What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Tsaraslondon]

Maria de Buenos Aires defies classification. It's been called an operetta and a tango-opera, but really it's neither. Maybe it doesn't matter what it is, but it certainly conjures up the atmosphere of smoke filled tango bars in downtown Buenos Aires. Narrated by the librettist Horacio Ferrer, this recording led by Gidon Kremer on the violin certainly has the whiff of authenticity

[Tsaraslondon]

It seems incredible to me that La Gioconda, which has quite a few commercial recordings, has never been staged at Covent Garden since WWII, though they did two concert performances some years ago. It's not a great masterpiece, but, as far as I'm concerned, it has a lot more to commend it than some of the verismo fare we've had such as Fedora and Adriana Lecouvreur and it as least as good as Andréa Chénier.

The opera furnished Callas with her Italian debut in 1947, beginning what she called "the big career". (Previously she had only sung professionally in Greece.) It was conducted by Tullio Serafin, who would become her mentor and she also met Meneghini who would become her husband, and she recorded it again in 1959 when she was separating from him.

I never can decide which of her two recordings I prefer. Here for Cetra in 1952 she is in superb voice, but of course the mono sound can't hope to compare to the stereo of the 1959 version, on which she is also in remarkably good voice, especially considering it was 1959. I intend to listen to that recording for comparison tomorrow.

My main problem with this set, apart from the somewhat provincial orchestra and mono sound (though it sounds better in this Warner pressing than I remember from previous incarnations) is the whiney Enzo of Gianni Poggi. I just don't like the sound of his voice. Best of the others is Fedora Barbieri, who has a commanding presence and helps to set sparks flying in the E un anatema duet, though she is nowhere near as specific in her singing as Callas. Silveri and Neri are better than adeqaute; Amadini rather less so.

Callas is in a different class altogether, her every utterance so vivid that it etches itself into the memory. I suppose the likes of Milanov and Caballé have spun a purer ppp top B on Ah, come t'amo (spinning out pianissimo top notes was never Callas's forte) but neither of them sing with Callas's dramatic involvement, her specific response to the text. One of her greatest, most moving moments is the section after she gives Laura the potion. This may not be great music, but Callas makes you believe that it is as she digs deep into the words Io lo salvi per lui che l'ama distilling all Gioconda's love and pain into those words per lui, for him.  Later on the performance of Suicidio! is one of the first arias I ever heard Callas sing and it knocked me for six. I could not believe that the human voice could express so much and those cavernous chest tones completely floored me.

Looking forward to hearing the 1959 recording tomorrow.

[Wendell_E]

It seems incredible to me that La Gioconda, which has quite a few commercial recordings, has never been staged at Covent Garden since WWII, though they did two concert performances some years ago.

I love Gioconda. I guess it's really hard to cast these days. Of course, that's also a problem with the other operas you mention. When I first got into opera in the early 70s, I read an article that said it was mostly only done in Italy, and America (mostly at the Met). Since then I think it's done even less frequently.

La Scala last did it in 1996-7, with

GIOCONDA EVA URBANOVA Soprano
LAURA ADORNO LUCIANA D'INTINO Mezzosoprano
ALVISE BADOERO NICOLAI GHIAUROV Basso
LA CIECA LARISSA DIADKOVA Contralto
ENZO GRIMALDO JOSÉ CURA Tenore
BARNABA NICOLAI PUTILIN Baritono

The Vienna Staatsoper did a new production in 1986 with Marton and Domingo, twelve performances, including a telecast that's available on DVD. They haven't done it since, and before that, they'd only done it in 1884, 1885, and 1934.

Even at the Met, where it used to be done at least every 4 or 5 seasons through 1982-83, it's only been back three times since:

1989-90, with Ghena Dimitrova and Bruno Beccaria
2006-07, Violeta Urmana and Aquiles Machado
2008-09, Deborah Voigt and Machado again

Of course, it shows up at other houses occasionally.


I first got to know it through Tebaldi's Decca recording. Wagner snob that I was, I didn't think much of it, but I did wear out the grooves listening to Bergonzi singing:

"Già ti vedo immota e smorta
tutta avvolta in bianco vel,
tu sei morta, tu sei morta
angiol mio dolce e fedel!"

[Tsaraslondon]

I first got to know it through Tebaldi's Decca recording. Wagner snob that I was, I didn't think much of it, but I did wear out the grooves listening to Bergonzi singing:

"Già ti vedo immota e smorta
tutta avvolta in bianco vel,
tu sei morta, tu sei morta
angiol mio dolce e fedel!"

When Tebaldi started studying the role for the recording, her producer suggested she listen to the Milanov recording. However when he turned up at her house one day, he found her listening to the Callas recording. "Why didn't you tell me that Maria was the best?" she said to him.

Maybe one of the reasons it's not done so often today is the paucity of sopranos capable of singing the title role.

[Tsaraslondon]

Callas was in amazingly good voice for this 1959 recording. To my ears, her voice sounds firmer, richer and in more control than it was for the 1957 Manon Lescaut. Consequently I find it hard to choose between this and the earlier Cetra recording the only conclusion being that both are worth having.

One thing that is indisputable is that the stereo sound, orchestra and chorus are a good deal better than on the older recording. As for the casts, it's swings and roundabouts. Cossotto is a good Laura, but this is quite early in her career and, though the voice is lovely, Barbieri on the earlier recording is a more positive presence. Of the tenors, I prefer Ferraro here to the whiney Poggi and Silveri on the earlier set to Cappuccilli here, who is also early in his career and as yet hasn't learned to project character in the studio. The basses, Vinco here and Neri on Cetra are both fine, Companeez rather preferable to Amadini as La Cieca. Votto conducts both performances and he did little better on disc, though here he does at least  have a superior orchestra and chorus at his disposal.

However the main reason for acquiring either set is the Gioconda of Callas, which, on both sets, is one of her greatest recorded performances. She herself was quite pleased with the final act as recorded here, stating that it was "all there for anyone who wanted to know what she was all about."

[André]

From this box:



The following discs of highlights:



and



The first one is sung in German, lasts only 43 minutes (no arias for Amelia !) and Schock is in poor voice. Entirely expendable.

The second has 75 minutes from a Met-originated performance. Singers are well chosen, but none attains distinction. To my surprise Michael Sylvester's Carlo is the best sung and most involved of the lot - he almost makes the disc worth listening to. Zajic and Millo are okay in a generalized way, Furlanetto is more specific in his delivery but his modest basso cantante voice is not on the level of Siepi's, Ghiaurov's or even Raimondi's (insufficient breath control makes him break the line in his big aria). I found Levine attentive and alert but a bit inflexible. Interesting but that, too, will not be listened to again.

This box contains no Otello, no Falstaff, extracts only from Aida, 1 disc of ballet music, 1 of overtures/sinfonias, but full performances of 8 operas as well as the Requiem and 6 recital discs. Among the complete performances all are famous, even reference versions, and the Requiem is a big favourite, as well as 3 of the recital discs.

[Tsaraslondon]

Recorded in 1958, this famous recording features most of the cast from the Paris premiere in 1957. (The opera was first heard in Italy, sung in Italian, with a cast that included Virginia Zeani, Leyla Gencer and Fiorenza Cossotto).

It is a great shame the oprea was not recorded in stereo, but the cast could hardly be bettered, with Denise Duval as Blanche, Régine Crespin as Madame Lidoine and Rita Gorr as Mère Marie.

One of the few post WWII operas to have retained their place in the international repertory, it rarely fails on stage.

[Tsaraslondon]

Erm, I am going to mention Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw and A Midsummer Night's Dream to push back against that last statement!
Which is to take nothing away from the Poulenc piece, which is indeed wonderful, though I only have the Nagano 1990 recording of it.

I said "one of the few". Britten's operas are probably the only other ones.

[JBS]

I said "one of the few". Britten's operas are probably the only other ones.

Glass's Akhnetan seems to be getting productions.

Previn's Streetcar Named Desire seems to having a revival here in the US. Menotti's works get some productions as well here.
But I have no idea if that has carried over to non US houses.

[Tsaraslondon]

Glass's Akhnetan seems to be getting productions.

Previn's Streetcar Named Desire seems to having a revival here in the US. Menotti's works get some productions as well here.
But I have no idea if that has carried over to non US houses.

It's good that that is the case, but I'm not sure you'd call them repertory works yet. Peter Grimes most assuredly is and some of his other operas are also played quite regularly outside the UK as well. Here his operas are regular visitors to all our companies. That isn't the case for Glass, Menotti or Previn.

I was in the UK premiere of Previn's A Streetar Named Desire (a semi-staged performance with the LSO at the Barbican, conducted by Previn himself and starring Renée Fleming), so I have rather a soft spot for it. I'm listening to it today in fact.

[Tsaraslondon]

The critics were quite sniffy about Previn's opera when it was first produced in San Francisco in 1998, where this recording was made. They were quite sniffy about it too in London when Previn conducted a semi-staged performance at the Barbican in 2003 with the London Symphony Orchestra and the three principals, Renée Fleming, Rodney Gilfry and Anthony Dean Griffey. (Janice Watson replaced Elizabeth Futral.) I'm probably biased as I got to know the opera quite well, having been engaged to play the doctor at the end of the opera, as well as assorted Stanley cronies and ghostly soldiers. That said, I enjoy it more each time I hear it. OK, much of it is derivative, with nods to jazz, Strauss and Korngold, but it works very well as a piece of theatre. The cast is excellent too and I'm not sure Fleming has done anything better, displaying none of the mannerisms that sometimes creep into her singing of Italian opera, and Previn gives her such achingly poignant music to sing.

I really enjoy it.

[Wendell_E]

I also have Karajan  [EMI recording of Don Carlos, in the Italian translation], who chooses to record the four act version, which cuts the Fontainebleau act, moving Carlo's aria Io la vid to the Monastery scene, which now becomes the first scene of Act I. His soloists are Carreras (in what I believe to be one of his finest recorded performances), Freni, Baltsa, Cappuccilli and Ghiaurov. Apart from the sound, which has a ridiculously wide dynamic range (some parts almost impossible to hear whilst others blast you out of your seat) it is a very fine performance.

I just received a copy in the mail Tuesday, and am giving it a first listen. You're sure not kidding about the "ridiculously wide dynamic range". Frustrating to try to listen to it.

[Tsaraslondon]

I just received a copy in the mail Tuesday, and am giving it a first listen. You're sure not kidding about the "ridiculously wide dynamic range". Frustrating to try to listen to it.

If it weren't such a good performance I doubt I'd ever listen to it. One particularly bad example is at the beginning of the Garden scene (Act II scene i in this version). At the beginning Carreras sounds as if he is singing in a different room, so far away you can barely hear him, but as soon as there's an orchestral tutti you get blasted out of seat. Presumably Karajan thought everyone had a house with a soundproofed listening room, or lived in the middle of nowhere.

[André]

Cross posted.



This Pristine Classical masterization is way better sounding than any other releases of this legendary recording I've heard (EMI and Naxos Historical) . No other tenor has matched Melchior's voluminous, baritonal Siegmund for sheer power and stamina. Emmanuel List's cavernous Hunding has amazing presence - bass voices were almost always shortchanged by technical limitations in historic recordings. I found Lehmann's Sieglinde unusually bold and forthright, with clear tones and fine legato to complement her excellent diction. Walter's ebullient conducting sweeps all before it. A classic.

[JBS]

[JBS]

[Tsaraslondon]

This is one of my three favourite performances of the operas, the others being De Los Angeles/Gavazzeni (preferable I think to her later recording under Santini) and Callas/Karajan.

Today I'm listening to

   

La Bohème is such a short opera that this morning I was able to listen to two classic recordings. Rather surprised that on this occasion it was the Votto that drew me in more. Admittedly the Votto recording is the one that I got to know the opera from, but I'm also a great fan of both De Los Angeles and Bjoerling. That said, it was Callas and Di Stefano who moved me more. I also prefer the more characterful Panerai and Moffo to Merrill and Amara, and Zaccaria to Tozzi on the Beecham. Votto is not as imagnative as Beecham, but he supports his singers well.

Interestingly both recordings were made the same year - in 1956. They are both on very good mono, but the sound on the Beecham is slightly preferable. I'm happy to have both these wonderful performances in my library.

[Tsaraslondon]

Working my way through my Puccini collection, I come to an opera I like more each time I hear it. This is a superb recording, at least as good as Mehta's Turandot. It won a Gramophone award when it was released and is my favourite recording of the piece.

[Roasted Swan]

Working my way through my Puccini collection, I come to an opera I like more each time I hear it. This is a superb recording, at least as good as Mehta's Turandot. It won a Gramophone award when it was released and is my favourite recording of the piece.

Neblett is disappointlingly under-represented in the catalogue but the 3 main recordings I have with her are all absolutely wonderful;



[not my favourite Boheme by any means but I do like Neblett's Musetta]

[LKB]

Neblett is disappointlingly under-represented in the catalogue but the 3 main recordings I have with her are all absolutely wonderful;



[not my favourite Boheme by any means but I do like Neblett's Musetta]

I used to have her on a Mahler recording or two, Abbado or Bernstein. I enjoyed her singing.