as a whole sounds rather old fashioned nowadays with some unconscionably slow speeds and could never be considered a prime contender for the opera. Flagstad was nearing the end of her career but the voice is admirably firm and evenly produced and her Dido is grandly and eloquently sung, but it's all a bit too heavy and lugubrious. Nor do I find her as moving as either Janet Baker or Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Still, this is a valuable memento of a famous event in the annals of British opera.

[Tsaraslondon]

Still my favourite version and no one touches her expressiveness in the part. I was in a short concert tour of the piece with her singing Dido and a young Thomas Hampson. The choir was about 30, so we were all very close to her, it was a great experience.

For more modern recordings I very much enjoy Sarah Connelly, conducted by Steven Devine and the usual music has been added to with some Purcell dance music buinging it closer to the kind of Contrasted entertainment Of the times.

Mike
Mike

I rather like McGegan's version with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Still my favourite version and no one touches her expressiveness in the part. I was in a short concert tour of the piece with her singing Dido and a young Thomas Hampson. The choir was about 30, so we were all very close to her, it was a great experience.

For more modern recordings I very much enjoy Sarah Connelly, conducted by Steven Devine and the usual music has been added to with some Purcell dance music buinging it closer to the kind of Contrasted entertainment Of the times.

Mike
Mike

Oh, neat Mike!  Did you have a chance to talk to her at all?  I've heard of but don't know any of Sarah Connelly's recordings but will check for samples of them.

Recorded in 1951, this was the first LP recording of Dido and Aeneas, based on performances at the Mermaid Theatre, though there the role of Belinda was sung by Maggie Teyte rather than Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Schwarzkopf's English is lightly accented, but that doesn't really bother me, though it was probably a mistake to have such a distinctive voice also double the Second Lady and The Attendant Spirit.

The performance as a whole sounds rather old fashioned nowadays with some unconscionably slow speeds and could never be considered a prime contender for the opera. Flagstad was nearing the end of her career but the voice is admirably firm and evenly produced and her Dido is grandly and eloquently sung, but it's all a bit too heavy and lugubrious. Nor do I find her as moving as either Janet Baker or Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Still, this is a valuable memento of a famous event in the annals of British opera.

Am not familiar with this recording.  I believe that the only complete Dido that I have is the one with Baker.  Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is/was now sadly a wonderful singer!  I have a number of albums of hers.  Good to hear that she is appreciated across the pond. 

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

  Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is/was now sadly a wonderful singer!  I have a number of albums of hers.  Good to hear that she is appreciated across the pond. 

PD

She was very much appreciated over here, singing regularly at the Wigmore Hall and sang Irene in Handel's Theodora to great acclaim. I first became aware of her when watching a Prom on TV, which included Elgar's The Music Makers. I was immediately struck by her radiant commitment to the music and the beauty of her tone. She reminded me a bit of Janet Baker, which in my book is the highest of praise.

[Tsaraslondon]

Recorded in 1941, this is a wonderful performance of Debussy's only opera. The orchestra is backwardly recorded, but it is amazing how much detail still comes through and Désormière's pacing of the score is just so unobtrusively right throughout. All the singers articulate the text so naturally, but with such incredible clarity that even those with only rudimentary French should be able to understand them. It thoroughly deserves its classic status.

This issue gives us the added bonus of some fourteen Debussy songs, sung by Maggie Teyte with Alfred Cortot at the piano and Mary Garden, the original Mélisande singing Mes longs cheveux descendent and three of the Ariettes oubliées with Debussy himself at the piano.

A really valuable release.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

She was very much appreciated over here, singing regularly at the Wigmore Hall and sang Irene in Handel's Theodora to great acclaim. I first became aware of her when watching a Prom on TV, which included Elgar's The Music Makers. I was immediately struck by her radiant commitment to the music and the beauty of her tone. She reminded me a bit of Janet Baker, which in my book is the highest of praise.

I have one of her Wigmore Hall CDs (the one of Mahler, Handel, etc.) and have heard her Glyndebourne Theodora.  I had hoped to have seen her in concert, but alas, she died not too long before that.     Have you heard her studio Theodora TL?  If so, how did you find it to be?

Love her Bach album.  I believe that that was the first album that I purchased of hers. 

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

I have one of her Wigmore Hall CDs (the one of Mahler, Handel, etc.) and have heard her Glyndebourne Theodora.  I had hoped to have seen her in concert, but alas, she died not too long before that.     Have you heard her studio Theodora TL?  If so, how did you find it to be?

Love her Bach album.  I believe that that was the first album that I purchased of hers. 

PD

No, I only have the Glyndebourne version on which she is incomparable as Irene. The studio recording was made before she made the switch to mezzo and so she sings Theodora.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

No, I only have the Glyndebourne version on which she is incomparable as Irene. The studio recording was made before she made the switch to mezzo and so she sings Theodora.

Thanks for the info; I didn't know that.

PD

[knight66]

Oh, neat Mike!  Did you have a chance to talk to her at all?  I've heard of but don't know any of Sarah Connelly's recordings but will check for samples of them.
Am not familiar with this recording.  I believe that the only complete Dido that I have is the one with Baker.  Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is/was now sadly a wonderful singer!  I have a number of albums of hers.  Good to hear that she is appreciated across the pond. 

PD

No, I did not talk to her at all across those performances/rehearsals. I was in or at a lot of her concerts, but only spoke to her once. That was when I encountered her in a record shop. She was going to be singing Jocasta at the Proms and I mentioned that we were rehearsing the Oedipus and I was finding it tough. She was pleasant, encouraging, but not the sort you have a chat with.

Mike

[Pohjolas Daughter]

No, I did not talk to her at all across those performances/rehearsals. I was in or at a lot of her concerts, but only spoke to her once. That was when I encountered her in a record shop. She was going to be singing Jocasta at the Proms and I mentioned that we were rehearsing the Oedipus and I was finding it tough. She was pleasant, encouraging, but not the sort you have a chat with.

Mike

You must be quite a good singer to have been singing at The Proms Mike..not to mention at other concerts with her! 

PD

[knight66]

You must be quite a good singer to have been singing at The Proms Mike..not to mention at other concerts with her! 

PD

Those were the days, always in choir, not doing solo work apart from in little local concerts.

M

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Those were the days, always in choir, not doing solo work apart from in little local concerts.

M

Glad that you enjoyed them.  And I'm sure that your local concerts were a hit too; I suspect that you're being too modest. 

I'm guessing that you have probably performed with other singers whose names (and work) that I might know?

PD