What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[ritter]

First listen to Wolfgang Sawallisch's 1957-8 recording of Strauss' Capriccio:



I grew up with Karl Böhm's 1971 Bavarian Radio recording on DG, with a splendid group of soloists led by the ravishing countess of Gundula Janowitz, but this première commercial recording has received great acclaim. Let's see if I can overcome my aversion to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whom I usually cannot stand.

From the Warner Sawallisch opera box:

[Tsaraslondon]

First listen to Wolfgang Sawallisch's 1957-8 recording of Strauss' Capriccio:



I grew up with Karl Böhm's 1971 Bavarian Radio recording on DG, with a splendid group of soloists led by the ravishing countess of Gundula Janowitz, but this première commercial recording has received great acclaim. Let's see if I come overcome my aversion to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whom I usually cannot stand.

From the Warner Sawallisch opera box:

For me it's the reverse. I normally can't stand Janowitz, whose disembodied purity reminds me of a theremin. 

[JBS]

Strauss here as well.


Recorded in performance April 2003.

CPO's liner notes say Clemens Krauss in preparing the world premiere made several cuts and transposed some passages downward (despite the composer's obvious objections) because Hans Hotter had trouble with the relatively high register in which Strauss wrote the role of Jupiter, and that this performance/recording was the first to present the opera as Strauss actually wrote it.

[JBS]

Back to Verdi for today's matinee


It seems whatever problems this opera has can be conveniently blamed on Schiller.

[JBS]

Decided to double dip Verdi



Despite being a DVD, this is just a concert performance. Apparently the Tutto Verdi project couldn't find even one fully staged performance.

The opera's problems are due in part to the fact that its libretto is what happens when you ask an Italian 19th century theater poet to adapt what sounds like a rather pedestrian play by Voltaire.


ETA: now at the start of the final act (which is Act 2 or Act 3, depending on whether you call the opening scene Prologue or Act 1. Verdi apparently called it Act 1, but the librettist didn't. The DVD follows the composer in the track listings and the librettist in the titles shown onscreen.)

As far as the music is concerned, there is plenty of oompahpah Verdi, but also a fair amount of creative Verdi. The duets and the ensemble that ends Act 2 (as Verdi counted it) are fairly good, and at least a couple of the arias could work well in recitals.
Overall, if Verdi's other operas from the mid 1840s (Alzira sits between Giovanna d'Arco and Attila in order of composition) don't deserve obscurity, neither does this one.

The librettist btw was Salvatore Cammarano, who would three more for Verdi: La Battaglia di Legnano, Luisa Miller, and Il Trovatore.

[Tsaraslondon]

Decided to double dip Verdi



Despite being a DVD, this is just a concert performance. Apparently the Tutto Verdi project couldn't find even one fully staged performance.

The opera's problems are due in part to the fact that its libretto is what happens when you ask an Italian 19th century theater poet to adapt what sounds like a rather pedestrian play by Voltaire.


ETA: now at the start of the final act (which is Act 2 or Act 3, depending on whether you call the opening scene Prologue or Act 1. Verdi apparently called it Act 1, but the librettist didn't. The DVD follows the composer in the track listings and the librettist in the titles shown onscreen.)

As far as the music is concerned, there is plenty of oompahpah Verdi, but also a fair amount of creative Verdi. The duets and the ensemble that ends Act 2 (as Verdi counted it) are fairly good, and at least a couple of the arias could work well in recitals.
Overall, if Verdi's other operas from the mid 1840s (Alzira sits between Giovanna d'Arco and Attila in order of composition) don't deserve obscurity, neither does this one.

The librettist btw was Salvatore Cammarano, who would three more for Verdi: La Battaglia di Legnano, Luisa Miller, and Il Trovatore.

It's often considered the ugly duckling of Verdi's galley operas, but it definitely has its moments. I have the Gardelli recording with Cotrubas as Alzira.

[André]

For me it's the reverse. I normally can't stand Janowitz, whose disembodied purity reminds me of a theremin. 

Schwarzkopf and Janowitz had very straight, pure, almost 'white' voices with a tight vibrato. Janowitz sometimes sounded like when you circle your index finger around a crystal glass' rim. The most extreme such voice I've heard was Teresa Stich-Randall's. I mut say I love that kind of sound. But the very best whitish voice that managed to sound fleshy, appropriately voluminous when required was Margaret Price's.

[André]

'Drame lyrique'. Aka opera. But in effect it's a quasi-oratorio. A bit like the equally good (great) Maria Egiziaca by Respighi.

This is the 1952 french premiere performance recording, with the composer at the helm and the Opéra Garnier's First Tenor for dramatic roles, Raoul Jobin. The sound is quite good for such an ancient vintage. No allocations need be made for clarity, dynamic range and presence. It's just good old mono, less boomy than RCA's contemporary offerings, just a tad edgier than RCA/Decca productions.

From this opera the composer culled music that was reshaped into his most famous work, the Fanfares liturgiques. Based on a play by French poet Oscar Milosz, Tomasi's Don Juan de Mañara is set in 17th-century Seville, Spain. The story is inspired by the biography of Don Miguel Mañara Vincentelo de Leca, who, through the innocence, purity and love of a woman named Girolama, turns away from a life of depravity to marry her. Shortly after their marriage, Girolama dies, and Miguel becomes a monk, devoting his life to charity and good works.

For a time Mañara was widely thought to be the inspiration for Tirso de Molina's play Don Juan (and its innumerable avatars and literary/musical incarnations). He seems to have particularly fascinated French writers (the French seem to have a thing for the combination of sensuality and repentance): Prosper Mérimée (Carmen), Théophile Gautier (countless texts set in music by Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy etc etc), Alexandre Dumas père, Guillaume Apollinaire etc. IOW he seems to have had quite an influence.

Tomasi's work is extremely well laid out. We get 3 Parts containing Tableaux, short orchestral interludes and the like. There is variety, conciseness when needed, expansion and powerful theatrical expression to underline Mañara's psychological transformation and fateful encounters, etc. The orchestration is brilliant, the vocal lines well tailored to the text (no unintelligible warbling). Like Respighi's Maria Egiziaca the final Epiphany comes as a culmination while paradoxically ending gently (because, you know, death). It's all over in 90 minutes.

The double CD album also has an interesting work of Tomasi's titled 'Triomphe de Jeanne'. The Jeanne in question is of course France's national heroine and patron saint, Joan of Arc. The work is not about Jeanne's trial, burning and death in 1431 but about her political and religious rehabilitation in 1455. The work was composed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of that event, where all accusations against her and the conclusion of her trial were officially (by Royal edict) overturned and declared null and void. There is a nice, juicy solo for a dramatic soprano (The Mother, not Jeanne) sung here by the redoubtable Rita Gorr. The Belgian mezzo was the possessor of one of the most voluminous and trenchant vocal cords in the last century as well as a formidable dramatic actress. Her contribution is the highlight of this short (23 mins) oratorio. A fine filler to the main offering.

Available on YouTube and streaming platforms.

 

[San Antone]

VERDI : FALSTAFF
Sir Colin Davis, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marilyn Horne, Rolando Panerai, Alan Titus, Frank Lapardo, Sharon Sweet

[Lisztianwagner]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Arleen Augér (Konstanze), Reri Grist (Blonde), Peter Schreier (Belmonte), Kurt Moll (Osmin), Harald Neukirch (Pedrillo), Otto Mellies (Bassa Selim)
Karl Böhm & Staatskapelle Dresden

[pjme]

From this opera the composer culled music that was reshaped into his most famous work, the Fanfares liturgiques

The last fanfare (Procession du Vendredi Saint) exists also as a work for soprano, chorus and brass/percussion: Procession nocturne.
As far as I understand, it is the 3rd scene from act 2 in the opera -albeit scored only with brass/perc.
i find it quite moving, inspite of being rather dated & melodramatic in its reach for lofty religiosity....

Act I

[JBS]

[JBS]

Staying in Tudor England but from a different POV


Karajan conducting Verdi's Falstaff at the Salzburg Festival in August 1957. The cast in this mono recording is almost exactly the same as that in Karajan's EMI recording, with exceptions of Pistol, Mrs Quickly, and Mrs Page.

ETA: the sound on these "Festspiel Dokumente" from the 1950s severely undercuts their quality.
A lot of muffled voices on this one.

[hopefullytrusting]

Handel's Acis and Galatea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zNxWvQXJpY (Semeradova conducts the Collegium Marianum)

This look so cool:



"A very cute, semi-puppet, even childish, but the best, in my humble opinion, performance of this opera."