What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[JBS]

Moving back to Strauss: The Silent Woman in a recording from 1976-77.


Alternate issue


Apparently uncut, but on sonics alone a vast improvement on my other recording, a Myto release whose main virtue is the presence of Fritz Wunderlich as Henry, a role performed here by Eberhard Buchner, with Jeanette Scovotti in the title role, and Theo Adam as Sir Morosus.

[JBS]

Strauss again (and the last round with him for a bit)


What with the opening scene--a sorceress talking with an All Knowing Seashell in the palace of Poseidon, potions of forgetting and recollection, etc.--this opera is a bit hallucinogenic.

[JBS]

Back to Bel Canto


For those not familiar with this opera, it needs to be explained that it's adapted from a play by Victor Hugo which has almost no relation to the real Lucrezia other than the fact that she was married to Alfonso D'Este.

[Florestan]

Back to Bel Canto


For those not familiar with this opera, it needs to be explained that it's adapted from a play by Victor Hugo which has almost no relation to the real Lucrezia other than the fact that she was married to Alfonso D'Este.

Few, if any, of Victor Hugo's plays and novels have much relation to reality. 

[JBS]

Few, if any, of Victor Hugo's plays and novels have much relation to reality. 

This one seems to have even less connection than most.

Ms. Theodossiou's singing is excellent, and allows one to ignore the plot. She seems to have a relatively limited number of recordings/video performances, and several of them seem to be OOP,which is unfortunate.

[Tsaraslondon]

Back to Bel Canto


For those not familiar with this opera, it needs to be explained that it's adapted from a play by Victor Hugo which has almost no relation to the real Lucrezia other than the fact that she was married to Alfonso D'Este.

This opera was the occasion of Caballé's sensational New York debut, when she deputised for a pregnant Marilyn Horne at a concert performance at Carnegie Hall. It's the version I have on CD.



Jane Berbié is persistently flat as Orsino, but the rest of the cast is excellent and Caballé is spectacular.

[JBS]

Tonight's feature presentation


This time, in stereo, in studio, and unlike my other recording, the soprano doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

[JBS]

Switching gears.
Mozart's misogynistic opera.
I've never liked this opera because of the plot.

Other issues


Cast


Years ago I got the Decca Complete Opera set, and listened to about 2/3rds of it before stopping for reasons I only vaguely remember.
I've now decided it's time to listen to the rest, and CFT is the first one up.

[JBS]

Today's installment




This Decca set (which was originally a subset of Philips' Complete Mozart Edition) drew heavily on Colin Davis's recordings: he presides over all the "big" ones (Idomeneo, Clemenza,the three DaPontes, Entfuhrung, Zauberflote) plus Schauspieldirektor and the fragment known as Sposo Deluso. In terms of CD quantity, that works out to about half the set.

[ritter]

While leafing through the recently published book on Karl Böhm I bought yesterday in Munich, revisiting the 1969 recording of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, live from Salzburg, with the Vienna Philharmonic and a superb cast that includes Christa Ludwig, Tatiana Troyanos, Edith Mathis, Theo Adam and Otto Wiener.


Act I today.

[JBS]

Not particularly mesmerizing Mozart


This is the one he supposedly wrote when he was 12 for Mesmer. (It's K50/46b.)
Probably won't return to this one, mostly due to the fact all three roles are sung by boys.


Georg Nigl became a baritone and an professional. His Wikipedia page implies he specializes in contemporary opera, and has appeared in operas by Dusapin, Rihm, and Eotvos. Perhaps @ritter or @Mandryka have heard of him?

[ritter]

...

Georg Nigl became a baritone and an professional. His Wikipedia page implies he specializes in contemporary opera, and has appeared in operas by Dusapin, Rihm, and Eotvos. Perhaps @ritter or @Mandryka have heard of him?

Georg Nigl has appeared at least two times in opera at the Teatro Real  here in Madrid. In 2012 he sang the title rôle in Dallapiccola's Il Prigionero, under Ingo Metzmacher. I attended and very much enjoyed one of the performances (the evening also included Suor Angelica, probably of all of Puccini's mature operas the one I like the least). More recently, Nigl appeared in a choreographed production (by Sascha Waltz) of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, conducted by René Jacobs, but I did not attend.

Here, listening to more Karl Böhm, now with Act IV his 1956 Vienna recording of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The soloists are distinguished, but somehow the performance remains unengaging, and the recording never enjoyed much success or wide circulación. It is a far cry from Böhm's superb 1968 DG recording from Berlin (one of the high points in the conductor's Mozartian discography).

[JBS]

Georg Nigl has appeared at least two times in opera at the Teatro Real  here in Madrid. In 2012 he sang the title rôle in Dallapiccola's Il Prigionero, under Ingo Metzmacher. I attended and very much enjoyed one of the performances (the evening also included Suor Angelica, probably of all of Puccini's mature operas I like the least). More recently, Nigl appeared in a choreographed production (by Sascha Waltz) of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, conducted by René Jacobs, but I did not attend.

Too bad you didn't see the Monteverdi; Nigl's Wiki bio says Orfeo is one of his favorite roles, along with Wozzeck.

Meanwhile today's Mozart matinee is the German version of La Finta Gardiniera.


The singers in this performance are mostly from a higher tier (at least in terms of name recognition) than those that appear in the recording used in this set for the Italian version. That possibly reflects the fact that the German version held the stage longer in the 18th century, and was earlier revived in the 20th century, than the Italian version.  In fact, at least part of the Italian version's first act was lost and not rediscovered until the 1970s.

[JBS]

Tonight's installment of Mozart is a sort of double bill: Zaide and The Impresario.




Ruth Welting and Ileana Cotrubas are the rival divas in Schauspieldirektor.

Mozart composed enough of Zaide that it can be thought of as a torso or an incomplete opera, and not merely a fragment.
The plot might be thought of a darker, more melodramatic version of Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, with the Turks less benevolent and less comic. (The first act contains a lengthy melodramatic number in the formal sense of an actor speaking their lines while the orchestra plays.)

[JBS]

Diverting to Donizetti tonight.


So far (near the end of CD 1), the sonics and singing are excellent. It was recorded in performance in 2000. I believe there is a DVD version available.

The booklet gives no explanation of how this recording is the "first complete recording"

[Tsaraslondon]

Diverting to Donizetti tonight.


So far (near the end of CD 1), the sonics and singing are excellent. It was recorded in performance in 2000. I believe there is a DVD version available.

The booklet gives no explanation of how this recording is the "first complete recording"

I thought that encomium went to the Sutherland recording, or the Souliotis/Varviso.

Me? I'm perfectly happy with the cut, live performance from La Scala in 1957. It captures Callas on one of her greatest nights. Just don't get the EMI or Warner versions, which stem from inferior sources. The Divina, though more expensive is really worth the extra outlay.



Callas in Anna Bolena - La Scala , Milan April  14 1957