What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[The new erato]

US release date is Jan. 1. But checking on that made realize I missed this one from earlier this year. Ordered it just now.

Thank you!

I passed on this (my only miss in the series!) since it is basically the same opera as this fine recording which I have:

[The new erato]

I finished the lasrt act of this yesterday:



Joyful stuff, and Salieri is a much more interesting composer than Milos Forman might have you think.

I see Rousset has a couple more Salieri operas recorded.

[André]

Vogel was a contemporary of Mozart (b. 1756) and a Gluck follower. The Medea story fascinated baroque/classical era composers. I like Charpentier's and esp. the Cherubini version. Vogel's is dramatically taut and achieves a good balance between recitatives, arias and choruses. The sumptuous hardcover book that houses the 2 cds contains essays and a full libretto, all in French. Not a word in another language. It's hard to imagine how this could help the work gain widespread exposure.

[Tsaraslondon]

Listening today on Spotify.

I used to have this set on LP but never really felt the need to get in on CD. It seems to me that the opera itself pales in comparison to Norma, which preceded it and I Puritani that followed it, and more than ne of the choruses at least reminds me of Gilbert & Sullivan.

This recording would seem to be self-recommending, but I wouldn't say it was perfect. Veasey sounds a little strained in places (and I note that in the alternative live performance with Sutherland her role is taken by a soprano, Raina Kabaivanska). I also feel that the title role needs a slightly more postively dramatic presence than Sutherland's. The voice is, as usual, very beautiful, but there is a good deal of mooning and swoopy portamentos that robs the music of energy, not to mention her mushy diction. I also wonder if the recording doesn't really capture the size of the voice, which, by all accounts, was really impressive. Pavarotti is at his youthful best, but the tenor is something of a secondary character.

I find the whole thing just a little dull.

[Tsaraslondon]

Friedrich von Flotow's Martha is nowhere near as popular as it once was, at least over here in the UK. Maybe its slight tale of ladies masquerading as ladies' maids doesn't fit well with today's sensibilities. However it is a delightfully tuneful work with at least one famous aria, Lyonel's Ach, so fromm, once known better in its Italian translation of M'appari. Flotow also incorproated into the score the traditional Irish melody The last rose of Summer, frst for Lady Harriet in Act II and then used as a leitmotif representing Lyonel's longing. I have a stunning recording of it, sung by Leontyne Price.

I did once see the opera many, many years ago, but can't now recall that much about it. It has had quite a few recordings but this one starring Anneliese Rothenberger, Brigitte Faßbänder, Nicolai Gedda and Hermann Prey seems pretty good to me.

[The new erato]

How can it be otherwise with that cast?

[Tsaraslondon]

How can it be otherwise with that cast?

Indeed, and Robert Heger has a few good recordings to his credit, including one of Nicolai's Die lustgen Weiber von Windsor, which stars Gottlob Frick and Fritz Wunderlich. I see that he joined the Nazi party in 1937 but that didn't prevent him from conducting at Covent Garden in 1953. He also seems to have quite a lot of Wagner recordings to his credit.

[JBS]

From Warner's Complete Ravel box

[Tsaraslondon]

There is some wonderful music in this opera that was almost lost to us competely, Magnard having been murdered by the Germans in the 1914-1918 war and the orchestral score was lost when they burned down his mansion. Magnard's friend Guy-Ropartz recontonstructed the score from the vocal score and it was finally given its premiere in 1931.

Like Chausson's slightly earlier Le roi Arthur, its Wagnerian influences are easy to spot, but Magnard still retains his own voice. Magnard's own libretto refelcts his misanthropic beliefs and weirdly parallels events of today with the hero Guercoeur failing in his quest to lead humanity out of tyranny and Truth looking foward to the time when man will at last learn reason and choose freedom.

Musically it is well worth investigating though I'm not sure if it would dramatically hold the attenton on stage. The performance here is excellent, with José Van Dam particularly fine as the Guercoeur.

[JBS]

Again from the Warner Complete set, Ravel's other opera in this performance

[Tsaraslondon]

Again from the Warner Complete set, Ravel's other opera in this performance

I don't know this version, nor the Debussy that accompanies it. My go to recordings for L'Enfant et les sortilèges have always been Ernest Bour and Maazel. I once had the Previn on LP, and it has quite a lot in its favour but Susan Davenny Wyner's child is a bit of a problem.

[JBS]

I don't know this version, nor the Debussy that accompanies it. My go to recordings for L'Enfant et les sortilèges have always been Ernest Bour and Maazel. I once had the Previn on LP, and it has quite a lot in its favour but Susan Davenny Wyner's child is a bit of a problem.

This seems to be a relatively new one: Amazon gives a release date of 2017.  I have the Maazel and Rattle. I don't think the Franck is better than them. I don't know the Bour or Previn. You might find the Rattle worth your attention.

[Mirror Image]

Cross-posted from the 'Listening' thread -

Strauss
Elektra
Marie Collier (soprano), Gerhard Unger (tenor), Gerhard Stolze (tenor), Birgit Nilsson (soprano), Helen Watts (contralto), Regina Resnik (mezzo-soprano), Margarita Lilowa (mezzo-soprano), Tugomir Franc (bass), Felicia Weathers (soprano), Leo Heppe (bass), Tom Krause (baritone), Pauline Tinsley (soprano), Jane Cook (singer), Margarita Sjostedt (soprano), Maureen Lehane (mezzo-soprano), Yvonne Minton (mezzo-soprano)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsoper
Sir Georg Solti



One of the most magnificent operas of the 20th Century.

[Undersea]

Now listening:



From the Box-Set of Live recordings made at Bayreuth:

[Todd]

First time in a while.  Sweet.

[Tsaraslondon]

With music as tuneful and colourful as this, one has to wonder why Rimsky-Korsakov's operas are performed so rarely in the West.

[The new erato]

Indeed, but I saw a live Kitezh in Bergen about 3 years ago.

[Florestan]

With music as tuneful and colourful as this, one has to wonder why Rimsky-Korsakov's operas are performed so rarely in the West.

Probably not many Western operatic singers who can tackle Russian decently? I mean, hearing R-K's operas in English, French or German (or Romanian, for that matter) would be a desecration. 

[pjme]

Indeed, but I saw a live Kitezh in Bergen about 3 years ago.

2016 De Munt / La Monnaie did a (imho) splendid Golden cockerel in Brussels. Apparently it isn't too difficult to "import" Russian ( Polish, Armenian...)singers:

Tzar Dodon: PAVLO HUNKA
ALEXEY TIKHOMIROV (14, 16, 20, 22 & 27 DEC)
Tzarevich Guidon: ALEXEY DOLGOV
Tzarevich Afron: KONSTANTIN SHUSHAKOV
General Polkan: ALEXANDER VASSILIEV
Amelfa: AGNES ZWIERKO
Astrologer: ALEXANDER KRAVETS
Tzaritza of Shemakha: VENERA GIMADIEVA
NINA MINASYAN (14, 16, 20, 22 & 27 DEC)
Little Golden Cockerel: SHEVA TEHOVAL

[Tsaraslondon]

Probably not many Western operatic singers who can tackle Russian decently? I mean, hearing R-K's operas in English, French or German (or Romanian, for that matter) would be a desecration. 

I don't see why. The ENO did a wonderful production of Christmas Eve some years ago. I don't recall being bothered that it was in English. Indeed many opera houses do Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in English, or the language of their own country, which no doubt contributed to it becoming one of the most popular operas in the repertoire. Generally I too prefer operas in the language they were written but performing them in the vernacular probably ony contributed to their popularity. In Italy they only ever performed Wagner in Italian until around the late 1950s.