What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

Started by Tsaraslondon, April 10, 2017, 04:29:04 AM

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JBS

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on December 02, 2022, 08:09:10 AMOne of three new Warner digital issues. Do you know if this is a remastering or the same one as the last Warner set from 2014?

I think Warner would make a big deal about a new "new re-master", so I would assume it's the same one.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Tsaraslondon

This is from Warner's official Callas page on Facebook.

OnThisDay 99 years ago, Maria Callas was born 🌟 She would become one of the greatest icons of the classical music world, awing and enchanting listeners around the world – from the stage and the studio – with her unparalleled voice.
In 2023, we will honor the centenary of her birth, with exclusive experiences, exhibitions, concerts, and events around the world.


We shall see.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



Dernesch, Ludwig, Kollo, Braun, Sotin, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Solti.

My one and only opera recording conducted by Solti. A superb performance of the Paris version.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Wendell_E

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on November 19, 2022, 01:55:48 PM

I've never heard Karajan's DG Ring, so I started it yesterday (via Amazon Music). Liked it a lot.
"Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." ― Mark Twain

Papy Oli

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on December 02, 2022, 08:09:10 AMOne of three new Warner digital issues. Do you know if this is a remastering or the same one as the last Warner set from 2014?

I have sampled tracks of the two versions back to back in FLAC on Idagio and I don't hear any striking differences at all. If anything, the 2014 version sounds (at times) a tiny bit closer and immediate, the newest version slightly more distant. Nothing else of note.

Nice black cover though  ;D
Olivier

knight66

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on November 30, 2022, 01:42:46 AM

Coming to the end and I've really enjoyed this Ring. Brilioth may be no Melchior, but we'd be lucky to hear someone half so good today and I really like Dernesch's Brünnhilde. The rest of the cast is hardly to be sneezed at and the orchestral playing under Karajan is superb. I guess I'm one of the few people who prefers this set to the Solti.
 

I am with you here. I have had both Solti and Karajan for decades and of the two I prefer Karajan. I especially like the luminosity of sound he brings out of the orchestra. I enjoy Dernesch's very feminine sound and as you say, the whole cast is worth hearing. I imagine some will feel Janowitz is too light for Gutrune, but I am addicted to the sound of her voice. I disagree that Karajan sacrifices drama to beauty. I find it a very satisfying listen.

Knight

 
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

knight66

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on December 03, 2022, 12:23:29 AM

Dernesch, Ludwig, Kollo, Braun, Sotin, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Solti.

My one and only opera recording conducted by Solti. A superb performance of the Paris version.
 

This recording, which I bought when it was first issued, convinced me that the Paris Version was THE version to listen to and I have not heard a version that I prefer to this one.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: knight66 on December 03, 2022, 11:26:41 PMI am with you here. I have had both Solti and Karajan for decades and of the two I prefer Karajan. I especially like the luminosity of sound he brings out of the orchestra. I enjoy Dernesch's very feminine sound and as you say, the whole cast is worth hearing. I imagine some will feel Janowitz is too light for Gutrune, but I am addicted to the sound of her voice. I disagree that Karajan sacrifices drama to beauty. I find it a very satisfying listen.

Knight

 

One critic described Solti's approach as "an orgasm in every bar and I know what he meant.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Wendell_E

#3388
Continuing Karajan's DG Ring with Die Walküre.

Edit: Siegfried on Monday, the 5th.
"Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." ― Mark Twain

Papy Oli

Dipping a tentative toe in Der Ring.

Having had a quick glance in the early pages of the Ring thread here, I have bookmarked some complete Rings on Idagio (beside the Solti which I have owned for years, unheard - complete Wagner operas boxset bought for £36 at the time, a "blind" bargain purchase back for later in my life... i.e. now  ;D ).

Making an arbitrary sampling from the Rheingold Prelude up to the first interlude (Scene 1 basically).

For today :

Knappertsbusch 1956



Solti



Two promising starts.

In between, I had started Janowski but I didn't like the voices so I aborted that version quickly.



Olivier

Papy Oli

Olivier

Papy Oli

Another Rheingold Act I Scene I - Keilberth 1953

Olivier

Papy Oli

#3392
The sound of the Keilberth will be a problem. Shelving that one for now.

Trying another oldie - Krauss 1953

Olivier

Papy Oli

Olivier

Papy Oli

the Penultimate Scene 1 - Böhm

Olivier

Lisztianwagner

Quote from: Papy Oli on December 07, 2022, 03:39:50 AMAnother one - Barenboim


Barenboim's recording of the Ring was my introduction to Wagner's music, it's a wonderful set in my opinion, especially about Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Tsaraslondon



An oft forgotten recording of Tristan und Isolde but it's Ralph Moore's top choice for a stereo studio recording and it certainly has a lot going for it. Chief among its attractions is the gorgeously sung Isolde of Linda Esther Gray, not dissimilar to that of Margaret Price, except that Gray did sing Isolde in the theatre before illness tragically cut short her career. After Gray the best performance is that of Gwynne Howell as King Mark, his voice beautiful and his German diction excellent. Mitchinson's vibrato is occasionally a little wide, but nowhere near as bad as most tenors you are likely to hear in the role today. Joll and Wilkens have no doubt been bettered elsewhere, but Goodall's conception of the work is wonderful one you've got used to the slow speeds.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

ritter

#3397
A real rarity:



I pulled this from my shelves because the composer Luigi Mancinelli's name appeared in a book I'm reading by Azorín (a leading figure of the Spanish "generation of '98", widely regarded as one of the best prose stylists in 20th century Spanish literature). Azorín says that Mancinelli brought Wagnerism to Spain. He was best known as a conductor (one of the most prominent Italian opera conductors of the generation preceding Toscanini's). He successively held the posts of chief conductor at Covent Garden, the Teatro Real and the Metropolitan, and was also invited to open the new Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with Aïda in 1908.

This Paolo e Francesca, from 1907 is based, like Rachmaninov's and Zandonai's operas —the latter via D'Annunzio— on Dante. It is a short affair in one act, lasting about an hour. There's nothing remotely Wagnerian to it, and it deviates clearly from the then current trends of Italian opera (as embodied by Puccini and Mascagni). If anything, it is reminiscent of the "transitional" style of the 1880s (the scapigliatura of Catalani comes to mind). The work is dramatically taut, has some nice orchestral touches, but no really memorable melodies.

The performance from the deepest Italian province (who would have thought there's a functioning opera house in Faenza?) makes up in enthusiasm what it lacks in polish.

JBS

From the Warner Offenbach set


Less satiric than some of his other operas-bouffe (the sharpest bit is aimed at The Count of Monte Cristo)* and more a standard romantic comic opera), this is one of several recordings the work has received (I noticed a Minkowski conducted recording issued by Bru Zane, an EMI recording conducted by Markevitch (now seemingly available only via a re-issue label), and one on [old] Erato with Regine Crespin conducted by Alain Lombard.
Relatively short: three acts with a total time of 99 minutes.

*from Wikipedia
In the dark and gloomy dungeon, an old prisoner enters through a trap door. After digging through the wall of his cell for twelve years with his tiny pen knife, he has finally emerged, unfortunately into another cell. He retreats to his cell when Don Pedro and Panatellas bring Piquillo in. ...
Meanwhile, the old prisoner has turned out to be the long lost Marquis of Santarém. The Viceroy is happy to pardon him as well (and no one can remember what his original crime was supposed to be), rather than send him back to destroy more walls in prison.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Tsaraslondon



Two acts in and I really don't understand the objections to this set. People tend to either love it or hate it. I'm definitely in the former camp and I really don't understand all the oprobrium leveled at Dernesch. She may not have Flagstad's absolutely rock solid firmness or Nilsson's gleaming laser-like top notes, but I find her infinitely more feminine and touching than both and her lower register is particularly beautiful. Furthermore this is not, like Margaret Price's Isolde, a product of the gramophone. Dernesch sang the role on stage both in Salzburg and with Scottish Opera. Vickers is simply hors concours, Ludwig, Berry and Ridderbusch very fine and the orchestra play magnificently under Karajan. There are a couple of weird recording balances in the Act II Love Duet, but by and large the recording is fine too.

However fine I thought the Goodall that I was listening to a few days ago, this one is my favourite.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas