What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

If you think the tune to which Rosina sings Io sono docile in Il Barbiere di Siviglia perfectly establishes the sweet side of her character, you might be surprised to find it also serves as part of Elisabetta's entrance aria in this earlier tragic opera by Rossini. You might also be surprised to find that the overture, which always seems the perfect curtain-raiser for the comic opera is the same as the one for this tragic opera, although it had also served as the overture for an even earlier opera, Aureliano in Palmira. The closing section of the overture also puts in an appearance in the finale of Act I of Elisabetta.

This recording was based on performances at the Aix-en-Provence festival in 1975, though the part of Leicester, sung here by the more well-known José Carreras, was there taken by by Gösta Winbergh. Valerie Masterson, who had recently made her French debut as Manon in Toulouse had made quite an impression in the seconda donna role of Matilde, and her services were retained for the recording which was made in London the following year. She is excellent in the role and her clear, bright soprano both contrasts and blemds with Caballé's richer tones.

Caballé has all the necessary grandeur for the role of Elisabetta. Her coloratura is not always as clean as it might be, but the recording captures her at somewhere near her career best and the voice is arrestingly beautiful. Carreras is golden toned and, as always, dramatically committed and Ugo Benelli perfectly cast as the nasty Norfolk.

The LSO play beautifully for Gianfranco Masini and all in all this is a worthy version of Rossini's early dramma per musica.

Oh, that sounds like a lovely set!  I don't have any recordings of that opera, but will keep an eye out for it.  I also don't have many complete opera recordings with Caballé either.     Yes, I know about composers recycling pieces of music, but it's always interesting to know the wheres and whens of it all.  He must have really liked that overture! Thank you for the information TL. 

PD

p.s.  Out of curiosity, where was your Philips set pressed?

[Tsaraslondon]

Oh, that sounds like a lovely set!  I don't have any recordings of that opera, but will keep an eye out for it.  I also don't have many complete opera recordings with Caballé either.     Yes, I know about composers recycling pieces of music, but it's always interesting to know the wheres and whens of it all.  He must have really liked that overture! Thank you for the information TL. 

PD

p.s.  Out of curiosity, where was your Philips set pressed?

I was listening to it on Spotify. I used to have the LPs, which had the above cover, but I don't have a turntable anymore and got rid of all my LPs. It's been reissued on CD with the following two covers.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I was listening to it on Spotify. I used to have the LPs, which had the above cover, but I don't have a turntable anymore and got rid of all my LPs. It's been reissued on CD with the following two covers.

No LPs?    Well, one good thing about that is that you have a lot more room in your home.  Those boxed opera sets (particularly Wagnerian) take up a LOT of room!    Do you have a ton of opera CDs or listen mostly online these days?  Just curious. 

Must admit that I like the cover at the bottom of your posting much better than the top one.

[Tsaraslondon]

No LPs?    Well, one good thing about that is that you have a lot more room in your home.  Those boxed opera sets (particularly Wagnerian) take up a LOT of room!    Do you have a ton of opera CDs or listen mostly online these days?  Just curious. 

Must admit that I like the cover at the bottom of your posting much better than the top one.

Oh I have thousands of CDs and mostly play them. Just occasionally I remember  things I used to have on LP but never replaced on CD. That's when Spotify comes in useful.

[Handelian]

Act 2

[bhodges]

R. Strauss: Salome (Met Opera broadcast)

I mean, Karita Mattila, end of story. 

https://www.metopera.org/season/on-demand/opera/?upc=811357012031

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

Revisting thet absolute jewel that is Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, in what I understand is its first recording (from 1947), conducted by Ernest Bour.


The sound is excellent for its vintage, the performance has a natural flow to it that is admirable, Colette's text is beguiling, and the music is simply wonderful. C'est magnifique!

"Keng-ça-fou, Mah-jong, Keng-ça-fou, puis' -kong-kong-pran-pa, Ça-oh-râ, Ça-oh-râ...Ça-oh-râ, Cas-ka-ra, harakiri, Sessue Hayakawa Hâ! Hâ! Ça-oh-râ toujours l'air chinoâ." 

Indeed, Rafael. One of the most magnificent operas I've ever heard. I don't know this recording, but I have many others --- my favorite is Maazel on Deutsche Grammophon.

[Handelian]

Wondrous music with the wondrous voice of Natalie Dessay.

[ritter]

Wondrous music with the wondrous voice of Natalie Dessay.

The aria Tief gebückt und voller Reue from BWV 199 is breathtakingly beautiful, and Dessay and Haïm are truly outstanding  in it. Great stuff!

My favourite, though, remains Dawn Upshaw. A desert island disc for me:

https://www.youtube.com/v/4XeuHyWpTLE

[Handelian]

Handel Rodelinda

Never understand why Handel's operas were neglected for so long. They contain such splendid music.

[bhodges]

Handel Rodelinda

Never understand why Handel's operas were neglected for so long. They contain such splendid music.

Maybe he increasing expertise and publicity of period instruments? Looks like this group, the Raglan Baroque Players, is one of those? For me, the whole period instrument movement revived my appreciation for Baroque works; it just "feels right." I wonder if other audience members may have been similarly influenced. Groups like Il Giardino Armonico and Concerto Italiano, for example, completely rehabilitated Vivaldi, after I had become a bit weary of his music decades ago.

--Bruce

[Handelian]

The late great Helen Hunt singing Handel. Unbelievable singing!

[MusicTurner]

Monteverdi  - L'Orfeo /Corboz /erato CD

Happens quite often ... returning to this rich and pioneering, fine work, somehow also ritualized or archaic, yet abundant with melodic beauty too. What a great composer he was.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The aria Tief gebückt und voller Reue from BWV 199 is breathtakingly beautiful, and Dessay and Haïm are truly outstanding  in it. Great stuff!

My favourite, though, remains Dawn Upshaw. A desert island disc for me:

https://www.youtube.com/v/4XeuHyWpTLE

That's a lovely CD (the Upshaw one though I do also like Dessay).  I have a number of discs with recitals by Dawn Upshaw (and some complete operas if my memory is serving me correctly)..yes, at least Alcina.  What a lovely crystalline voice and intelligent singing/phrasing.   

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Werther is an opera I like more each time I hear it. I first saw it back in 1970, in a lovely production by Sir Michael Redgrave, when it toured to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Werther was sung by David Hughes, who had enjoyed quite a success as a pop singer before retraining as an opera singer. He suffered from heart problems and sadly died from heart failure the day after collapsing on stage during a performance of Madama Butterfly at the London Coliseum. He was only 47. Looking at the Glyndeboure archives for 1970, I see the role of Charlotte was sung by Yvonne Fuller, who looks absolutely ideal in photographs. I wonder what happened to her.

To be honest I can't remember all that much about the performance other than that I enjoyed it immensely and it has remiained one of my favourite operas ever since. These days I often hear people berating the character of Werther for being so "wet", for want of a better word, but surely that is a rather glib reaction, which betrays a lack of understanding of the whole Romantic movement, and especically the Sturm und Drang movement that the original Goethe novel partly inspired. Musically, it is one of Massenet's best operas and I like it a lot more than some of his crowd pleaser operas, like Esclarmonde and Le roi de Lahore.

Werther has been extraordinarliy lucky on disc, right from its first recording, made in 1931 and featuring Georges Thill and Ninon Vallin under Elie Cohen. Other strong contenders include Alfredo Kraus and Tatiana Troyanos under Michel Plasson, José Carreras and Frederica Von Stade under Colin Davis and, possibly best of all, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu under Antonio Pappano.

Though the title role has been sung by lyric tenors such as Tito Schipa and Ferrcuio Tagliavini, it still needs a fair amount of heft, as was demonstrated when I saw the opera not long ago at Covent Garden. Both musically and dramatically Juan Diego Florez was underpowered and the opera consequently failed to make its usual effect. Gedda was also a lyric tenor, but his essentially lyric voice had a great deal more carrying power than that of Florez and he is an effective Werther, his singing, as always, musical and involved.

By his side is one of the best Charlottes on disc, maybe even the best. Though a soprano, De Los Angeles's lower and middle voice has the richness the role demands and her characterisation is spot on. Only Von Stade on the Davis recording approaches her for charm and vulnerability. This is a great performance. There is also excellent support from Mady Mesplé as a delightful Sophie and Roger Soyer as Albert.

Prêtre tends to overdo the histrionics and the Cohen, Davis and Pappano are all much better conducted, with the Davis and Pappano also enjoying better sound. Nonetheless this is one of the best recordings of the opera around, and absolutely essential for De Los Angeles's superb Charlotte.

[André]

Excellent review, Tsaras, thanks! I'm slowly getting into Massenet. Werther (the Davis version) and Esclarmonde are patiently waiting on my shelves...

[Tsaraslondon]

Excellent review, Tsaras, thanks! I'm slowly getting into Massenet. Werther (the Davis version) and Esclarmonde are patiently waiting on my shelves...

Esclarmonde goes into my "crowd pleaser" category. The music strikes me as flashy but rather empty. Sutherland is in spectacular form, if you can cope with not being able to make out a word of what she is singing. I can't, I'm afraid.

[Handelian]

Maybe he increasing expertise and publicity of period instruments? Looks like this group, the Raglan Baroque Players, is one of those? For me, the whole period instrument movement revived my appreciation for Baroque works; it just "feels right." I wonder if other audience members may have been similarly influenced. Groups like Il Giardino Armonico and Concerto Italiano, for example, completely rehabilitated Vivaldi, after I had become a bit weary of his music decades ago.

--Bruce

Hi Bruce!

Yes the Raglan is one of these groups. Bit too careful really but a good performance none the less. You cannot really play Handel, etc satisfactorily without some historically informed practice these days as we have learned that to perform it the way he intended is the best.

[Tsaraslondon]

I sometimes wonder if the subject mater of Mazeppa would have been more suited to Mussorgsky, but I enjoy Tchaikovsky's opera more every time I hear it, whilst still preferring both Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades. It seems to me that both of them engaged Tchaikovsky's sympathies more.

I haven't heard the Gergiev version on Philips but this one from Sweden with Neeme Järvi at the helm and that fine artist Sergei Leiferkus as Mazeppa seems pretty good to me.

[Tsaraslondon]

Really enjoying this recording today. Ultimately I'd still find it difficult to choose between it and the Gardelli, but in one respect it definitely improves on its predecessor. Studer is a lot better than the pallidly voiced Deutekom on the Gardelli. That said, I'd have loved to hear the role sung by a voice with a bit more steel in it. Nonetheless Studer sings the role very well and the male roles are all very well taken too, with Muti at his exciting best.