What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[steve ridgway]

Lengthy, but very worthwhile; I hope you like it! I'm seeing it live in June.

CD 1 / Act 1 has been good. I particularly liked the Angel and there were some unusual sounds .

[steve ridgway]

I got to the end of Saint François D'Assise, found it enjoyable and an interesting insight into the religious way of thinking .

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Der fliegende Holländer

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[nico1616]

It has been years since I listened to this recording, and now I remember why Siegfried was always my favorite part of the Ring. It is great to meet this music again after so long

[ultralinear]

Bernstein  Trouble in Tahiti / A Quiet Place

 

ROH Covent Garden will be presenting a double bill of the original one-act versions later this year - at a time when I'm already going to be quite busy - so I'm trying to decide how much I want to go.

[Lisztianwagner]

I'll listen to Wagner's Siegfried (Karajan recording) too, since today is the composer's birthday:

Richard Wagner
Siegfried

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[Tsaraslondon]

Beautiful singing from Björling, but he is not ideal in either role.


https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/05/mascagni-cavalleria-rusticana-leoncavallo-i-pagliacci-pristine-audio-2/

http://tsaraslondon.com/2024/04/11/pristines-re-master-of-bjorlings-cav-and-pag/

[Lisztianwagner]

On youtube, first listen to:

Giacomo Puccini
La Fanciulla del West

Zubin Mehta & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

[steve ridgway]

R. Strauss: Elektra

This was a real scream . The orchestra sounded great but this live performance was hard to follow as the singers were sometimes inaudible and a couple of numbers seemed to have been cut compared to the libretto I found online.

[Mirror Image]

R. Strauss: Elektra

This was a real scream . The orchestra sounded great but this live performance was hard to follow as the singers were sometimes inaudible and a couple of numbers seemed to have been cut compared to the libretto I found online.

I'm so happy to see you getting into Strauss, but for Elektra if you can find Solti or Sinopoli, then don't hesitate to pick up their recordings.

[Tsaraslondon]

I'm so happy to see you getting into Strauss, but for Elektra if you can find Solti or Sinopoli, then don't hesitate to pick up their recordings.

Not Sawallisch? I'm not much of a fan of Elektra (all those women screaming their heads off for ages), but I think Sawallisch brings out more of the lyricism in the score than Solti. I don't know the Sinopoli recording.

[Wendell_E]

Not Sawallisch? I'm not much of a fan of Elektra (all those women screaming their heads off for ages), but I think Sawallisch brings out more of the lyricism in the score than Solti. I don't know the Sinopoli recording.

I do like the Solti, but I was going to recommend Sawallisch, as well. Like Solti's, it's uncut. Sinopoli (and most conductors in other recordings) makes cuts, which are standard practice in staged performances.

[Mirror Image]

Not Sawallisch? I'm not much of a fan of Elektra (all those women screaming their heads off for ages), but I think Sawallisch brings out more of the lyricism in the score than Solti. I don't know the Sinopoli recording.

I don't own nor heard the Sawallisch recording. He's a more than capable Straussian, so I may have to check out his Elektra at some point.

[ritter]

Act III of Verdi's Falstaff, as performed in the 1937 Salzburg Festival under the baton of Arturo Toscanini:

[Mirror Image]

@ritter what are your favorite Verdi operas? And this question really is also directed at anyone who would like to answer.

[Tsaraslondon]

@ritter what are your favorite Verdi operas? And this question really is also directed at anyone who would like to answer.

I love all Verdi's operas, even the early ones from his "galley years" and have recordings of all of them. However my absolute favourites all come from his middle and late period.

Though a flawed work, Don Carlo might just be my absolute favourite, but I find it impossible to list them in any order, though les vêpres siciliennes would probably come last in a ranked list of all the operas since Rigoletto. I also have a special affection for La Traviata, which can be shattering, but it needs a Callas, or a Cotrubas, whom I once saw in the role at Covent Garden.

Of the earlier operas, my favourites would be Macbeth, Stiffelio and Nabucco, but even the much maligned Alzira isn't entirely without merit.

[Wendell_E]

@ritter what are your favorite Verdi operas? And this question really is also directed at anyone who would like to answer.

Don Carlos. Modena version in French, preferably, but I'll take what I can get.
Il Trovatore
La Forza del Destino. Stick to Verdi's revised or original versions, please, with no cuts or rearranging.
Otello
Ernani

I love all his "greatest hits", but I'll choose the above as my favorites, in pretty much that order.

[ritter]

@ritter what are your favorite Verdi operas? And this question really is also directed at anyone who would like to answer.

I'm not the right person to ask, as I have ambivalent (but mainly negative) feelings about Verdi. I recognise his stature among operatic composers, but honestly believe that he was a greater "writer of operas" than composer. And even as "writer of operas", I cannot avoid thinking that Verdi, in his --honest-- effort of seeking "theatrical truth", pushed Italian opera into a realm of vulgarity (of which the "popular Trilogy" of Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata is the paradigm) from which it never fully recovered.

My favourite? Falstaff (by a country mile). IMHO, one of the absolute masterpieces of the operatic repertoire (of any time and place). Most aficionados will place Otello at the same level, but I cannot warm to that piece (much as I try). As @Tsaraslondon and @Wendell_E point out, Don Carlo(s) --in French or Italian-- is quite an achievement, with the very well defined characters and at moments very refined music (even if for us Spaniards the plot --and Schiller's original play on which it is based-- are absolute nonsense and a prime example of the anti-Spanish "black legend").

I love La Forza del destino, because it seems not to be ashamed of what it is: a fully-fledged cloak-and-dagger drama, which doesn't eschew absurd and contrived situations, and the music is exciting (and matches the subject matter perfectly).

I really cannot stand La Traviata (despite some beautiful moments such as "Dite alla giovine" or "Addio del passato"), and have little patience with Il Trovatore or Rigoletto (althoigh the quartet of the latter is rather interesting).

Aïda? Great Act III (the Nile scene) but Act II is a low point in Verdi's output IMHO. And after the lead has sung the line "Numi, pietà, del mio soffrir" for what feels like the hundredth time, I have the urge to throw a tomato at the stage!

I told you, I'm not the right person to ask. 

[Florestan]

1. Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata (the famous Rig-Trov-Trav "trilogy": top-notch Verdi, top-notch opera, top-notch music --- pace @ritter)
2. Nabucco, Ernani, Macbeth
3. Un ballo in maschera, La Forza del destino, Aida

but what @Tsaraslondon said applies to me as well:

I love all Verdi's operas, even the early ones from his "galley years" and have recordings of all of them.

[Florestan]

I have ambivalent (but mainly negative) feelings about Verdi. I recognise his stature among operatic composers, but honestly believe that he was a greater "writer of operas" than composer. And even as "writer of operas", I cannot avoid thinking that Verdi, in his --honest-- effort of seeking "theatrical truth", pushed Italian opera into a realm of vulgarity (of which the "popular Trilogy" of Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata is the paradigm) from which it never fully recovered.

Actually, Rafael, how do you define that vulgarity and what does it consist of? You've been accusing and condemning Verdi and his Rig-Trov-Trav for years yet never specified any details in this respect. Now it's time to lay your aces on the table: what elements of the plot and the music are vulgar and why? Go ahead, list them all.