What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Tsaraslondon]

I've known this recording of Il Trovatore since my late teens, and it's still my favourite. Much of the success of the recording is down to Karajan's superb conducting, with rhythms always alert and beautifully sprung, but suitably spacious and long-breathed in Leonora's glorious arias. Nor does he shy away from the score's occasional rude vigour. It is a considerable achievement. With such support, Callas phrases like a great violinist. Of the other members of the cast, I particularly like Panerai's Di Luna, but Barbieri is also an asset, and Di Stefano, if not having quite the heroics for Di quella pira, is still quite effective.

The Callas Karajan Il Trovatore

[ritter]

Manon Lescaut is not my favourite Puccini opera (although I find much to enjoy in the second act), but when I saw an affordable copy of the 1953 recording with Clara Petrella in the title rôle, I bought it.



Petrella is invariably superb in works from the giovane scuola (in the few commercial recordings she made, and also live —like in Mascagni's Iris under Gavazzeni from Rome in 1956). Her des Grieux here is the obscure Vasco Campagnano, who here makes as good an impression as he did in the 1950 recording of La fanciulla del west (also on Cetra).

[Kalevala]

I really like Carmen, and especially this recording, and not just for Callas's endlessly fascinating traversal of the title role, which is never quite the same as I remember it. It is a real French Carmen. All involved, apart from the two protagonists are French, and Callas and Gedda were, in any case, completely at home in the language. Prêtre is also completely at home in the idiom, much more so than he was in Berlioz, and he conducts with vital energy. The beginning of Act II, taken at quite a lick in the final verse, is absolutely thrilling. I really like Andréa Guiot's plucky, no nonsense Micaëla, and Robert Massard's suavely genial Escamillo. Gedda is a good deal better than he is given credit for, a nice young man, hopelessly out of his depth with Carmen, until, by the end, he is a man dangerously at the end of his tether. As for Callas's Carmen, I notice something new each time I hear it; the detail in her characterisation is incredible and yet she always sounds completely spontaneous.

The Callas Carmen

I think that I've heard Carmen too much--at least certain arias during fundraisers here in the US for Public Radio, that it makes it hard for me to listen to it.  I know that you adore Callas, and yes, I do appreciate her recordings (and have bought many of them over the years).

Just my point of view.

Best wishes,

K

[Tsaraslondon]

I think that I've heard Carmen too much--at least certain arias during fundraisers here in the US for Public Radio, that it makes it hard for me to listen to it.  I know that you adore Callas, and yes, I do appreciate her recordings (and have bought many of them over the years).

Just my point of view.

Best wishes,

K

I suppose I haven't heard individual arias out of context quite as much, and when I hear the opera complete I am always knocked out by its musical fecundity and how dramatically apposite the music is. I know the Callas recording used the Guiraud recitatives, but I actually prefer it that way than with the spoken dialogue.

[Tsaraslondon]

Bizet's second most popular opera in an excellent performance under Georges Prêtre.

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Tristan und Isolde

Jon Vickers (Tristan), Helga Dernesch (Isolde), Karl Ridderbusch (König Marke), Walter Berry (Kurwenal), Christa Ludwig (Brangäne), Bernd Weikl ( Melot), Peter Schreier (Sailor/Shepherd)
Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[JBS]

I've had the Callas Remastered set for a long time, but never really listened to.

So dipping into it for an opera of which I have only one other recording, to which I've listened exactly once, and never to the Callas version.





I have to say I was surprised (given how  the CR set presents itself as luxe) how cheap this element of the packaging is: two CDs in paper sleeves stuffed into a single cardboard sleeve along with a small multilingual pamphlet devoted to the circumstances of the recording and a photo of Callas during the recording sessions.

[Tsaraslondon]

I've had the Callas Remastered set for a long time, but never really listened to.

So dipping into it for an opera of which I have only one other recording, to which I've listened exactly once, and never to the Callas version.





I have to say I was surprised (given how  the CR set presents itself as luxe) how cheap this element of the packaging is: two CDs in paper sleeves stuffed into a single cardboard sleeve along with a small multilingual pamphlet devoted to the circumstances of the recording and a photo of Callas during the recording sessions.

These were originally part of the Callas Remastered box set, which came with a hard back book and a bonus CD with all the libretti on it.





It explains the paucity of the material in the individual releases.

https://tsaraslondon.com/2017/01/05/callass-studio-recordings-an-introduction/

[JBS]

These were originally part of the Callas Remastered box set, which came with a hard back book and a bonus CD with all the libretti on it.





It explains the paucity of the material in the individual releases.

https://tsaraslondon.com/2017/01/05/callass-studio-recordings-an-introduction/

That is the set I have.

I have the recitals separately, and had all but 6 or 7 of the studio recordings in earlier releases (plus the separate EMI set of Live recordings issued about the same time). My plan now is to listen to those recordings.

As for this Manon Lescaut, I rather liked it, and Sola, perduta was, to use a phrase that seems to have fallen out of fashion, "to die for".

[JBS]

Another Callas recording of an opera that isn't a particular favorite of mine (beyond the Sextet).